The Vaccines / Teenage Icon - Single Review

'What Did You Expect From The Vaccines?' definitely not having a debut album peaking at number 4, various main stage preformances at huge festivals and a follow up single that would blow the four London lads out of the water. No, we really didn't expect THIS from The Vaccines.


There were always going to be doubts about the second album. Will it be different? Will it be the same? Will it have a song longer that 2 minutes on it? The answers are yes, no and suprisingly so! We've had two tasters of what The Vaccines have been working on while touring; hard hitting and fresh 'No Hope' and now we have 'Teenage Icon'.

'Teenage Icon' is the second single to be released from brand-spanking-new album 'Coming Of Age'. Fresh off the press on Monday 3rd of September. Avid The Vaccines fans have had this date circled for weeks and we're finnaly going to be able to hear the masterpiece that will become the record of the year.

So what does 'Teenage Icon' hold for The Vaccines fans? First off; it's a 3:41 minute long video for the song set in an elevator, keeping listeners watching and moving for more than a minute. It's new, it's bouncy, it's catchy. It isn't The Vaccines usual sound but it's something everybody has been waiting for to arise from Justin Young's song book. It's mauturity; a statement of some sort.

Gone are the days of Justin Young's sleek and styled hair-cut, his unprofessionalism of amazement when people ACTUALLY knew the words to the songs he had written. New and improved in double-denim his lyrics bounce of the walls of the brain. 'I'm no teenage icon, I'm no Frankie Avalon, I'm nobody's hero'. He's relating to teenagers all around the world. The 'nerds' the 'geeks' the ones who aren't 'anybody' popular. He's saying what teenagers are thinking 'Oh look at me, so ordinary, no mystery', he was a nobody.

'Teenage Icon' really puts a mark on what The Vaccines now are. In 2010 they were playing their first gig in a venue in Leicester and now they're main stage material at festivals such as T In The Park and Reading & Leeds. They've rose against the odds and became 'somebody'. 'Teenage Icon' is easily the best written song The Vaccines have preformed. It means something to the adoring pubic and it setting a new wave of genre for the fantastic four.

'Teenage Icon' is out Monday 3rd of September to purchase on iTunes and in store
'Coming Of Age' the second anticipated album by The Vaccines is also out in stores and on iTunes on Monday 3rd September.

Be sure to catch The Vaccines at their headline tour this November at various venues around the country.

Teenage Icon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFUKrsDDChE
No Hope: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_3eEPpmKwE