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Mar 22, 2018Combat Sports reaffirms The Vaccines as one of the most exciting British bands around--and one absolutely still worth pestering friends about.
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Mar 30, 2018Keyboards add a shimmering underbelly to the Britpop throwback “Your Love Is My Favourite Band”--but Combat Sports possesses a loose vibe that’s much more welcoming.
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Mar 30, 2018It’s short and easily missed, but catch it and you’ll be able to feel the excitement, freedom, and, perhaps, relief of a band rejuvenated.
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Mar 30, 2018It all adds up to their best album yet.
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Mar 28, 2018Combat Sports is a great return for The Vaccines, and an album that will soar at their live shows.
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Mar 26, 2018The result is a fourth album both back-to-basics in a Ramone-next-door sort of way, but with renewed purpose and attitude, and eyeing new paths of punk-rock progress.
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Q MagazineMar 22, 2018Fourth effort Combat Sports combines their early impish exuberance with English GGraffiti's more polished musicality. [May 2018, p.114]
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Mar 26, 2018They’re not doing anything new (as they said themselves with the title of their debut What Did You Expect From The Vaccines?), but there’s something about infectious melodies, sticky guitar riffs and relationship observations being made by an aloof Englishman that never gets old either.
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Apr 9, 2018Some bands experiment with broadening their sound, and it just doesn't work. It worked for the Vaccines, and in that context, a reactionary record like Combat Sports is something of a disappointment. But it's a super-fun one.
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Mar 30, 2018Combat Sports is their shortest album yet, with none of its 11 tracks straying over four minutes, all in bursts of compact energy. Each song has a short guitar solo, while riffs and hooks abound, in stories of combative love and sex couched in Young’s characteristically wry lyrics.
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Mar 29, 2018The strongest chunk of the album comes not in the first third, but in the stream of songs that starts with ‘Out On the Street’, ‘Take It Easy’ and ends with the final track.
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Jul 25, 2018The record is a little shaky, but it's to the band's benefit that they retain a desire to not be so serious. At those moments, the Vaccines deliver some rock & roll spark.
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UncutMar 22, 2018It's no drastic reinvention, but the PRS cheques keep on coming. [May 2018, p.37]
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MojoMar 22, 2018With smart synths and Young's wry lyricism ensuring a contemporary edge to their retro-leanings, Combat Sports is fizzy fun that won't rot your teeth. [May 2018, p.91]
User score distribution:
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Positive: 18 out of 21
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Mixed: 2 out of 21
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Negative: 1 out of 21
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Mar 31, 2018Feels like a perfect combitaion of goold old indie rock and pop music. Probably their best album to date.
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Oct 31, 2020This review contains spoilers, click full review link to view.
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Apr 3, 2018