What Did You Expect From The Vaccines?

What did I expect from The Vaccines? Inoffensive and mildly boring post-punk revival and garage rock, which is more or less what I got, though it is a lot poppier than I expected. The Vaccines are good at hooks, to their credit, but I don't really find any other aspect of the album interesting. I started the user list specifically to avoid albums like this.

Should it have been on the main list: No. This is Dimery-core so I'm a little surprised it wasn't on, but we don't need more of this kind of music.

Top 3 songs: Wreckin Bar (Ra Ra Ra), If You Wanna, Post Break-Up Sex

Favourite songs: Norgaard, Under Your Thumb, Wetsuit, If You Wanna, All In White

Least favourite songs: Wreckin' Bar (Ra Ra Ra)

3/5

Not particularly original, but fun.

Yea this was cool, though I think there are a few bands at the time doing this sound better and albums i liked better. not bad, just sort of predictable?

This album has two very different faces. One is fast, energetic, and genuinely fun. The other is slower, more drawn out, and considerably less interesting.
When The Vaccines keep the tempo high, this works extremely well. “Wreckin’ Bar,” “If You Wanna,” and “Nørgaard” are full of energy, strong melodies, and that simple singalong quality that good indie-rock needs. It’s not innovative, but at this point rock rarely is, and the band compensates with conviction and strong melodies.
The problem is that too many songs slow things down, and once that happens the limitations start to show. Tracks like “Blow It Up” and “Wetsuit” drift into that polished early-2010s British indie sound that reminds me a bit too much of White Lies, a band I never fully connected with.
Ironically, one of the slower songs, “A Lack of Understanding,” ended up becoming one of my favorites. Along with “Post Break-Up Sex,” makes it a very enjoyable indie-rock album when it’s moving

I don’t know what I expected; I was deep into my German techno/Scandi-stoner-rock odyssey when this came out and I’d heard of them but never heard them.
But I quite like it. It’s short (as albums like this should be) and it has that kind of distant, echoey production that makes it feel slightly disconnected and detached, in that bleak and wintry way that all Christmas songs should sound.

A grandiose shouting style of indie rock, very of the time. Imagine Dragons sort of became the culmination of this style's direction, which unfortunately scuffs up a lot of this kind of thing for me in hindsight. It's a fun trip down memory lane, though.

One of the best uk indie rock albums at the time, albeit wasn’t much competition during this period. Listening back now it has aged well. Not quite a masterpiece but Worthy of my frequent rotation.