Winning Days

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

Winning Days is the second studio album by Australian alternative rock band The Vines, and was released on 23 March 2004^[12] It is the follow-up to their debut, Highly Evolved.^[13] The enhanced CD has the music video for "Ride". Winning Days was recorded in the summer of 2003 at Bearsville Studios in Woodstock, New York^[14] and was assisted by Bill Synans. It was mixed in September 2003 at Cello Studios in Los Angeles and was assisted by Steven Rhodes.

Winning Days
Studio album by The Vines
Released	23 March 2004
Recorded	Summer 2003
Studio	Bearsville (Woodstock, New York)
Genre	Alternative rock[1][2] garage rock post-grunge neo-psychedelia
Length	38:28
Label	Capitol
Producer	Rob Schnapf
The Vines chronology
Highly Evolved (2002) Winning Days (2004) Vision Valley (2006)
Singles from Winning Days
"Fuck the World" Released: 15 December 2003 "Ride" Released: 8 March 2004 "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]
The Guardian	[7]
NME	[8]
Pitchfork	2.7/10[9]
Rolling Stone	[10]
Uncut	[3]
The Village Voice	C+[11]

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

History

The Vines recorded Winning Days in May 2003 at Bearsville Studios with producer Rob Schnapf, who had also produced their debut album Highly Evolved.^[13] "Fuck the World" (later abbreviated to "F.T.W.") was the first song released from Winning Days and was released on 15 December 2003, three months prior to the album's release.^[15] The song is sarcastic in nature despite what its title seems to imply; as stated in a 2005 NME article, "Winning Days is anything but".^[16] 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."^[17]

The next single "Ride" was released on 23 February 2004.^[18] "Ride" reached number 94 on Triple J's Hottest 100 of 2004.

The title track was released as the third and final single on 24 May 2004.

Critical reception

Winning Days was met with "mixed or average" reviews from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, this release received an average score of 50 based on 23 reviews.^[3]

Track listing

No.	Title	Writer(s)	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"	Nicholls Patrick Matthews	2:32
8.	"Rainfall"		3:21
9.	"Amnesia"		4:39
10.	"Sun Child"		4:33
11.	"F.T.W."		3:41

All tracks are written by Craig Nicholls, except where noted

Japanese bonus edition^[19]

No.	Title	Length
12.	"Drown the Baptists"

Personnel

• Craig Nicholls – vocals, guitars, percussion, Moog
• Patrick Matthews – bass guitar, piano and keyboards
• Ryan Griffiths – guitars
• Hamish Rosser – drums, percussion
• Rob Schnapf – producer, mixing
• Doug Boehm – engineering, mixing
• Susanna Howe – album booklet photography
• Love Police – album sleeve

Charts

Chart (2004)	Peak position
Australian Albums (ARIA)[20]	7
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[21]	40
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[22]	63
French Albums (SNEP)[23]	51
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[24]	47
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[25]	77
UK Albums (OCC)[26]	29
US Billboard 200[27]	23

References

1. "Winning Days". Rate Your Music. Retrieved 6 October 2011.
2. "Winning Days by The Vines". last.fm. Retrieved 6 October 2011.
3. "Critic Reviews for Winning Days". Metacritic. 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 March 2004). "Winning Days (2004): The Vines". Entertainment Weekly. No. #757. ISSN 1049-0434. Archived from the original on 16 October 2008. 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. ISSN 0028-6362. Retrieved 6 October 2011.
9. Ott, Chris (14 April 2004). "The Vines: Winning Days". Pitchfork. Archived from the original on 7 March 2012. Retrieved 6 October 2011.
10. 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.
11. Christgau, Robert (30 November 2004). "Consumer Guide: Mine Enemy the Turkey". The Village Voice. Retrieved 13 December 2016.
12. "Winning Days". Rate Your Music. Retrieved 25 May 2020.
13. Dansby, Andrew (16 December 2003). ""Winning Days" Ahead for Vines". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 13 June 2017.
14. "The Vines - Winning Days". Discogs. Retrieved 25 May 2020.
15. "Fuck! It's the Vines!". NME. 16 December 2003. Retrieved 13 June 2017.
16. "Vines: Winning Days". NME. 12 September 2005. Retrieved 25 May 2020.
17. Wiederhorn, Jon (26 January 2004). "Vines Saddle Up And 'Ride' To End of the World". VH1. Archived from the original on 19 April 2004. Retrieved 6 October 2011.
18. "The Vines Back to 'Winning' Ways". NME. 11 December 2003. Retrieved 13 June 2017.
19. "Winnings Days - The Vines" (in Japanese). hmv.co.jp. Retrieved 4 April 2021.
20. "Australiancharts.com – The Vines – Winning Days". Hung Medien. Retrieved 9 September 2020.
21. "Austriancharts.at – The Vines – Winning Days" (in German). Hung Medien. Retrieved 9 September 2020.
22. "Ultratop.be – The Vines – Winning Days" (in French). Hung Medien. Retrieved 9 September 2020.
23. "Lescharts.com – The Vines – Winning Days". Hung Medien. Retrieved 9 September 2020.
24. "Offiziellecharts.de – The Vines – Winning Days" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved 9 September 2020.
25. "Swisscharts.com – The Vines – Winning Days". Hung Medien. Retrieved 9 September 2020.
26. "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 9 September 2020.
27. "The Vines Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved 9 September 2020.

External links

• Winning Days at Discogs (list of releases)
• Winning Days at MusicBrainz (list of releases)