Teenage Fanclub
Here
Pema
WITH all due respect to fans of The Quiet Beatle, there is not another group in the history of pop that has maintained and sustained a quota of three songwriters on an equitable basis for over 25 years. There are other reasons to appreciate Glasgow's Teenage Fanclub, but that is one of the most remarkable. It has been a long journey from Bandwagonesque to the pastoral textures of Here, where the distorted guitars are way down the mix, but that collaborative ethos is still intact, and you can here it in the way the voices of Norman Blake, Gerry Love, and Raymond McGinley harmonise as much as in the four-songs-each division of the album and the sonic detail that goes way beyond those exquisite guitar sounds.
TFC still wear their influences (primarily post-British Invasion American groups) proudly, but the fact is that few of those musicians can boast a back catalogue as rich as that of the Fannies, and Here is another classic to add to the canon. Blake's I'm In Love and Love's Thin Air get the set off to such a start it seems unlikely that they'll sustain the quality, but gems like McGinley's Steady State lie seven tunes down the line. Exquisite.
Keith Bruce
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