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)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Album Review: Diablofurs - "Neon Satellites"

Image
  Diablofurs have previously shared a split release with the very under-rated Deadcuts (RIP) and feature at least one ex-member of semi-legendary "we were the Manics before the Manics" Coventry indie-punks Birdland so the initial omens for this release were pretty promising. Put any thoughts of the scuzzier end of early '90s alternative music out of your mind though because on this evidence, Diablofurs appear to have set their controls for a good decade earlier with a full on power-pop/new wave sound. The opening duo of Chase The Beat  and Everybody's Dreamin'  come on like Parallel Lines  era Blondie being fronted by Gary Numan and it's not an unpleasant sound at all. The album continues on the early '80s vein throughout with the title track coming on like Tubeway Army going pop while the epic Obsession/Meteors  is probably the closest thing stylistically to Birdland on here but the bubbling synths certainly mark it as being a new evolved version of the s
Read more

Album Review: Silver Sun - "Switzerland"

Image
  Ah the memories. Silver Sun were the great should've-been band of the mid-'90s. Taking the '70s Cheap Trick style power-pop formula and giving it a liberal dose of Britrock meatiness, they should have in an ideal world coasted to Top 20 stardom in the wake of the Wildhearts and Terrorvision, both of whom they definitely owed a sly debt in their sound to (although with their own spin on the formula obviously). Instead, they were lumped in with Britpop whose retro footy shirt clad laddishness never really suited them, and when that ship went down in 1998 or so they quickly found themselves sunk. They never officially split up though and frontman James Broad has continued to put releases out under the Silver Sun name with various collaborators old and new in the 20 years since with Switzerland  being their sixth album no less. It kicks off in fine style too with Earth Girls Are Easy  (a tribute to the cornball '80s musical film of the same name) sounding like some great
Read more

Album Review: Rossall - "The Last Glam In Town"

Image
  John Rossall is probably best known as the musical leader of the Glitter Band way back in the '70s (for those unaware, the band actually had a whole separate music career away from their disgraced singer and chalked up a fair few hits on their own). Last Glam In Town sees him making a comeback with an impressive backing case including John Robb (Membranes/Goldblade) and various members of '80s indie stalwarts the Nightingales who comprise his backing band nowadays. If you're expecting some flat trip down Memory Lane here then prepare to be surprised - this is very much the '70s glam sound but much as Joe Elliott and the Quireboys did in their Down 'n' Outz side project, it gives the formula a much-needed 21st century makeover. Opener Fear of a Glam Planet uses Robb's sinister whispered vocals to create something that owes as much to imperial phase Marilyn Manson as it does to Marc Bolan and it's not a bad sound at all. Elsewhere, Neon Lights , featur
Read more