CD of The Week

The Vaccines - Pick-Up Full Of Pink Carnations (Super Easy / Thirty Tigers)

Veteran Brit-rockers The Vaccines are back with their sixth full-length release, Pick-Up Full of Pink Carnations. It is the band’s first album since the departure of lead guitarist Freddie Cowan, who wanted to step away from a full-time rock and roll lifestyle last year. Vaccines singer Justin Young says the new tunes were inspired by time spent in the U.S. and his gradual disillusion with the “American dream.”

Pick-Up Full of Pink Carnations’ super hooky lead single, “Heartbreak Kid,” is a jangling bit of post-breakup advice: “Let your heart break, kid/Till you're feeling it.” The Vaccines bring in some ‘60s throwback swagger on “Lunar Eclipse,” which Young says was inspired by a trip to the legendary Joshua Tree National Park in California. The chiming “Sunkissed” continues the Brits-in-California vibes, completed with a namedrop of the Beach Boys’ Dennis Wilson. And “Discount De Kooning (Last One Standing)” finds the band dancing through the dark times, while “Another Nightmare” is surely the first song to ever rhyme the names Bruce Wayne and Mark Twain.

Pick-Up Full of Pink Carnations perfectly packs 10 songs in just over a half-hour – all up-tempo big, bright rockers. There’re no ballads, slow spots or experiments, just straightforward, catchy pop-rock tunes. The Vaccines will hit the road with their like-minded peers in The Kooks this year, coming to The Fillmore in Philadelphia on March 9th.
Review by Joey O.