Younger Brother- Vaccine

Younger Brother has an obvious talent for mixing techno pop with distorted rock guitars and I think that’s pretty interesting. Vaccine opens with a pretty downbeat but catchy track called “Crystalline” that sets the mood for the album nicely. With all of the good synth and guitar work going on I love that the thing that ties 90% of the tracks together are the vocals of Ru Campbell. His voice really takes some of the more repetitive sounding tracks and makes them more complex and just easier to listen to. On the track “Train” you get a strong vibe that Younger Brother must be decently influenced by Pink Floyd, but that they take it to a completely different level. I like how they mix the songs on Vaccine and everything is produced really nicely. Where it may fall short is I don’t feel like Younger Brother is completely comfortable in this genre of music. They are primarily known for doing interesting ambient techno with little to no vocals. It’s not that I don’t think this is a great direction for them; I just think that it’s going to take a little time until you can hear them be completely confident in this new bold direction.

Final Review- 75

The Vaccines- What Did You Expect From The Vaccines?

What Did You Expect From The Vaccines? has an interesting ‘50s rock vibe mixed with an almost Ramones punk sound. I think The Vaccines have a lot of confidence, and are entertaining but lack the knowledge of how to put a stable album together. Some songs stand out like “Post Break Up Sex” and show you that the band really does have a decent amount of talent, but most of the tracks kind of all start blending together and lack that certain something that makes their sound original. A positive thing I can say about The Vaccines' album work is that they know to make a majority of their songs less than three minutes.  Other than that I would say that shortly after What Did You Expect From The Vaccines? is finished it sinks to the back of your mind and doesn’t really stick with you.

Final Review- 70