HIGHLY EVOLVED
Highly Evolved is the debut studio album by Australian alternative rock band The Vines. It was released on 14 July 2002 on Capitol Records. Produced by Rob Schnapf, Highly Evolved was an immensely popular debut, part of a trend towards garage rock revival bands. Known as much for the relentless hype from the UK music press as for their music, The Vines were frequently compared to Nirvana. The debut single, “Highly Evolved”, was chosen as Single of the Week by influential British music magazine NME. The magazine also voted it the 2nd best album of the year in 2002. The album was also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. (More from Wikipedia)
Two other bands came along at about the same time with songs on MTV that I really liked; they even had similar names: the Vines and the Hives. At the annual MTV Music Video Awards telecast in 2002, the two bands had back-to-back performances that were simply wonderful. As it turned out, it was just the one song on the Vines album, Highly Evolved that really had that garage-rock style, but the Hives kept releasing one great album after another. Also, their live shows have been rated by Spin magazine as the 8th greatest ever. The Black and White Album above is the only one by the Hives that I actually own, but I am sure looking hard for others.
(January 2013)
