The Vaccines share Headphones Baby single and reveal when to expect their new album

14 May 2021, 13:05 | Updated: 14 May 2021, 13:40

By Jenny Mensah

The band have returned with a new single and have shared its official visuals. Watch them talk to George Godfrey about their forthcoming record here.

The Vaccines have announced their return with Headphones Baby and shared its animated video.

The band - who consist of Justin Hayward-Young (vocals, guitar), Freddie Cowan (guitar, vocals), Árni Árnason (bass, vocals), Tim Lanham (keyboards) and Yoann Intoni (drums) - have offered a first look at the follow-up to their 2018 album Combat Sports, which achieved a UK Top 5 in the album charts.

Frontman Justin Hayward-Young said of the track: "Sometimes life can leave you feeling numb and desperate to feel something. ‘Headphones Baby’ is about creating an escape from that - plugging in to plug out and cocooning yourself from the reality of the outside world in the warm embrace of somebody else’s mind.

"The song should sound like a fireworks display - a call to arms. And if you want life to feel like it’s permanently in technicolor then we might know where you can find it…"

Watch the official video for the track here:

The Vaccines - Headphones Baby

The Vaccines have spent the past year perfecting their forthcoming album, though initial recording sessions were completed before the world shut down.

However, speaking to Radio X, their frontman revealed lockdown and the pandemic allowed them to really workshop the single and their new material on the whole.

The Vaccines talk about their Headphones Baby single

"This whole process allowed us to go into a bit more detail, so I think it's some of the best musicianship, I think it's some of the best production, I think lyrically it's the most refined".

On when fans can expect to hear their fifth studio album, he revealed: "I think I can say with some degree of certainty that it will be available within the next six months".

The rockers also talked about the tenth anniversary of the release of their debut album, What Did You Expect From The Vaccines?

"So much happened in that year, two years, three years after that record came out," said guitarist Freddie Cowan. "So it's really nice to revisit the memories and also have enough time to have perspective to look back on a record and really appreciate that we were really fortunate to meet each other, come together to do something that now I think is a really great record".