One of the most highly anticipated releases of 2021 lands, and thankfully delivers.
Teenage Fanclub prove beyond doubt, they still have a lot to teach us, and a lot to say.
Endless Arcade, their eleventh, is just as alluring as the band’s previous outings. A collection of tracks which perfectly sums up our present existence, and equally provides the hope in our failing dreams. The Scottish outfit have blistered a trail which is both unique, and thoroughly captivating music for thirty-one years, rising above the ‘Brit-Pop’ named alternative acts of the nineties. In truth, Teenage Fanclub were always something special, and their longevity is a testament to that.
SHE WALKS IN BEAUTY (BMG)
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Credit:Rosie Matheson.
There have been previous examples of popular musicians reciting famous poems but this, as far as can be determined, is the first time an iconic singer (Marianne Faithfull) has collaborated with an avant-garde composer (Warren Ellis, from Dirty Three and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds) and delivered an entire recording of 11 poems from Englandâs most famous Romantic poets â two from Lord Byron, one from Lord Tennyson, two from Percy Bysshe Shelley, one from Thomas Hood, three from John Keats and one from William Wordsworth.
And these are not esoteric poetic byways. They are the major poems of the period:
With Endless Arcade, the beloved Scottish band enters a brand new era Patrick King | April 30, 2021 - 12:00 pm
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When
SPIN caught up with Teenage Fanclub songwriter Norman Blake in February to discuss the band’s new album Endless Arcade, the world was in a much more uncertain place than it is today. Prospects on when and how live music would be coming back were still marked with doubt. But Blake, as always, radiates with positivity for the days ahead. Even as the long-running Scottish band faced its biggest shake-up.
With it being their eleventh album and first since 2016’s
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New music from Teenage Fanclub settles into the world like the first days of springâsubtly, quietly, with a sigh of relief. For fans of the long-running Scottish power-pop band, the defining qualities of their musicâchiming three-part harmonies, breezy major-key melodies, and dreamy, lovesick lyricsâhave come to feel so pleasant and familiar that measuring their current work against their past can seem a little beside the point: Could it be sunnier? Did it feel more exciting when you were younger? These concerns melt away within a few notes: Just open your windows and let it in.
30 April 2021
For the last four decades, Teenage Fanclub have forged a steady career that’s produced numerous touchstones records whose influence can still be felt in today’s indie rock. Listening to their latest,
Endless Arcade, you can trace aspects of that lineage in some of the songs there’s a hint of
Bandwagonesque’s sugar in “Back in the Day”, some of
Songs from Northern Britain’s Britpop on “I’m More Inclined”, and the driving slow-burn of their 2000s output on album opener “Home”.
But the Teenage Fanclub of today never sound like a nostalgia act. Like their contemporaries Dinosaur Jr. and Yo La Tengo, they continue to build their legacy by pushing against the limits of their sound. It’s evident only minutes into the record: while “Home” starts tidy and structured, halfway through Raymond McGinley’s fuzzed-out guitar takes center stage and pushes the song in an unexpected direction, ending only after it’s swelled to an awesome pea