The Vines: Vision Valley : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Four years and several cultural shifts ago, the Vines were the MTV-friendly face of a neo-garage movement that was supposed to save rock. Now, after a failed second album, canceled tours and a diagnosis of Asperger's syndrome for their lead singer, the Vines' labored-over, over-ingratiating third album sounds like the work of a band that would be content to save its own career. Following the aimless experimentation of 2004's Winning Days, Vision Valley is a blatant return to the poppy Nirvana-isms of the band's 2002 debut. There are signs that frontman Craig Nicholls' songwriting chops are improving: The self-defeatingly titled single "Don't Listen to the Radio" is a lean, uncharacteristically Cars-like potential hit, and the punchy "Dandy Daze" nails a Nuggets-ish vibe. But as in the worst of latter-day Weezer, a certain emotional hollowness creeps in, from pretty but rote ballads like "Take Me Back" to Cobain-o-matic rockers like "Fuk Yeh." And then there's the numbing "Futuretarded," which is even worse than its title -- if that's possible.