My Top 1000 Songs #594: If You Wanna

[I've been writing up my Top 1000 songs on a daily basis--you can see them all in descending order by hitting the All My Favorite Songs tag.]

I'm not sure what I'm supposed to think about British guitar alt.rockers The Vaccines. They seem like one of those bands that gets a lot of attention in the UK, while facing some sort of critical backlash in the US as "another post-Strokes guitar band" or something like that. Whatever; I like 'em a lot. And they got off to a killer start with "If You Wanna," the lead single from 2011's debut LP What Did You Expect From The Vaccines. There's a bit of that Jesus & Mary Chain fizzy guitar sound, but mostly it's just an infectious power pop gem with darker overtones. Some clever lyrics--gotta love the "that's what all the friends I do not like as much as you say" refrain--and an anthemic shout-along chorus. A feel-good break-up song that should've been a passing fancy, but I keep going back to it.

Live 2018: