The Vaccines are no strangers to banging out infectious little earworms that squat in your big dumb brain and refuse to ever leave, a practice we got hip to fast with their 2011 debut album What Did You Expect from the Vaccines? Today (November 17) the English rock dynamo unleashes a new tune called “Lunar Eclipse,” and it’s giving us those same vibes we first felt a dozen years ago (a dozen!!).
But while the track is reminding us of yesterday, it’s lyrical themes are firmly planted on the road ahead, a road that is often paved with the unknown.
“‘Lunar Eclipse’ was written on a trip to the Joshua Tree desert in May 2022,” says Justin Young. “I like the idea of always being on an open road, but never really knowing if you’re looking at the road ahead of you or just what’s in the rear view mirror. I know that astrologists like to believe that eclipses are a life-altering time in which to seek change and evolution, but I’m far too cynical for that. Change is taking place all around us every day, whether we feel it or not. Sometimes it’s terrifying, sometimes it’s exciting, but it’s always never-ending.”
Word to that. The Vaccines are set to release new album Pick-Up Full of Pink Carnations on January 12 via Thirty Tigers, and here a fun fact: Its title comes from a misremembered lyric in Don McLean’s 1971 classic “American Pie.” Drive that Chevy to The Levee, or your preferred bar of choice, and get into “Lunar Eclipse” below.