You can’t keep a good band down, so they say. Having recently seen The Wedding Present at The Ritz in Manchester I agree – it’s almost like you can travel backwards in time to see some great bands resurrected into the present day. They’ve lost the floppy hairdos but they still sound strong.
Teenage Fan club are not just gigging though… oh no they have actually gone and recorded an album. I know what you’re thinking but this is actually good. Anyways they are touring as well and I’m sure they’ll be churning out the old favorites amongst the newer material. The latest single is Tired of Being Alone. It’s a thoughtful ditty and is given an extra dimension with a video shot by Donald Milne at Vibberodden Lighthouse near Egersund, Norway.
Commenting on the track Raymond McGinley says:
“Towards the end of our session in Rockfield Studios making the album I woke up in the middle of the night. There was a guitar next to the bed. I picked it up and this song came out. The words for the chorus were there already. I recorded a rough version on my phone and then went back to sleep. We recorded the song later that day. As a band we like to trust our instincts and let things happen. As with Norman’s song ‘Foreign Land’ this song only exists because we decided to go to the studio and make a record. If we’d waited for the stars to align first before recording we’d still be waiting now.”
The first sound you hear on ‘Nothing Lasts Forever’ is a sustained feedback note that hangs in the air with the grace of a dragonfly before an acoustic riff spirals out of it, soaring upwards. It’s blissful and sun-soaked, like a late summer haze blurring out all the details on the horizon. When voices join the music, they arrive perfectly locked together, honed in on a single melody. “It’s time to move along / and leave the past behind me…” The message is simple. Don’t look back, only forward.
One of the recurring themes on ‘Nothing Lasts Forever’ is light, as both a metaphor for hope and as an ultimate destination further down the road. Although the band’s songwriters Norman Blake and Raymond McGinley found themselves touching on similar themes, it was pure coincidence.
Raymond: “We never talk about what we’re going to do before we start making a record. We don’t plan much other than the nuts and bolts of where we’re going to record and when. That thing about light was completely accidental; we didn’t realise that until we’d finished half the songs. The record feels reflective, and I think the more we do this thing, the more we become comfortable with going to that place of melancholy, feeling and expressing those feelings.”
Looking for positives while faced with the grim realities of the 21st century, Teenage Fanclub’s latest album finds their ability to effortlessly turn melancholy into glorious, chiming harmony very much intact. A force for good for over three decades and counting, they will release their new album ‘Nothing Lasts Forever’, via their own PeMA label on 22 September 2023.
With a stretch of UK dates swiftly following the release of ‘Nothing Lasts Forever’, catch Teenage Fanclub at these venues as follows:
TEENAGE FANCLUB UK TOUR 2023
03 November – Belfast – Queen’s University – Mandela Hall
05 November – Glasgow – Tramway Theatre
06 November – Aberdeen – Tivoli Theatre
07 November – Edinburgh – Assembly Rooms
08 November – Leeds – Brudenell
09 November – Gateshead – Sage Hall 2
11 November – Manchester – RNCM Theatre
12 November – Sheffield – Leadmill
13 November – Bath – Komedia
14 November – Birmingham – Town Hall
17 November – London – EartH
18 November – London – EartH
