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The 'Fannies, to give them their innuendo-laden nickname, are an alternative rock music establishment. Formed from the ashes of "seminal but actually a bit poo" Scottish jangle bands The Boy Hairdressers and BMX Bandits (names representative of a time when it was normal to have long and stupid titles for band names - Echo and The Bunnymen, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Everything But The Girl, etc) in 1989, the core of Teenage Fanclub was formed around the songwriting trio of Norman Blake (he of varying facial hair, but almost always with specs), Gerard Love (he of wistful voice) and Raymond McGinley (he who seems a bit quiet but is surely a top fella). Their first album, A Catholic Education, is a good debut, and is worth it's weight in gold purely for the masterpiece in guitar harmony that is 'Everything Flows' - even if the production is something of a misnomer! The next album, The King, was released seemingly to get the group out of their current contract and onto Creation, that one-time-or-another home of such other Scottish bands as Primal Scream, The Jesus and Mary Chain, The Pastels and The Jasmine Minks. Their arrival was heralded with the release of 'Star Sign', the first single off Bandwagonesque. 'Star Sign' is a perfect intro to the album's style - vocal harmonies, razor-sharp guitars underladen with softer acoustics, and non-plussed lyrics - "seen it all before/maybe in time things will change", "there's a horseshoe over my door/big deal" - and so on. More interesting is the video for the single, which seems to try and paint the lads as a more toned-down version of the aforementioned Mary Chain, which is a bit out, in the authors opinion - whereas the Mary Chain were usually looking towards the Velvet Underground and the Ramones for their inspiration, the 'Fannies took their lead from such bands as the Flaming Groovies, Big Star, The Byrds and similar folky types, but added their own punk element from their days in previous shambling surroundings. Bandwagonesque kicks off with another single 'The Concept' - which is basically a story about a girl from the town who likes to go out and live life to the max - Blake tells the tale as if it's one of regret, but there's a tone of "hey, it was fun whilst it lasted". Much of the album is in the same tone - girls, and getting it on with them. Most listeners to the album would probably say that the weakest track is 'What You Do To Me', which is basically the line "what you do to me/I know, I can't believe, there's something about you/got me down on my knees", which the author thinks is actually a quite witty testament to a bloke not being able to express his true feelings about a woman - but perhaps that's reading too much into it. Best track on the album, in the author's opinion, is 'Pet Rock', which is the essence of the album in less than two minutes - a line about the opposite sex, a few guitar licks, and a general feeling of laidback cool - themes, as I've already mentioned, that seem to filter through the album. Tracks such as 'December' and 'Alcoholiday' are less reliant on guitars and more about what love can do to you - sometimes, you really don't know what's going on, and you've got to go with the flow. The album ends with 'Local Hero' a-like 'Is This Music?', a great instrumental and a good bookmark to the album, it's all lively and fun, as if it's saying "yeah, the music is a bit melancholic, but we're not all sad, and hey, we're an optimistic sort". Which is pretty much true - if you read interviews or see them on the TV or hear them on the radio, the lads are seemingly an amiable bunch, always ready with a joke and a smile. Bandwagonesque isn't groundbreaking, or a big-selling album of the people, it doesn't make you question things, and it doesn't have you jumping about the place in time with the record. It is just a very good, very pleasant, and very well made record. There are times when you don't want Verve-style existentialism, or Gang Of Four-style proletising - you just want to listen to a good record without thinking about moral questions and stuff - and I can't think of one better than this. So go out there and seek this lovely little record!!! Amir Arezoo, May 2004 Heard this, want more? Try: Teenage Fanclub - 'Songs From Northern Britain' Teenage Fanclub - 'Four Thousand Seven Hundred and Sixty-Six Seconds' (Compilation)
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