The Vaccines stay true to their style on Pick-Up Full of Pink Carnations, with very catchy and effective melodies, but something’s missing. Review.
PICK-UP FULL OF PINK CARNATIONS – THE VACCINES
Picture a pickup truck full of pink carnations. It’s on a dry dirt road, close to a desertifying valley. Exactly like the cover. There is something here that comes from a dream, a nostalgia that shines. That’s what The Vaccines, without Freddie Cowan, proposes through this new album Pick-Up Full of Pink Carnations. If in the language of flowers, carnations mean fascination, devotion and love, when they’re pink they’re a symbol of gratitude. Logically, this record gets even more romantic and dramatic than their previous.
And yet, something, a bite is missing for me. It’s shaped around a nice and sunny vintage atmosphere on most tracks, and this despite exploring really dark ideas in their lyrics and themes. Their rhythm still invites us to see the bright side, or at least to accept the negative, and even make a party out of it: Sometimes I Swear; Heartbreak Kid; Another Nightmare. In a dispute too (Lunar Eclipse) there is something resolutely upbeat here.
They are still on the dancefloor with Discount De Kooning (Last One Standing), Primitive Man’s got some great riffs, and Sunkissed’s aura is a holiday. Love To Walk Away might be the most memorable for me here, as its darkness is harmonized. On the other hand, The Dreamer has a violence to it that I don’t connect with fully. Anonymous in Los Feliz closes the record with the same tone as its beginning. If it’s not their best, The Vaccines made of Pick-Up Full of Pink Carnations an album from another time, a shot of a forgotten film, a feature not really finished. It’s a massive contrast between the theme and beat. Why not.
The band is currently on tour. More info here.
