If You Wanna

Album: What Did You Expect From The Vaccines? (2011)
Charted: 35
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Songfacts®:

  • Having first been released as British indie rock group The Vaccines' original demo on YouTube, this song was re-recorded and issued as the third single from their debut album, What Did You Expect From The Vaccines?
  • The Vaccines' singer and chief songwriter Justin Young explained the song to NME: "As with a lot of the lyrics on the record, I've tried to be as direct as possible. Sometimes when you want to say something it's best to not be too clever about it. The lyrics are pretty defeatist, maybe even slightly pathetic. But we've all been there. I wanted us to have a song with really downbeat lyrics juxtaposed with a poppy and upbeat melody."
  • Kate Moss jams along to this song with The Vaccines in an advertisement for a new Rimmel lipstick designed by the supermodel. Young later recalled to NME regarding the filming of the commercial: "It was quite surreal. It was in a very bright white room so it felt a bit like we were dreaming."
  • This song had a different chorus until Justin Young came up with a new one as a joke. He told NME: "I thought it was like super cheesy, and I kind of got shivers down my spine like, 'Eww, I feel dirty,' and everyone in the room was like, 'No, that was really cool. That's a much better chorus.' I think that was a real turning point for the band because I think it was like me accepting that I write really cheesy pop songs, and so I should embrace that as a writer."
  • When Young asked bass player Arni Arnason to join the band, he also sent him a demo of this song.

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