The Vaccines’ new album’ Coming of Age’ is released today.
The first track of the album, ‘No Hope’ was released back in July but provides a strong and fun opening into a new age in the successful reign that is the Vaccines’ career so far. The album title, ‘Coming of Age’ seems appropriate here; this playlist is a development of things that have come before. Whilst the retro, fun sound of the band maintains the essential tone of their music, there is something new and evolved about the new album towards the end.
Tracks 4-9 start to move away from their typical sound, and the vintage noises of The Jam and The Who in particular ring out. Whilst this new direction has definitely secured another year of success for The Vaccines, you can’t help feeling the lyrics fall short of the poetic wit of their contemporaries The Arctic Monkeys, or the polyphonic subtleties of Arcade Fire. Each track blends into something sadly indistinguishable and they fall short of completely moving on from their old material. In answer to the question from the title of their first album ‘What Did You Expect From the Vaccines?’ something just a little more.
It was in the penultimate track, ‘I Wish I Was A Girl’ that the album seemed to mature into its new sound, ending with a retrospective look back at their previous album in the last track ‘Lonely World’ in which The Vaccines’ old sounds merged with this new direction, ending on a slightly sombre, slower yet mature note. This is certainly a band that has yet to reach full maturity, but that is well on the way to coming of age.