TEENAGE FANCLUB :- SUNDAY TRIBUNE REVIEW, 1997.

Teenage Fanclub     ‘Songs From Northern Britain’       [Creation Records]   *****

Teenage Fanclub should be far bigger than they actually are although, head over heart, this is as big as it’s going to get. D’ya know what I mean ? This is their fifth album and it’s certainly as good, if not better, than their last, ‘Grand Prix’ – a record so rich with pop’s key dynamics that it should have been patented and sold onwards to people like Mundy. Because when it gets to melodies, harmonies and choruses, Teenage Fanclub really have no peers.

Now granted this record wears its influences far too blatantly on its jeans [Byrds, Alex Chilton, Beach Boys] but then this band are most comfortable in such company. And who, really, can argue with songs like ‘Ain’t That Enough’, particularly when The Prodigy can hold the pop chart to ransom on the back of nothing more than bad hair and too much lip ?

So, a tune-heavy bag then that should, all things being equal, go very big. But then pop things rarely, if ever, go to plan. A work of genius, nonetheless.