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Teenage Fanclub If one band has been important to me in my adult life, it's got to be Teenage Fanclub. Nobody is better than them at drawing together all the essential elements - great tunes, wise lyrics, huge harmonies - to create intelligent pop music for grown-ups. I can't imagine a time when I will ever dislike Grand Prix, Bandwagonesque or Howdy, or even when I will stop listening to them every week. I was introduced to them fairly late in their career - the first album I bought was 2000's Howdy, their sixth or seventh album depending on whether you count the messy and immediately disowned The King. This was eleven years after the band first played together under the name in 1989. The three protagonists - Norman Blake, Gerard Love and Raymond McGinley - were already veterans of the Glasgow music scene, Blake and McGinley having previously played together in the Boy Hairdressers. Their first release, A Catholic Education, was a guitar-driven rough diamond, which spawned the single Everything Flows, still a Fanclub favourite. The band found themselves lumped in with the growing grunge scene, though this description fitted them poorly. |
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The King
did little to change this, but the next release, Bandwagonesque, marked the
band's true arrival. Thirteen - the title being a nod to their idols and biggest influences,
Big Star - was a similar affair but is now widely (and mysteriously)
overlooked, despite great songs such as Hang On and Norman 3. By this time, britpop had arrived, and Grand Prix will
perhaps be remembered
as its most perfect album, Sparky's Dream and Neil Jung being two of the
era's
crowning moments. It's a strong candidate as my favourite album ever. |
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Verisimilitude, a track from that album, declared a preference for delicately crafted songs over the angry, often haphazard nature of grunge. With that sentiment in mind Teenage Fanclub slipped into a much more relaxed, often acoustic sound for Songs From Northern Britain a couple of years later. This was exaggerated further on the release of Howdy, with barely an electric guitar to be heard. In short, they found their sound on Grand Prix, experimented with it on SFNB, and perfected it on Howdy. Teenage Fanclub now sound like a band who have grown up, from being the band Kurt Cobain took on tour, through being the only contemporary band in the world Liam Gallagher respected, into a band comfortable in their own ability. And rightly so - few bands are blessed with one great songwriter, while there are three here. A greatest hits album, 4766 Seconds, was released recently, with three new songs indicating no great change in musical direction. In my opinion, a wise move - they couldn't possibly become any better than they already are. Audio - please right click on the links to save these samples You and Your Sister - Recorded for a Dutch radio session in 1991, this is one of my favourite musical recordings ever. It's certainly superior to the Big Star original, which in itself is no mean feat. Going Places - A clip from this album track from Grand Prix. Though hardly typical of the upbeat sound on this album, it's perhaps the best track there. It's moments like this that make me adore the band's music so much. Happiness - A clip from this album track, my favourite from Howdy. It's typical of the album's leisurely pace and acoustic production. Video - Recorded at Recife, Brazil, 2004
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