Album Review: The Vaccines - Come Of Age

The Vaccines
Come Of Age
Rating: Grrrr

The Vaccines' debut album What Do You Expect From The Vaccines? left me rather unimpressed, owing to the monstrous hype from the UK press as the band being the savior of guitar rock, but finding it to only being a moderately interesting run-of-the-mill alt-guitar album. Not that there was anything horrible on the record, in fact there were several catchy pop tracks, but overall it never really rose above merely pleasant. So, when their follow up Come Of Age found its way into my inbox I was less than in a hurry to get to it. Somewhat reluctantly I decided to listen to it and my first spin through it did nothing to change my perspective on the band and put it aside again. For some reason, I found it back on my hard drive when I was culling some chaff and thought, well, I might as well listen to it one more time before deleting it. I'm not sure if it were my mood that had changed or if it suddenly just clicked with me, but Come Of Age sounded different. I suppose my lack of real expectation in it allowed me to actually listen to it, and it is a surprisingly catchy record, full of sterling singles. Does this mean that The Vaccines are now living up to that storied hype? Well, not really. I still don't think this band deserves god-like status, however, they do need to be recognized for coming together with a set of almost instantly hook ready tracks that are hard to get out of one's head.

Blasting out of the gate with the raucous "No Hope," The Vaccines deliver a snide, jaded track about growing up,



and just continue on with track after track of catchy goodness, like the shambling "I Always Knew," and the pop goodness of "Teenage Icon," with its ridiculously memorable chorus.



Perhaps it is owing to working with producer Ethan Johns (Ryan Adams, Kings of Leon, Laura Marling) that has given them more focus and clear-headed direction, but The Vaccines seem more cohesive even with the album's tracks veering all over the guitar rock spectrum. From the punkabilly of "Ghost Town,"



Pavement-esque slacker rock of "Weirdo,"



spiky, 60's styled pop of the witty "I Wish I Was Girl," and the wandering noir/alt-country of closing stunner "Lonely World,"



The only real missteps are the overly sunny/quirky flower power track "Aftershave Ocean,"



and the George Harrison aping guitar solos of "All In Vein" that comes across more as parody than a truly respectful approximation.

Ultimately, Come Of Age is just a really good guitar pop record full of catchy riffs, memorable melodies, and, what was mainly lacking from their debut, a sense of personality. As I mentioned, this album is not going to change the axis of the planet or lay waste to the rock landscape, but if you want a really great rock record, you can certainly do a lot worse.

Rating Scale:

Chilfos: masterpiece; coolest thing I've heard in ages.

Woof Daddy: excellent; just a hair away from being a masterpiece.

Grrrr: very good; will definitely be considered for my top releases of the year.

Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It: good; definitely invites further listens and piques one's interest for more material.

Meh: not horrible, but certainly not great; could have either been polished, trimmed, or re-thought.

Jeez Lady: what the hell happened? Just plain bad. They should hang their heads in shame and be forced to listen to Lady Gaga ad nauseam as penance.

Tragicistani: so bad, armed villagers with pitchforks and torches should run the artist out of the country for inflicting this abomination on the human race.