Review: Indie veterans The Vaccines return with new album Back In Love City

: by Joe Sharratt; in Reviews; on 15 September 2021

Anyone who has set for inside a club on indie night at some time in the last decade will be familiar with The Vaccines, the London five-piece having carved out a name for themselves as one of the leaders of the current generation of dancefloor-filling, guitar-wielding pack of bands that also includes the likes of The Wombats, The Kooks and The Courteeners.

Now on their fifth studio album though, The Vaccines it seems are rolling the dice with Back In Love City. Though it is still bursting at the seams with ludicrously catchy three minute slices of guitar pop fun, it’s also a release that carries more than a whiff of the concept album to it, with its thirteen tracks all seemingly drawing inspiration to some degree from dystopian movies.

Lead single Headphones Baby sets the tone, a jangly, slick, and urgent track that carries a suitably futuristic feel and collapses into a big, joyous chorus. The album’s title and opening track is a darker affair, a brooding and slightly unsettling menace.

Elsewhere, Alone Star merges an almost-reggae beat with big riffs and sci-fi sound effects, El Paso sees the band trade the effects pedals for acoustic guitars, and Jump Off The Top makes a case for the catchiest offering here, a wonderful, skidding indie behemoth.

Writing on their official Facebook page about the new release, the band said: “I don't think words on their own are powerful enough to harness emotion. Love, hate, fear, hope, anxiety, excitement, despair. They are all an infinite landmass. But I think music is. Listening to music can communicate and change the way we feel like nothing else. This is an album about finding and feeling everything you ever wanted and I hope when you plug in you feel as much love for it as we do too.”

It’s certainly an album that keeps things interesting for The Vaccines, a refreshing, enjoyable, and familiarly catchy release that’s destined for the playlist of an indie club night near you soon.

Back In Love City tracklist: