Album Review: 'Combat Sports' from The Vaccines

London group The Vaccines follow-up their acclaimed 2015 LP, English Graffiti, with a thrilling collection of songs. Opening with the terrific ‘Put It On A T-Shirt’, the sound is all polished fuzz tones, glam-stomp drums, and slapback echo vocals, directly recalling glossy late-70s and early-80s radio-ready rock engineering.

‘Your Love Is My Favourite Band’ is wonderfully addictive disco rock: awash with spacey keyboard flourishes and processed guitar, it’s guaranteed to fill any decent indie club dancefloor. Songs like this and ‘Maybe (Luck Of The Draw)’ are ear candy to match the best kind of 1980s new wave pop that The Church, The Cure, The Cars and Gene Loves Jezebel specialised in, with melodically crafted vocals, steady rhythms, icy lead guitar and shimmering synths.

And just in case things seem a little too smooth, ‘Surfing In The Sky’ blasts out of the speakers, with its galloping chorus-pedal infused bassline, and thundering drums that jolt you from the neon glow of the dancefloor to the figurative sweat-stained moshpit.

The agitated staccato stomp of ‘Nightclub’, with Justin Hayward-Young’s insistent refrain of “it makes my head feel like a nightclub!” building to a heightened, delirious crescendo, is a majestic piece of manic pop. ‘Out On The Streets’, meanwhile, sees Young gleefully engage in vocal acrobatics on the song’s triumphant, addictive chorus.

A couple of songs – ‘Take It Easy’ and ‘Someone to Lose’ – pass by pleasantly, but these are the rare exceptions in an album of otherwise majestic highs. Combat Sports is polished without losing the ragged rock n’ roll quality so crucial to The Vaccines; it is slick and smoothly crafted without sacriificing immediacy and raw power; it is a marvellous piece of pop-rock in every way.

Record label: Columbia Records
Listen to: 'Maybe (Luck of the Draw)'
Rating: 9/10