The Vaccines, Pick-up Full of Pink Carnations (Super Easy/Thirty Tigers)
We didn't expect much from this British band revealed at the beginning of this century with an album aptly titled What Did You Expect From The Vaccines? After two dazzling first records, the band had joined the cohort of the forgotten of English rock. This new record, the first since 2001, marks a new beginning for The Vaccines. Not only because it marks the total takeover of singer Justin Young after the departure of guitarist and founding member Freddie Cowan, who resigned last year. But also because the songs are the most vigorous proposed by forty-year-olds for a long time. What is wrong is a production that is too smooth, American style, with flashy guitars and too invasive drums. Not sure if these options guarantee The Vaccines will perform in stadiums.
Justin Young says he was inspired by Don McLean's iconic 1971 song American Pie. At the same time, he continues to harbor an obsession with The Strokes, even though The Vaccines will never have the natural class of those Americans. Pick-Up Full of Pink Carnations won't be a milestone but it's a good boost at the start of the year.
Bobby Keys, Lovers Rockin - The Lost Album (PIAS)
The saxophonist, who passed away in 2014, was Keith Richards' astrological twin and one of his best companions. After being kicked out of the Rolling Stones for a while, he toured the United States under the name Mr Brown Sugar, riding the wave of his participation in this hit with a legendary chorus. But this enthusiast had actually started his career long before, accompanying the pioneer Buddy Holly, whom he had met as a teenager. From George Harrison to Eric Clapton, The Who, Barbra Streisand and even Johnny Hallyday, he played on dozens of albums from the rock scene of the 1960s and 70s.
Last year, fifty years after it was made on the sidelines of the recording of the Stones' Goat's Head Soup in Jamaica, this totally new album was released. Benefiting from an exceptional sound restoration, this instrumental record plunges us back into a cauldron of reggae and rhythm & blues decoctions of the best effect. Ron Wood is on board, as are pianist Nicky Hopkins and the legendary Steve Cropper, who offers his composition Sittin on the Dock of the Bay, which lends itself perfectly to this treatment. Exuberant, festive and unpretentious, this album deserves to be known. In any case, he is happy that he can finally be available.