Impressive follow-up to Nothing Lasts Forever, recorded in the Scottish Outer Hebrides.
Recording sessions for the 13th Teenage Fanclub album took place on the remote Scottish Outer Hebrides island of Great Bernera at the Black Bay Studios. The studio boasts many interesting instruments the band used during the recordings, particularly the Domas Church Organ and the many in-situ synthesisers. The result is a clear extension of the band’s 2023 release Nothing Lasts Forever, preserving the beautiful vocal harmonies, laid-back, guitar-led sound, and an overall feeling of calm despite the collection’s almost pessimistic title. The band’s main players, Norman Blake and Raymond McGinley, took the title from Blake’s song I Do Not Dare To Dream, mocking online influencers who pedal the “dare to dream” ethos.
There Was You opens proceedings with a guitar-led song about being lost and looking for a way back. Tomorrow People is an interesting experiment, almost like Teenage Fanclub trying their hand at progressive rock. The tune has two distinct parts: you are lulled into thinking the song has faded out, only for it to return stronger and louder, with weird, wonderful, multi-layered sounds in the background. The track gives way to the folk-inspired and exquisitely beautiful Over And Over. The chiming guitar remains throughout, along with the vocal harmonies. The aforementioned Domus Church Organ adds to the tune’s overall feel.
Be With You Tonight is an evocative story song which benefits from a haunting guitar in the background. The piece has an almost mystical feel. McGinley explains how that recording in such a remote area seeped into the work, commenting that members of the band took walks each morning in the vast open space of the island; he explains, “I think all that plays into the feeling on the record, being in this kind of timeless landscape with connections to unknown civilisations from a long, long time ago“.
The standout track is arguably Day In The Sun, as a swirling organ opens the song and continues throughout, duelling with the guitars, neither one winning the battle and in the end existing together perfectly. There is a dazzling guitar solo in the middle section as the song builds to a crescendo, ending with the words “I feel alright when I’m lying with you in the night / Here with you I’ll have my day in the sun“.
Somewhere To Land is a departure from what came before, with a brooding synthesiser opening, and throughout there are four notes played on piano that are almost out of reach, but the effect is gorgeous. “I don’t like what I see in the mirror / So I bury my head in the sand / I’ve been up in the air / Now I’m looking for somewhere to land“; this is lyrically special, and canvasses for rebirth and reinvention at whatever age. The clear message is to lift your head out of the sand and look that mirror in the eye.
The conclusion is the beautiful Young and Wise, another folk-inspired trail which may give you a feeling of the wide open and a view of things to come. If you are expecting songs similar to 1991’s Bandwagonesque, or even the Byrds-like Americana of Songs From Northern Britain, you may be initially disappointed, but the laid-back vibe of this record will seep into your conscience and in a world that sometimes feels hopeless, you can find soothing words and melodies even if you dare not to dream. The band continue to evolve without losing the guitar-led sound, harmony vocals, and lyricism they are renowned for.
