Album Review: Teenage Fanclub - "Endless Arcade"

 

Teenage Fanclub are one of those bands who kind of skirted around the edge of my listening for years as a teenager without ever really properly becoming regulars in my tape rack. A group with a clutch of great singles (Star Sign, Sparky's Dream, Ain't That Enough), their albums unfortunately were generally solid but just a bit too...well, tame really to hold the attention of someone who was generally into the heavier punkier end of indie.

Two decades since I kind of lost track of them, it's clear from opening track Home, a quite lovely laid-back Byrdsian lament, that very little has changed in the world of TFC. Except that somehow while they always sounded a bit lacklustre to my teenage self, as a fortysomething it actually sounds genuinely quite sweet. The fact that said song is seven minutes long but doesn't outstay its welcome with the lovely extended blissed-out outro working well in the context is always a good sign as well.

And thus it continues throughout - the group are still in thrall to their '60s influences (the Byrds, Buffalo Springfield and Big Star principally) with the jangly guitars and gentle harmonies all present and correct, the only real change being the introduction of keyboards courtesy of former Gorky's Zygotic Mynci frontman Euros Childs who replaced the long-serving Gerard Love a couple of years ago. But there's something quite nice and comforting about this album. Songs like the desolate Everything Is Falling Apart, the Lennonesque I'm More Inclined and the wistful Back In The Day are the musical equivalent of putting on your slippers and flopping down on the sofa to chill out after a long day at work and there's far worse things to be than that.

Similar to Cornershop's unexpectedly good England Is A Garden album last year (although the two are very different beasts musically), TFC are a band I was a bit surprised to find out are still going but Endless Arcade sees them playing to their strengths in good style. More one for the faithful than the new converts, this is nevertheless a good soundtrack to the warm summer evenings sipping a quiet drink in the garden ahead.

NITE SONGS RATING: 🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌑🌑🌑 (7/10)

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