Album Review
Pitchfork
May 31, 2011
Link
6.2
Late last summer, months before the Vaccines had gone on to grace the front of the NME above a cover line heralding "The Return of the Great British Guitar Band," the magazine's website was already reporting concerns about the London band getting over-hyped. After the feverish debate that quickly ensued in the UK music press, such talk has come to sound like a self-fulfilling prophecy. Among the Vaccines' detractors, meanwhile, hardly a review deadline goes by without some pun on the quartet's debut album title, What Did You Expect From the Vaccines?
The Vaccines, much to their credit, are savvier about expectations than their champions and critics alike. Led by singer Justin Young, who previously played indie-folk under the name Jay Jay Pistolet, and guitarist Freddie Cowan, whose older brother is in the Horrors, these guys know firsthand how hype can be a double-edged sword-- one that has already propelled their meat-and-potatoes pub rock near the top of the UK album charts, to uncertain impact on their long-term reputations. The real joke of the album title, after all, is that it raises the same question the band posed of "Post Break-Up Sex" on their bombastic, pleasant-enough second single.
The answer, on that song, is that we should expect a chance to forget our past loves for a little while, followed by a sense of overwhelming guilt. For better or worse, there's nothing here that warrants either such reaction, let alone the paroxysms of hyperbole going on in the British press. Sure, the band's buzzing guitars, thick reverb, and bouncy rhythms lack any particular spark of originality that might help listeners avoid compulsively thinking of names like Ramones, the Jesus and Mary Chain, or, yes, the Strokes. Then again, there's no shame in catchy, concise, sharply executed tunes that communicate mildly fresh takes on relationships, either-- and this album has more than a few.
The Vaccines are at their best when they're upbeat, flecked with surf, and surprisingly hard to get out of your head. Take "If You Wanna", which bops likably along like a somewhat higher-fidelity Best Coast as Young warbles about an ex he'd take back in a second, or "Nørgaard", a playfully loutish ode to a Danish model. But there's also "Blow It Up", which borrows from the Beatles' "I Should Have Known Better" a little too blatantly to enjoy in its own right. "Under Your Thumb", for its part, appears to take critic Ellen Willis's argument that the Rolling Stones' similarly titled tirade actually isn't sexist as a challenge to write a song about a man completely submitting to his (presumably, female-- name's Eleanor, anyway) lover.
It's easy enough to imagine the Vaccines' slower songs going over well with an outdoor crowd drunk on sun and beer. Previous NME favorites Glasvegas already have the "swooning anthems with girl-group beats" thing pretty much covered, but the Vaccines do it here twice: over droning organ on "Wetsuit", which again recalls the U.S. beach-pop crowd, and then another time on the dreary "All in White", which occupies much the same U2-echoing expanse as lesser bands the Temper Trap or White Lies. The most awkward moment is slo-mo finale "Family Friend", which builds to an embarrassingly neutered wall-of-noise crescendo. In a final possible reference to Best Coast, Wavves, and their stoned sunshine set, Young wonders aloud if everybody really feels "as high as a kite": "Well, I don't really know if they do, but they might." An old "MADtv" sketch comes to mind: "Lowered Expectations".
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Publications
Search This Blog
Categories
Press Mentions
"Goes over the top and stays there to very nice effect."
-- David Carr, The New York Times
"I wasn't fully convinced. But I was interested."
-- Rob Walker, The New York Times
"...as Marc Hogan wrote in Spin..."
-- Maureen Dowd, The New York Times
-- David Carr, The New York Times
"I wasn't fully convinced. But I was interested."
-- Rob Walker, The New York Times
"...as Marc Hogan wrote in Spin..."
-- Maureen Dowd, The New York Times
Other Online Presences
Blog Archive
-
▼
2011
(318)
-
▼
June
(52)
- The Verve - Urban Hymns
- Mazzy Star - So Tonight That I Might See
- Death Cab for Cutie - Codes and Keys
- Hooray for Earth - True Loves
- Little Dragon - Ritual Union
- Bank Boards Demanding More of Risk Function: Survey
- HP Shuffles Veteran Exec Livermore to Board Seat
- Auditor Rotation, Data Protection Laws, Singapore ...
- Danish Punks Iceage Slay in U.S. Debut
- Buzzcocks - A Different Compilation
- The Beta Band - The Three EP's
- Massive Attack - Blue Lines
- Many Forced-Out CEOs Still Sit on Boards
- Governance News Roundup
- More US Companies Vie for Presence in Africa
- How Risky Is Director Service? Not Very, Column Says
- No End in Sight to Dodd-Frank Rule Debate
- Beleaguered Boards Take Annual Meetings on the Road
- Bank Hit With Suit Over Say-on-Pay Vote
- Governance News Roundup
- John Maus - We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of...
- Various Artists - Rave on Buddy Holly
- The Coathangers - Larceny & Old Lace
- Marissa Nadler - Marissa Nadler
- The Vaccines - What Did You Expect From the Vaccines?
- Blue Sky Black Death - Noir
- Music Critics Pick the Last Song They Want to Hear...
- Sonny & the Sunsets - Hit After Hit
- Lenka - Two
- Rise of No-Loads Highlights Distribution Shift: Study
- Industry Profit Margins Rebound in 2010
- Ernst & Young Absorbs PGI; HSN Overrides Shareholders
- Chevron, Exxon Hear From Investors on 'Fracking'
- China's Workforce to Shrink, Deutsche Bank Warns
- U.S. Reliance on Internal Probes Raises Fraud-Figh...
- Big Fund Companies Are Saying ‘Yes’ on Pay
- Directors Should Thank Dodd-Frank: Column
- Fair-Value Guidance Anticipates Convergence
- CEO Turnover Falls as Governance Trends Solidify: ...
- What to Ask IT Providers About GRC Systems
- Rising CEO Pay Masks Shift Toward Performance
- Bixby Shake-Up Shows Risk Extends to Boardroom
- New PCAOB Chair Comes Out Swinging
- How Companies Can Tap Hidden Expertise: Study
- Legislative and Regulatory News
- More Boards Using Video to Hold Meetings
- PG&E Shareholders to Pay for CEO’s Retirement
- In the News
- Supreme Court Weighs Class Action Rules
- ISS, Glass Lewis Seek Ousters at Wells Fargo
- In the News: Dodd-Frank Deadline, New D&O Insuranc...
- SEC Would Apply SOX 404(b) to Mid-Caps
-
▼
June
(52)