The Vaccines have conquered England a long time ago and NME has already questioned the hype about their new status, but their first album ‘What Did You Expect from The Vaccines?’ was only released in the US at the end of May, and I just can say that their dynamic and explosive garage pop-rock is quite infectious.
But I guess anyone can hear anything and anyone in this album, take Wreckin’ Bar, the very short opening tract (only 1:22!): it may sound to some like an updated version of The Ramones’ ‘California Sun’, but who cares? It’s beachy, sunny, fast in a bombastic way and very well done. The Ramones undoubtedly will come back to your mind several times, with ‘Norgaard’ and its very rewarding simple rock formula (Is it about asking a Nordic model if she has a boyfriend?), or with the also lyrically straightforward ‘Post Break-up Sex’, especially by its chorus and dragging vocals over these surfing guitars.
But along the album, many songs are reminiscent of other names like the obvious Strokes – to the point that The Vaccines have been accused to be the British answer to the New York band – and may be The Smiths, but in a more spacey way, or even Interpol, but in a much brighter manner,… and who else? You name it!
Many songs have that fast delivery, like the catchy ‘If You Wanna’ or ‘Under Your Thumb’ (a wink to the Rolling Stones?), or ‘Wolf Pack’, with blasting Strokes-y guitars, rapid pounding drumbeats and powerful vocals distinctively bursting above the music. Other ones like ‘A Lack of Understanding’ move slowly and unveil a certain melancholy with lyrics like ‘It’s only been a year/But it feels like a lifetime here/ How’s it been for you?’, sung by Justin Young’s engaging croon, sometimes soaring, sometimes more severe or even aggressive.
The Vaccines’ music seems to be like a digestive product of many influences, but there is certainly nothing bad about evoking so many famous bands: if making something new with something old is a law of nature it has to be the same for music, and a new one may strike you by its familiarity and its great hooks that is able to find the right place into your brain for some time.
And the tunes can even get inspiring, ascending and hopeful like ‘Wetsuit’, or a little darker like ‘All In White’, but full of triumphant choruses, the song evoking Interpol’s Paul Banks’ determined and in-your-face delivery the most.
‘Family Friend’ seems to be that ‘classic ending’ anthemic song, slowly beginning, building up little by little, and exploding mid-song with a brief glimpse of distortion and chaos, hardly announcing a stripped down hidden track, just sung on a piano.
There’s not a bad tune on this album, everything sounds upbeat, rather on the bright than on the distorted side, and remarkably fresh despite the many sounds they bring to mind. The fact that The Vaccines are able to convey so many diverse band names for a first album, may precisely be their force and their attraction.
You can stream the whole album there:
http://soundcloud.com/the-vaccines/sets/album-stream/s-q10xN