Teenage Fanclub – Endless Arcade, review
When news broke that bassist and songwriter Gerry Love would be leaving Teenage Fanclub in 2018, many fans believed this seismic event would signal the end of the legendary Scottish band. Love penned many of the band’s most popular tunes including Sparky’s Dream, Starsign and Ain’t That Enough, so his departure was understandably met with sadness and disappointment.
Although not household names like some of their more egotistical label mates on Creation Records, ‘the Fannies’ hold a very special place in the heart of music lovers brought up on a diet of 90s guitar pop. I’m sure I’m not alone in thinking that at various times over the last thirty years when life wasn’t going to plan, there would always be another Teenage Fanclub record on the horizon to ease the pain. Would there now be a musical void following Love’s quick and unexpected departure?
Three years on and and the answer has now been answered. 2021 is upon us and a brand new Teenage Fanclub album, their tenth in 31 years, has arrived. Endless Arcade features the current line up of founding members Norman Blake, Raymond McGinley and Francis McDonald. Former Belle & Sebastian man Dave McGowan has moved from auxiliary live multi-instrumentalist to full time bass guitarist. Euros Childs, once of Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci and splendid songwriter in his own right, completes the new line up on keyboards and backing vocals.
So to the record. The Norman Blake-penned Home is a lovely way to open proceedings on Endless Arcade, with his trademark gift of melody very much on show. After three and half shimmering minutes, the song gives way to an extended Raymond McGinley guitar solo. It’s glorious to hear McGinley let loose and we haven’t really heard the band ‘wig out’ since Neil Jung on the classic Grand Prix album.
With the loss of Gerry Love’s four songs, McGinley and Blake shine, with their democratic six songs apiece. The overall tone is reflection of a life lived and life still very much for the living. For two songwriters comfortably in their mid-fifties, I would go as far to say that this is one of the band’s strongest collection of songs.
Raymond McGinley’s lyrics excel on the title track, the “don’t be afraid of this life” refrain sounding like a direct message to his band mate Norman Blake. Blake has publicly acknowledged that his own lyrics on the record address the troubles in his personal life around the time of writing and recording Endless Arcade. Whether subconsciously or not, McGinley’s lyrics sound like a conversation with his long time friend. The closest comparison to my ears is the final Go-Betweens album Oceans Apart, which saw the songwriting partnership of Grant McLennan and Robert Forster sounding unified and almost as one.
As you would expect there’s a fair few Norman Blake pop gems. Warm Embrace, I’m More Inclined and Back in the Day. Suspend your current non-gig-going mind for a minute and you can already hear them as perfect additions to throw in to the live set alongside past classics. If Blake can still produce pop magic, Raymond McGinley has also come up trumps with the sublime Come With Me and the relatively stomping In Our Dreams. Assisted by the warm keyboard tones and angelic harmonies, Euros Childs is also an inspired addition to the Fanclub.
The band self-produced the record, initially recording at Clouds Hill studio in Hamburg in 2019, completing the finishing touches at the legendary Rockfield studios in 2020. The album’s release had sadly been delayed for a year, however now seems an absolutely perfect time to put this beautiful record out into the world. Repeated listens only amplify how lucky Blake and McGinley are to have each other and how lucky we are as listeners to still get to enjoy their new tunes.
Review by Gary Page.
Get the album here: https://teenage-fanclub.tmstor.es/
