Have the Vaccines Come of Age?

The Vaccines' second album 'Come Of Age’ can hardly be called 'one of the greats' or an album that will be remembered as a true work of art. However for a group of young musicians who are still essentially new and have been born into a rock revival, the album does venture into new, unexpected ground. It is arguably an album that has been made more for the band's own personal growth and to showcase to the world that they weren't just a group of lads who could 'bash out a few good pop songs'. It is certainly not mind blowing, but what the album does do is prove that The Vaccines are back with a slightly more mature sound and are ready to face the world once more. 

 


The song ‘Bad Mood’ is a tightly played crowd pleaser that takes around four seconds to lock into your brain and take root there. It is everything you’d expect from The Vaccines but adds something harsher to the song. It’s clear evidence of what the band are capable of.

Despite exploring many more unknown areas and original avenues than their first album, there is still a simplicity to the band’s second record. Where ‘What Did You Expect From The Vaccines’ got hold of and rattled the bare bones of indie rock, by writing songs consisting of three-chords, ‘Come Of Age’ is a more melodic record but still maintains 'a kind of throwaway appeal'. 

‘Ghost Town’, which rides along on threatening basslines that push the guitars to the back of the mix, has a completely different atmosphere and impact to anything the band have done before. However, the lyrics essentially mean nothing. “No-one’s about and it’s kind of creepy It’s a big mistake when they say it’s sleepy”. It has almost become quite a characteristic of the lyrical content of The Vaccines' songs with lines such as "If you wanna come back it's alright, it's alright, it's alright if you wanna come back to me" carrying no great meaning and would certainly not win any awards for originality or craftsmanship. They seem easy to criticise, but I don't see the point. The Vaccines have never staked any claims to being deep.

However, there are moments, as rare as they are, in ‘I Wish I Was A Girl’ (“Life is easy when you’re easy on the eye”) or beneath the deceptively perky but very catchy riffs of ‘Teenage Icon’ (“I’m not magnetic or mythical/ I’m suburban and typical”) where Justin seems to be addressing topics closer to the heart than stating that having sex with someone else just after a break up won't end well. But this is not where the record’s high point lie in. The band’s increasingly skilful way around a melody start to become apparent in songs like ‘Aftershave Ocean’ and ‘All In Vain’. They prove that The Vaccines can still write a killer hook without necessarily firing on all cylinders. Not only can The Vaccines write very increasingly 'catchy tunes' in  the song ‘Weirdo’ they evidence another tangent of their abilities as it is an almost grunge slow-burner, dramatically dictating a change in pace to the record. 

The Vaccines are no doubt, still evolving and finding out who they really are but ‘Come Of Age’ is clear evidence that they are only going to get better. Watch this space.

6/10