The grass is always greener. Even for musicians. Maybe especially for musicians. After all, countless artists over the centuries have made beaucoup bank by copycatting the exotic sounds of somewhere (anywhere) else and polishing them up for the punters — or, if they’re really ballsy, selling them back to the folks that birthed them.
This week’s musical magpie trophy goes to none other than the pretty boys of veteran U.K. pop-rock outfit The Vaccines. Not that it should be a total surprise to them. Or anyone who’s heard them. Truth be told, like a lot of his countrymen, singer-guitarist Justin Young and his lads have always had a bit of a boner for the bigness, boldness and confidence of good old American rock ’n’ roll. But on their sixth full-length they apparently aim to seal the deal with their most Yankee-forward outing to date.
Fittingly named after a misheard lyric from Don McLean’s American Pie — arguably the most ’Murrican classic-rock song of all time — the West London foursome drive their Chevy to the levee to the soaring strains of heartland rock and vintage pop on these 10 songs. Though, like most foreigners trying to speaka the languange, they don’t quite nail the inflections. So this sounds less like classic Bruce Springsteen and more like that Killers album that tried to clone him. Even so, there are more than enough punchy tracks, twangy guitars and reverb-ringed vocals to get the job done reasonably well. It might not play in Peoria, but it’ll do nicely for the punters.
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Torchbearers for British guitar music, The Vaccines — Justin Young (lead vocals, guitars), Árni Árnason (bass, vocals), Timothy Lanham (guitars, keys, vocals) and Yoann Intonti (drums) — are back with their sixth studio album, Pick-Up Full of Pink Carnations.
The title comes from a misheard lyric from Don McLean’s American Pie, a song that for Young fittingly evokes the death of innocence and the American Dream. After he moved to Los Angeles — a city the band had grown up being captivated by — he was forced to wrestle with the disillusionment that comes when expectations, dreams, and reality don’t quite meet. Yet, though Pick-Up Full of Pink Carnations is an album about reconciling with loss, it’s also filled with gratitude for the people and places we once loved.
“Pink carnations symbolise gratitude and tell a person they’ll never be forgotten,” says Young. “So whether it’s the loss of a lover, or a friend, or even just a dream, the record is a reminder that they’ll live on in whatever capacity the mind allows them to. And it’s a reminder to keep on dreaming.”
Produced by Andrew Wells (Halsey, Phoebe Bridgers) with mixing from Dave Fridmann (Tame Impala, Flaming Lips), Pick-Up Full of Pink Carnations is an immediately anthemic addition to the band’s discography. With a mammoth five U.K. Top 5 albums — including a No. 1 with 2012’s Come of Age — and a fierce live reputation forged through arena-filling headline shows and unforgettable slots at Glastonbury and Reading/Leeds, The Vaccines continue to be a vital band in the British rock canon.”
