The Vaccines

About The Vaccines:

There’s a difference between having fun and being happy, says Justin Young. And in the space between fun and happiness lies the sixth Vaccines album, Pick-Up Full of Pink Carnations. It’s a record that drips with fun — 10 songs in just over half an hour, packed with hooks and melodies and pop smarts — but which explores the way real life lets us down, no matter what we tell the world on our Instagram stories.

“It’s about loss,” Young says. “And coming to terms with that loss — not necessarily grieving for it, but trying to get a new understanding of it. I don’t just mean in a romantic sense.”

At this point in their career, there’s a pretty clear sense of who The Vaccines are and what they do: this is 60s-inspired classicist guitar pop (remember the “I’m no Frankie Avalon” reference of Teenage Icon?), filtered through new wave (and it really is new wave, not punk), given a modernist sheen in the production. “I think we’re euphoric and melancholic in equal measure. I think we’re very direct, and I think this record sounds quite classic and simple, but hopefully of its time as well.” (The Spotify playlist he listened to while writing is exactly that stuff — classic and simple.)

Young’s justifiably proud of Pick-Up Full of Pink Carnations — “every single song on the record was my favourite at some point.” And so he should be. How often do you hear a band truly flower in their sixth record? It’s time to wake up and smell The Vaccines.