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What Did You Expect From The Vaccines?

The Vaccines

What Did You Expect From The Vaccines?

Debut album from London-based indie rock quartet who were 3rd in the BBC Sound of 2011 poll

ADM rating[?]

6.6

Label
Columbia
UK Release date
14/03/2011
US Release date
22/03/2011
  1. 9.1 |   A.V. Club

    The Vaccines do a good job of turning up the drama during their more restrained moments, resulting in a rare species: the well-rounded pop-jugular album
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  2. 9.0 |   The Fly

    It’s youthful, ambitious and mesmerisingly catchy
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  3. 8.0 |   State

    This might be distinctive and shrewdly simplistic enough to define your entire summer
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  4. 8.0 |   Spin

    Draws on the Jesus & Mary Chain tradition of sweet early '60s pop'n'roll married to sour punk noise
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  5. 8.0 |   Blurt

    Loses a little steam by the second half, but it's forgivable. The slow spots fall away from the core of this album, which happens to be a sweet, addictive fusion of both modern and vintage style
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  6. 8.0 |   BBC

    It’s the rawer, less-than-perfect moments that make What Did You Expect From The Vaccines? a hell of a lot more interesting than the copycat indie rock record it at first appears to be
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  7. 8.0 |   Uncut

    Immediate and impressive. Print edition only

  8. 8.0 |   Mojo

    A breathlessly exciting debut, its giddy raunch'n'revisionism hard to resist. Print edition only

  9. 8.0 |   Q

    There's more than enough here to justify their talk-of-the-town status. Print edition only

  10. 8.0 |   NME

    It's indie rock and The Vaccines do it better than any young British band has done in years
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  11. 8.0 |   The Digital Fix

    The song writing, informed by a clear love of a deep heritage, is largely outstanding
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  12. 8.0 |   The Irish Times

    Although the sound is drenched with indie idioms, they never run away from a pop hook. Well worth investigating.
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  13. 8.0 |   Evening Standard

    For those suffering from a lack of throwaway rock'n'roll, The Vaccines are currently the only cure
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  14. 8.0 |   Daily Telegraph

    30-odd minutes of pulse-quickening indie-rock, with echoes of the Strokes and Glasvegas
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  15. 8.0 |   The Scotsman

    Best look elsewhere for your revolution but do stop by en route for melodic kicks
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  16. 7.0 |   No Ripcord

    As the mindless masses of the hype machine cough up endless ‘illegitimate Ramones/Beach Boys lovechild’ similes, please ignore them and enjoy this
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  17. 7.0 |   Rave Magazine

    The Vaccines album is largely a celebration of being young and in a band. Some things don’t have to make sense and the more this is kept in mind when listening to The Vaccines, the better the experience will be
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  18. 7.0 |   Clash

    There’s potential here - let’s not entrust the future of rock to them just yet...
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  19. 6.2 |   Pitchfork

    Sure, the band's buzzing guitars, thick reverb, and bouncy rhythms lack any particular spark of originality... Then again, there's no shame in catchy, concise, sharply executed tunes that communicate mildly fresh takes on relationships, either-- and this album has more than a few
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  20. 6.0 |   Consequence Of Sound

    The Vaccines are clenching onto rock and roll, and this album is an amicable chapter in the genre. Amicable
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  21. 6.0 |   AU Review

    What lifts it just beyond mere indie rock parody is the assuredness, the knowingness of the whole thing
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  22. 6.0 |   Bowlegs

    There are a couple of disappointing tunes... But all in all this is classic indie pop
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  23. 6.0 |   The Guardian

    In the era their music recalls, the Vaccines' ambitions would have extended no further than a few Peel sessions and a few singles on Subway or Creation. But in the post-Britpop world, that's no longer the way
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  24. 6.0 |   The Observer

    The reverb-heavy guitars and driving bass lines recall the Jesus and Mary Chain, and more recently the Killers, but the sunny celebration of adolescence is straight out of 60s pop
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  25. 5.0 |   Drowned In Sound

    A melodic, nicely put together set of post-punk indebted tunes
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  26. 5.0 |   musicOMH

    Suffers from a complete lack of intelligence, candidness or originality
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  27. 5.0 |   Slant Magazine

    The Vaccines develop a charming niche without ever offering anything new or innovative
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  28. 5.0 |   musicOMH

    The Vaccines,if they do represent a commercial revival of guitar music, aren't the kind of groundbreaking band we'll be looking back on in ten years time
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  29. 4.1 |   Beats Per Minute

    [Insert expected joke about getting exactly what you expected from The Vaccines: here]
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  30. 4.0 |   The Quietus

    Throughout the entire album, their fretwork and the production is beyond unremarkable: an automated Spectorite wash of sound here, a 60s girlband “bm bm-bm tsch” there
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  31. 4.0 |   Independent on Sunday

    Hazy pop-rock singalongs paying anodyne homage to the Ramones, Jesus and Mary Chain and, er, Interpol
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  32. 4.0 |   The Independent

    Here it is, and here they are, putative saviours of a flagging indie sector, except that nobody thought to ask the punters
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  33. 2.0 |   The Skinny

    It's damn predictable – uncomplicated arrangements meshed with lyrics of an inconceivably trivial variety, delivered with a pastor’s conviction
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The Vaccines: What Did You Expect From The Vaccines?

  • Download full album for just £6.99
  • 1. Wreckin' Bar (Ra Ra Ra) £0.99
  • 2. If You Wanna £0.99
  • 3. A Lack of Understanding £0.99
  • 4. Blow It Up £0.99
  • 5. Wetsuit £0.99
  • 6. Norgaard £0.99
  • 7. Post Break-Up Sex £0.99
  • 8. Under Your Thumb £0.99
  • 9. All In White £0.99
  • 10. Wolf Pack £0.99
  • 11. Family Friend £0.99
  • 12. Somebody Else's Child N/A
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