The Vaccines / What Did You Expect From The Vaccines?

The Vaccines
What Do You Expect From The Vaccines
(Columbia)
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I’m not sure if I’d want to be a Vaccine right now. Late last summer they were completely unknown, lugging their gear round every toilet they could get to let them play their garage punk. Now only barely five months later they’ve had a huge underground hit with ‘Wreckin’ Bar’, been on Later With Jools, had an NME front cover and sold out venues across Europe and the US.

On the downside, the weight of expectation must be laying pretty heavy on their shoulders as the world waits with baited breath for the release of this debut. Judging by its title, ‘What Do You Expect From The Vaccines?’, It would seem they're more than aware of the pressure too. So what do we expect from the Vaccines, and do they deliver?

Well, we expect fast and furious garage punk loaded with hooks and catchy melodies, and for the most part that’s what we get. Like an English Ramones, their songs are simple but exciting supercharged rock ‘n’ roll, and as with the three singles (which all make appearances here), the songs are drenched in reverb and lo-fi production.

So far so good - but there are some tracks I would have left off; ‘Wetsuit’, All In White’ and ‘Family Friend’ all slow the pace down and seem out of place. I think it would have been a more enjoyable ride if they’d kept the momentum and adrenalin levels running off the scale, but then I would have been happy if all ten tracks were ‘Wreckin’ Bar’. Oh, and do yourself favour - stop the CD before the painful ‘secret track’ kicks in!