What Did You Expect?

Artist – The Vaccines

Song – If You Wanna

Album – What Did You Expect From The Vaccines

​I started my post-collegiate career in IT sales, and in 2012 won a sales contest sponsored by Intel and VMWare. The reward was a 3-day trip to Orlando, FL for a stay at the Hard Rock Hotel and a few days at Universal Studios and other local attractions. After one night out on the town with my co-workers, rather than party into the wee hours with them I opted to head back to the hotel around midnight.

I had a few drinks in me and was feeling a bit restless, so I turned on the Hard Rock channel to watch a few music videos and unwind. The first video I remember coming on was “Chinatown” by Wild Nothing, a particularly excellent shoegaze pop song with a somewhat weird video starring a dog. The next video was nothing particularly cinematically stunning, just a band playing live on a stage. But the simplicity of the video, the energetic nature of the band and song, and the 60’s throwback rock these guys played made me a fan of both the song, “If You Wanna”, and the band The Vaccines that night. The pounding drum beat, the driving bass, the washed-out reverb of the guitars, and the innate catchiness of the chorus had me hooked at first listen. I found the album on iTunes shortly thereafter, and the Vaccines have been a regular on my playlists ever since.

There are several great songs on that album, like “Wreckin’ Bar (Ra Ra Ra)”, “Blow it Up”, and “Wetsuit”. If you enjoy fist-pumping rock n’roll straight out of the mid-60’s, this may be the album for you. I’ll always remember “If You Wanna” as the song that got me into the throwback rock n’ roll magic of The Vaccines.