Winning Days

This article is about the album. For the single released from the album, see Winning Days (song).
Winning Days
Studio album by The Vines
Released 23 March 2004
Recorded Summer 2003 Bearsville Studios (New York)
Genre Alternative rock,[1][2] indie rock, neo-psychedelia, garage rock
Length 38:28
Label Capitol
Producer Rob Schnapf
The Vines chronology

Highly Evolved
(2002)		 Winning Days
(2004)		 Vision Valley
(2006)
Singles from Winning Days
  1. "Fuck the World"
    Released: 15 December 2003
  2. "Ride"
    Released: 8 March 2004
  3. "Winning Days"
    Released: 24 May 2004
Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source Rating
Metacritic 50/100 [3]
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic [4]
Billboard [5]
Blender [3]
Entertainment Weekly (B)[6]
Filter (66%)[3]
The Guardian [7]
NME [8]
Pitchfork Media (2.7/10)[9]
Robert Christgau C+[10]
Rolling Stone [11]
Uncut [3]
laut [12]

Winning Days is the second studio album by Australian alternative rock band The Vines, following their debut, Highly Evolved, and was released on 23 March 2004. The enhanced CD has the music video for "Ride". Winning Days was recorded in the summer of 2003 at Bearsville Studios in New York and was assisted by Bill Synans. It was mixed in September 2003 at Cello Studios in Los Angeles and was assisted by Steven Rhodes.

This album has been released with the Copy Control protection system in some regions.

History

In May 2003, the band became one of the last clients of Bearsville Studios in Woodstock, New York with Rob Schnapf again on production. While Craig Nicholls had talked of having a highly produced album, he told the Australian edition of Rolling Stone in March 2004 that they decided to stick to a less-is-more philosophy. "I wanted it to be — in my head — something grand, with big ideas and that vision sort of thing. But at the same time, that doesn't mean that something can't be special if it's just simple. Because I think that the songs are the main thing". The album received much criticism upon release due to the lack of truly new material, as many of the songs were written before Highly Evolved was even recorded, and some songs had appeared as B-sides to older singles.

"Fuck The World" (later abbreviated to F.T.W.) was the first song released from The Vines' second album Winning Days and was released on 15 December 2003, three months prior to the album's release. It was released digitally and physically only as a white 7" inch vinyl single with the song on both sides. Although it was the first song released from Winning Days it is not considered the first single, merely a taster song. The band played "Fuck The World" numerous times during their 2002/2003 'Highly Evolved' tour so it was the song fans would have been most familiar with. The song's title was altered to "F.T.W." by their record label at the time for the album due to its explicit content. The single cover resembles the cover of the Who album Live at Leeds.

The song is sarcastic in nature despite what its title seems to imply. During interviews given by lead singer Craig Nicholls in 2004 he stated "I definitely think the world is a good place, but maybe it would be better if people didn't hate so much and kill animals. At the same time, it's like, whatever. It's just a planet, that's all."[13]

The next single "Ride" was released on 8 March 2004, although it wasn't a big chart success, "Ride" is one of the band's best known songs because it was featured in a number of advertisements, including commercials for Apple's iPod, Nissan, American Chopper, NASCAR Hot Pass, WKCF and Split Second: Velocity. It did however reach #94 on Triple J's Hottest 100 of 2004.

The third and final single, "Winning Days" was released on 24 May 2004.

Track listing

All songs written and composed by C. Nicholls except 7, C. Nicholls & P. Matthews. 

No. Title Length
1. "Ride"   2:36
2. "Animal Machine"   3:28
3. "TV Pro"   3:45
4. "Autumn Shade II"   3:14
5. "Evil Town"   3:06
6. "Winning Days"   3:33
7. "She's Got Something to Say to Me"   2:32
8. "Rainfall"   3:21
9. "Amnesia"   4:39
10. "Sun Child"   4:33
11. "F.T.W."   3:41

Personnel

Charts

Charts (2004) Peak
position
Australian ARIA Albums Chart 7
UK Albums Chart 29

References

  1. ↑ "Winning Days". rateyourmusic.com. Retrieved 6 October 2011.
  2. ↑ "Winning Days by The Vines". last.fm. Retrieved 6 October 2011.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 "Critic Reviews for Winning Days". Metacritic. CBS Interactive Inc. Retrieved 6 November 2011.
  4. ↑ Phares, Heather. "The Vines: Winning Days > Review" at AllMusic. Retrieved 6 October 2011.
  5. ↑ "Winning Days". Billboard. Archived from the original on 14 August 2004. Retrieved 21 June 2012.
  6. ↑ Sinclair, Tom (26 Mar 2004). "Winning Days (2004): The Vines". Entertainment Weekly (Time) (#757). ISSN 1049-0434. Retrieved 6 October 2011.
  7. ↑ Sullivan, Caroline (5 March 2004). "The Vines, Winning Days". The Guardian (London). ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 6 October 2011.
  8. ↑ Ahmed, Imran (12 March 2004). "Vines : Winning Days". NME (IPC Media). ISSN 0028-6362. Retrieved 6 October 2011.
  9. ↑ Ott, Chris (14 April 2004). "The Vines: Winning Days". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved 6 October 2011.
  10. ↑ "Robert Christgau's Consumer Guide: The Vines".
  11. ↑ Fricke, David (10 March 2004). "The Vines: Winning Days : Music Reviews". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 13 May 2007. Retrieved 21 June 2012.
  12. ↑ Butscher, Vicky (22 March 2002). "The Vines: Winning Days". laut. Retrieved 2012-12-17.
  13. ↑ Wiederhorn, Jon (26 January 2004). "Vines Saddle Up And 'Ride' To End Of The World". VH1.com. Retrieved 6 October 2011.