Teenage Fanclub Shadows (PeMa)
3/5
By: Matt Tomiak
Almost a decade on from the 'Best Of' that bookended the first chapter of their career, the now rather more Middle-Aged Fanclub haven’t been particularly busy so far this century (Shadows is only their third studio album since the dawn of the noughties.) Still a hugely underrated cult concern despite their magnificent Grand Prix album arriving at Britpop's zenith, long-time TF supporters will nevertheless solemnly assert that the band's axis of Norman Blake, Raymond McGinley and Gerard Love represents a songwriting triumvirate that rivals The Beatles.
A bold comparison, yet whatever the merits of such a parallel, its hard to stretch the analogy much further - The Fab Four were, after all, both legendarily innovative and prolific, two things that the affable Glaswegians, for all the glorious multi-part vocal harmonies and pervasive melodic sensibility that has defined their 20 year career, are empathically not.
Rarely have such venerated elder statesmen sounded so relaxed, though, on tracks like 'Sometimes I Don’t Need To Believe In Anything' and 'The Past'. The stirring, string-laden ‘Baby Lee’ is in the vein of I Don’t Want Control Of You from 1997’s sublime (admittedly, an adjective that could easily be used to describe every LP in the Fannies’ tremendous back catalogue) Songs For Northern Britain.
Artists in this article: Teenage Fanclub
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