Wow people. Are you out of your minds? This album is friggin awesome. "just not the vines" "difficult second album" "let down." Ouch. I love the Vines, and I say that the Vines have done what they did on Highly Evolved and made it better. I still like their mellow stuff (Mary Jane, Homesick, Autumn Shade II, Winning Days,) and they really can rock out (Outtathaway! Ride, She's got something to say to me.) I don't know why you people say this album isn't as good, or sucks. You're wrong! If you liked the first album, you'll definately like this.

Absolutly get this album.

The Vines second album Winning Days put to show who the real fans were. All the "I listened to it because everyone else did and it made me part of the 'in' crowd" people drifted away because it wasn't an exact duplicate of Highly Evolved, the band's first album. It wasn't all screaming guitars and vocals. It wasn't the same.

Don't buy Winning Days if you're looking for two copies of Highly Evolved.

However, if you're looking for musical expansion, chilling vocal blends, and amazingly expressed sadness, then Winning Days is for you.

Even on the heavier tracks (Ride, Animal Machine), Craig Nicholls fails short on the expection of screaming his way through the whole track. In fact, he does a pretty good job singing through most of the album.

The harmonies (Autumn Shade II, Winning Days, Rainfall, Amnesia, Sun Child) really stand out.

The guitars aren't just screaming all over the place, they are part of a song, part of a blend of harmonies, bass, drums, guitars, and the trademark scream of Craig Nicholls.

This album is suggested listening for anyone who enjoys good music.

This cd is much, much better than the vines previous effort, Highly Evolved. I've read a few reviews here claiming otherwise, and I must say I disagree completely. This cd here is much more cohesive, and mature. The Vines move past the simple grunge and drive of the first album, and here one can find quite a few songs with a strong melody, and very impressive harmonies. The Vines best songs in my opinion, are the ones where they utilize the harmonies.

Ride is a strong song to open this album, and has a feel of a Highly Evolved track, but much better. The next great song, in my opinion is Autumn Shade 2. Autumn Shade 1, off the previous album, is much weaker. This song is incredible, and hard to believe it's a Vines tune. Track 5 is good, but track 6, the title track is wonderful. It has a slow, smooth opening, and gets going quite nicely about a minute in.. by the time it ends, I'm hitting back on the cd player to listen to it again.

Track 7, She's Got Something to Say to Me, is hard to describe. It has a certain punk feel to it, almost Ramones-like.. and by the time it gets to the chorus, I'm thinking Beach Boys. Weird. I love this track though. Very well done.

Track 8, Rainfall is my fave. If I'm ever in a bad mood, driving in my car, I can pop this cd in, and put it on this track and I'm instantly singing along, tapping away on the steering wheel. This song is extremely catchy.. another repeatable track.

Amnesia is best hi-lited by the incredible guitar at the end of the track. Very fun...

Please do yourselves a favour, and buy this cd before Highly Evolved. I'd even go as far as to say, skip Highly Evolved.. it's nothing compared to this one!

Its astounding how small the interest surrounding the Vines' new album is compared to their debut, but think back a year or two, and Highly Evolved was all the rage, even reaching, ridiculously, one of Q's all-too-frequent 'Top 100 Albums Ever' lists. Despite some good moments (the utterly fabulous single 'Get Free') that album was patchy at best. Unfortunately, 'Winning Days' is just the bad side all over. Their Nirvana-meets-Beatles formula of snarling rock is still evident on first single 'Ride', but its a stodgy regurgitation of previous, better, efforts.

Elsewhere, muddy guitar riffs, willfully unhinged vocals and pointless guitar solos often dominate. 'TV Pro' starts with an intruiging, Mercury Rev-esque verse, but gets ruined by a tremendously unoriginal shout along chorus. 'Autumn Shade II' and the title track revive their love for pastoral folk, and keep things eclectic, with nice, Beatles-esque harmonies, but won't move mountains - Nicholls voice less suited to this style than the rock. Shame, then, that the rock is turgid. 'She's Got Something To Say' is so like early Nirvana its almost funny, and 'Animal Machine', 'Sun Child' and 'Rainfall' almost stray into Oasis B-sides territory.

Nirvana meets Beatles is the exact formula throughout - but let's face it - that's not a tremendously imaginative combo. We get strains of the psychedelic here and there, but couldn't you get the same so much more gorgeously off so many other albums? Nicholls' live performances now are laughably poor too, and the signs are all that the band is soon to implode. Unfortunately, that may be the best thing for all of us.

The problem with the Vines, if there is any, is that there was just too much hype at the beginning of their career, and they suffered the by now standard second-album NME backlash.

Winning Days was dismissed automatically by many eager to bring them down a few pegs, but it is an album that deserves multiple listenings which reveal its powerful melodies and great musicianship. The impact of their first album left little room to move for the band: they continued to do what they do so well. The album certainly doesn't break new ground, but let us be honest, there are very few bands that do so on their second album.

The Vines remain to my mind one of the best live bands around by capturing that wild unpredictable element that is so sadly lacking in many of today's performances. Winning Days is a brilliant album that suffers by being just as good as their first album, which was not apparently good enough for many critics.

Don't believe the hype: The Vines are really one of the best things around today.