Community Festival - Home Crystal Palace Park 7 July 2023

The Vaccines Release ‘Combat Sports’

It’s here! After a three-year hiatus, The Vaccines have unleashed their fourth record ‘Combat Sports’ today and we’re going all in.

 

Combat Sports

‘Combat Sports’ has The Vaccines throwing it back to their early days and getting stuck back into their rock’n’roll roots. Opening track and most recent single ‘Put It On A T-Shirt’ does just that with pounding Spector wall-of-sound drums, a howling solo and chorus so passionate it’d make Alex Turner weep.

It’s an album erupting with pure no nonsense indie bangers to rival the ‘Wreckin Bar’ with all the tracks clocking in under a swift 3 minutes . It’s feel-good summer sounds all the way on the dreamy ‘Surfing In The Sky’, the cheeky bea tof ‘Nightclub’ is the ultimate earworm and single ‘I Can’t Quit’ with the big anthemic chorus of “I’m over it!” was made to be screamed out in Finsbury Park.

The album does have its softer moments: ‘Maybe’ is New Order waltzing with The Strokes circa ‘Room On Fire’ and stripped back intimacy of ‘Young American’. Beneath the guitar swell and swagger, Young’s lyrics are top drawer as he dips into tales of hedonistic love (‘Nightclub’), doomed romance (‘Someone To Lose’) and fighting (‘Take It Easy’).

‘Combat Sports’ has The Vaccines once again hitting it out of the park and going for a home run.

Read our The Story Of…The Vaccines to deep dive into the history of the band.

Don’t ‘Take It Easy’ get your tickets to see The Vaccines at Community Festival 2018.