Teenage Fanclub, Shadows
No giant leaps forward, but some satisfying sideways steps
Every generation has its musical comfort food, and for anyone who cherished 1991's Bandwagonesque as Britain's finest grunge album and 1994's Grand Prix as an underrated Britpop tour de force, Teenage Fanclub fit the bill. At the risk of smothering them with faint praise, there is something cozy and reassuring about the Scottish quartet. Whatever may change in the world outside, Teenage Fanclub will be there with their sun-dappled power-pop, sounding a bit like Big Star. When they sing "The Rolling Stones wrote a song for me/ It's a minor song in a major key" on "When I Still Have Thee," they might be self-effacingly describing their own oeuvre.
On their ninth album, they still seem able to pluck tender, yearning melodies out of the air — "Shock and Awe" is a particularly lush example — but, as on their last few albums, the most rewarding songs come when they stray from the template. "Sometimes I Don't Need to Believe in Anything", with its rushing blur of a chorus, recalls classic Boo Radleys. "The Back of My Mind" takes off midway through with a long, winding, Wilco-esque guitar solo. "Dark Clouds," a duet with former Gorky's Zygotic Mynci frontman Euros Childs, shelves the guitars in favor of an exquisite lattice of piano and strings. No giant leaps forward, but some satisfying sideways steps, and an abundance of delicacy and warmth. The chorus of "Shock and Awe" strikes to the heart of their enduring, unflashy appeal: "Wake me when the conflict's over/I aim for a peaceful life."
