The Vines: Winning Days

Reviewed by RUSSELL BAILLIE

(Herald rating: * * )

They wowed many - myself included - with their 2002 debut album Highly Evolved and the Australian quartet rode the garage rock wave to an instant international profile.

It helped that in frontman Craig Nicholls they had a genuine eccentric to identify them from the pack.

But the first offering's mix of Nirvana-roar and Beatle-tunefulness somehow made for a great album. One quite a bit better than its follow-up which, for all its shinier production, sounds like it's struggling to find its initial focus - in the Vines' case reconciling its screaming rock side with its sweet-tooth for harmonious pop.

It screams loud and long on the likes of the openers Ride and Animal Machine right through to the big dumb throwaway finale **** the World. It also trips out on its own 60s-tinted tunes, at their swirliest on the Beach Boys-sweet of Winning Days and Beatlesque double of She's Got Something To Me and Rainfall.

It's just that too many of the songs among the thankfully economical 40 minutes sound either like a previous track or the victim of Nicholls' short attention span. The Vines' second crop tends towards over-ripe mush.

(Capitol)