Highly Evolved

This article is about the Vines album. For the title track, see Highly Evolved (song).

Highly Evolved is the debut studio album by Australian alternative rock band the Vines, released in July 2002 on Capitol Records and produced by Rob Schnapf. The album was a significant success, riding the wave of the garage rock revival trend and earning critical acclaim, including being named the 2nd best album of 2002 by NME and being included in "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die" and "100 Best Australian Albums."

Highly Evolved
Studio album by the Vines
Released	14 July 2002
Recorded	July 2001–February 2002
Studio	The Sound Factory, Hollywood, California
Genre	Alternative rock garage punk post-punk revival post-grunge neo-psychedelia
Length	43:35
Label	Capitol Heavenly Recordings Wicked Nature Music
Producer	Rob Schnapf
The Vines chronology
College EP (2002) Highly Evolved (2002) Winning Days (2004)
Singles from Highly Evolved
"Highly Evolved" Released: 22 April 2002 "Get Free" Released: 17 June 2002 "Outtathaway!" Released: 18 November 2002 "Homesick" Released: 12 May 2003
Alternate cover
First American pressing

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	68/100[1]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[2]
Blender	[3]
Entertainment Weekly	C[4]
The Guardian	[5]
Los Angeles Times	[6]
NME	9/10[7]
Pitchfork	4.1/10[8]
Q	[9]
Rolling Stone	[10]
Uncut	[11]

Release

Highly Evolved was released on 14 July 2002 on Capitol Records. Produced by Rob Schnapf, known for his collaboration with Tom Rothrock on Elliott Smith's albums Either/Or, XO, and Figure 8, 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.^[12] In October 2010, it was listed in the book 100 Best Australian Albums.

Recording and mastering

Highly Evolved was recorded and mixed at The Sound Factory and Sunset Sound Recorders in Hollywood, California. It was recorded between July 2001 and February 2002.^[2]

Track listing

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Highly Evolved"		1:35
2.	"Autumn Shade"		2:17
3.	"Outtathaway"		3:02
4.	"Sunshinin"		2:43
5.	"Homesick"		4:53
6.	"Get Free"		1:59
7.	"Country Yard"		3:46
8.	"Factory"		3:12
9.	"In the Jungle"		4:15
10.	"Mary Jane"		5:52
11.	"Ain't No Room"		3:28
12.	"1969"	Nicholls Dave Olliffe	6:27

All tracks are written by Craig Nicholls, except where noted.

Personnel

Performance

• Craig Nicholls – vocals, guitar, percussion, piano ("Homesick") and cover painting
• Patrick Matthews – organ ("Autumn Shade" and "In the Jungle"), bass guitar, piano ("Mary Jane", "Autumn Shade" and "Factory")
• Dave Olliffe – drums on "Highly Evolved", "Autumn Shade", "Outtathaway", "Sunshinin'", "Homesick" (outro only), "Country Yard", "Mary Jane" and "1969"
• Victor Indrizzo – drums on "In the Jungle"
• Joey Waronker – drums on "Get Free"
• Pete Thomas – drums on "Factory", "Ain't No Room" and "Homesick" (excerpt)
• Roger Joseph Manning Jr. – keyboards ("Highly Evolved", "Outtathaway", "Sunshinin'" and "Autumn Shade")

Production

• Kevin Dean – production assistant
• Ted Jensen – mastering
• Ethan Johns – additional percussion ("Get Free", "Autumn Shade", "Factory" and "Sunshinin'")
• Rob Schnapf – additional guitars ("County Yard", "Homesick", "Ain't No Room" and "Factory"), production and mixing
• Andrew Slater – executive production
• Justin Stanley – production ("In the Jungle")
• Andy Wallace – mixing ("Get Free")
• Doug Boehm – engineering
• Steven Rhodes – additional percussion ("Get Free", "Autumn Shade", "Factory" and "Sunshinin'") and additional engineering
• Tony Rambo – engineering ("In the Jungle")
• Craig Conard – production assistant

Charts

Weekly charts Weekly chart performance for Highly Evolved Chart (2002) Peak position Australian Albums (ARIA)[13] 5 Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[14] 28 Canadian Albums (Nielsen SoundScan)[15] 56 French Albums (SNEP)[16] 56 German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[17] 33 Irish Albums (IRMA)[18] 13 New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[19] 48 Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[20] 22 Scottish Albums (OCC)[21] 3 UK Albums (OCC)[22] 3 US Billboard 200[23] 11

Year-end charts Year-end chart performance for Highly Evolved Chart (2002) Position Australian Albums (ARIA)[24] 51 Canadian Albums (Nielsen SoundScan)[25] 151 Canadian Alternative Albums (Nielsen SoundScan)[26] 49 UK Albums (OCC)[27] 171 US Billboard 200[28] 156

Certifications

Region	Certification	Certified units/sales
Australia (ARIA)[29]	Platinum	70,000^
Canada (Music Canada)[30]	Gold	50,000^
United Kingdom (BPI)[31]	Gold	150,000[32]
United States (RIAA)[33]	Gold	500,000^
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.