TEENAGE FANCLUB: Songs From Northern Britain
The Fannies fifth album is with us and to date I've always felt that, a bit like Star Trek films, the even numbered albums are the better ones. The first single "Ain't That Enough" seemed to confirm this, as it seemed a reasonable album track, but not as infectious as any of the singles off "Grand Prix". Somewhat surprisingly then the album is pretty strong right through, to such an extent that any one track would appear to be as good a choice for a single as any of the others.
This album continues the trend of "Grand Prix" in pretty much settling for the jangly Big Star/Byrds sounding Fannies without any of the kinks that appeared on "Bandwagonesque" or "Thirteen" so the chances are you will know already whether or not you will like this album. There's no critical progression here, unless you count 'Can't Feel My Soul' sounding like New Order, so it's really a question of whether or not the songs are strong enough. For me the answer is yes, just.
"Grand Prix" is in my book their strongest album, despite one or two tracks being a bit twee for my liking. This is probably on a par with the last album, just more consistent, without the highs or lows. I've always been a bit disappointed that the Fannies have never really cracked it with a hit single, but if the likes of "Sparky's Dream" or "Neil Jung" didn't do it, then perhaps nothing will. For what it's worth my choices for singles would have been "Speed of Light" or "Take The Long Way Round" but the chances are that they wouldn't have done any better than the two released. Perhaps this music is now really too old fashioned for chart success, without the hype say of an Oasis.
To sum up if you liked their previous albums then you'll like this. How many good Scottish bands are there around just now anyway?