Teenage Fanclub
Songs From Northern Britain
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Teenage Fanclub
Songs From Northern Britain
Virgin, 1997
RiYL: The Beatles, Neil Young, The Byrds, The Beach Boys, Pavement, Blur, Matthew Sweet |
This grown-up grungy pop band has learned to treat its song arrangements as, well, proper song arrangements. And its members have learned to fit more into their music by way of creative thinking and careful planning instead of just feeling the tunes out in a classic rock style.
Which is not to say the album isn't without its classic rock moments. They're just more wittily positioned within the songs, ready to strike at the perfect moment.
The Fanclub has always thrived on having three equally capable songwriters/vocalists (guitarists Norman Blake and Raymond McGinley and bassist Gerard Love), and their musicianship has grown through the years, even as they may have slipped down critics' favourites lists. The three have each honed their songwriting and singing skills to an almost beatlesque range of personalities. In other words, you can recognize each of them as distinct personalities within the music, and the mark of whoever wrote a particular song or contributed parts hangs over the tunes like fingerprints.
The album art, full of picaresque shots of the Scottish countryside, makes you wish you were flying a hovercraft over the forests and dales of Northern Britain, with the Fanclub serenading ye. I'll always bring this album on trips to the countryside.
Blake's "Winter" is a highlight, its heartfelt jangly melody supported by harmonic textures recalling the sentimental side of the Beach Boys. The band here shows it has learned to temper the sometimes boring repetition of pop-rock fade-outs using the mindset of the inventive remove-and-replace repetitive grooves of today's alternative and post-rock bands.
Sure, "Mount Everest" could be a Neil Young song. But if it was, it would be one of his classics. The chugging melody is well-augmented by the determined chorus harmony, the forceful piano that somehow matches the guitar riffs, and maybe the most reserved highly-distorted guitar solo in recent memory. At its peak, few listeners can deny their judgment in putting on the record for a spin. That's what rock and roll is all about.
So yes, the Fanclub is reflecting lots of influences. But the band has learned from the best, and continues to improve upon its favorite bands, if only by adapting to different styles and blending them to achieve a varied and well-educated sound.
The final sharply-struck piano chord of "Speed Of Light" seals the deal on Songs From Northern Britain. A great humble effort, and one of the best pop albums of the later '90s.
TROY CARPENTER | Troy Carpenter founded NATN from a Chicago apartment during the ambitious winter of 1998 with co-conspirators Ben French and Jonathan Cohen. After a five-year stint in New York, he and wife Lourdes have recently relocated to Indianapolis, where he spends days listening to music and nights in the kitchen at Elements restaurant. Musical heroes: Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley, Super Furry Animals. What else makes life worth living: Sushi, Phucty, runs in the park, and the Atlanta Braves.