The Vaccines:"What Did You Expect from the Vaccines?" (2011)

The Vaccines suffer the slings and arrows of those who consider the well-heeled rockers fake indie, a criticism that has dogged bands long before the Strokes, who do seem to have been a pivotal group in this London band’s life. Still, those critics do have a point: The Vaccines' debut, titled What Did You Expect from the Vaccines? with a self-satisfied shrug, does bear the air of studied affectation, the bandmembers lazily splicing their favorite record collection together into a cool droning pulse. It’s plainly lifestyle music for Young Turks who need a soundtrack for their disengagement yet are too worried to play something that alienates for fear that they just may not get laid. What Did You Expect has just enough style to attract suitors of either sex but its attraction is shallow and fleeting, pasted together from other, better familiar elements stretching from the Arctic Monkeys to the Smiths and the Jesus and Mary Chain. It’s style for miles and miles unencumbered by hooks and accentuated by an attitude that carefully practices disdain for its audience, so if you’re not inclined to buy into their gait there’s not much reason to stick around.

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