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Teenage Fanclub 'Man Made'

added 19 December 2005 at 14.46

Teenage Fanclub were always the band most likely to. Despite the patronage of high profile fans such as Kurt Cobain and their innate ability to balance ridiculously infectious pop melodies with a deep-rooted love of classic rock, their heavenly pocket symphonies sadly failed to seep into the mainstream consciousness.

And yet, unlike so many of their contemporaries and one-time Creation labelmates, Teenage Fanclub have survived the ever-changing musical landscape by resolutely refusing to play the pop game to concentrate on concocting their beautiful musical confection to the benefit of those who have lent an ear.

Free of their contract with Sony, Teenage Fanclub find themselves in the enviable position of releasing their first album in five years on their own PeMa label and though, fundamentally, little has changed chez Fannies, 'Man Made' is still a significant step forward from their previous release, the somewhat pedestrian Howdy!

Recorded in Chicago with Tortoise’s John McIntyre, Teenage Fanclub have added a harder edge to their instinctive melodicism. Their stock-in-trade lush harmonies and chiming guitars are all still present and correct as they ring with a comforting familiarity but beneath it all there’s a perceptible leftfield shift.

The immediate 'It’s All In My Mind' is propelled by an insistent motorik beat as it justifiably takes its place among some of the Fannies’ greatest moments and the rollicking 'Born Under A Good Sign' displays a hitherto undiscovered experimental, serrated edge to Raymond McGinley’s lead guitar. 'Feel' and 'Slow Fade' reveal the Fannies on their usual stomping ground as they rub shoulders with Big Star and The Byrds but it’s the off-kilter moments that linger. The mournful lament of 'Cells' – a meditation on terminal illness – is hauntingly beautiful and the piano-led 'Only With You' is underpinned by a squelching quirkiness that refuses to unbalance the stirring three-part harmonies. 

'Man Made' is an album that reveals a band moving happily and gracefully into the next stage of their lives as much as their career. With songwriting and vocal duties split equally between Norman Blake, Gerry Love and Raymond McGinley, Teenage Fanclub’s subject matters of love, security, doubt and optimism blend as seamlessly as their honey-drenched harmonies. With 'Man Made' Teenage Fanclub do nothing to dispel the notion that every home should own an album by this treasured outfit.
 

Teenage Fanclub 'Man Made' (Pema) Released May 9 2005.

Tagged as Teenage Fanclub, archive

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