Teenage Fanclub

Teenage Fanclub

Here

Merge

***The wait is over! TEENAGE FANCLUB have returned with Here, the band’s first album in six years. As ever, song-wise the Fanclub present a textbook representation of democracy in action, the record offering four each by NORMAN BLACKE, GERARD LOVE and RAYMOND MCGINLEY. From the almighty chime of opener “I’m In Love” through the ecstatic soul-search of “The First Sight” and the paean to unerring friendship “With You,” Here is a collection of twelve songs about the only things that truly matter: life and love. As is befitting of a record that took its time to arrive, Here uses reflective space to dazzling effect. “Steady State,” with its gorgeous ebb and flow, has echoes of The Notorious Byrd Brothers’ astral jangle, while “I Was Beautiful When I Was Alive” unexpectedly curves off from dreamlike beginnings into a semi-acoustic/motorik outro, sonically replacing the steady beat of the German autobahn with the vast open skies of the Pacific Coast Highway. Not for one second is Here the sound of procrastination or headscratching. It’s the effortless work of a band entirely confident in their own craft—the consolidation of nearly three decades of peerless songwriting and almost telepathic musicianship. Here is a record that embraces maturity and experience and hugs them close.

Teenage Fanclub

Man Made

Merge

***TEENAGE FANCLUB’s Man-Made is the second August installment in the Merge Records 25th anniversary reissue series. Originally released in 2005, Man-Made is a classic Fanclub record in tone and arrangement, and handsomely demonstrates the “less is more” maxim--it is both airier and more light of touch than it’s immediate predecessors. Teenage Fanclub made the record in Chicago with JOHN MCENTIRE (Tortoise) at his Soma Electronic Music Studios. Though McEntire’s production is subtle, his unique aesthetics are definitely apparent on Man-Made as odd keyboards and sundry other inevitably electronic apparatuses bubble and bleep just below the surface of fuzzed-out guitars, chugging basslines, and layered vocals.