The new album from Teenage Fanclub, Endless Arcade, out on Merge Records on Friday, is lovely enough on its own but some context for the release might add to a listener's enjoyment. This is, of course, their first record since 2016's exemplary Here, also on Merge Records. And that one was the last Fannies release to feature Gerard Love, before he split, making his main project now Lightships. Regrouping without him, TFC have a new member now in Euros Childs, late of the seminal Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, and also partner with Norman Blake in the fine Jonny effort. The presence of Childs here is sometimes not entirely noticeable, I'm afraid, but Endless Arcade is still an elegantly simple record, and one which is growing on me the more I play it.
And while a listen to Endless Arcade might prompt a fan to wonder how different the record would have sounded with contributions from Love, the reality is that the thing almost sounds like he was here all along. There's a simple precision to this record's best numbers that recalls Love's contributions to old Fannies releases, and suggests a band that's pursuing a streamlined vision of indie like Lightships did. "The Sun Won't Shine On Me" and "Back in the Day", for example, are languid numbers, ones which ride stretched out hooks towards a graceful form of indie-pop. Elsewhere, "In Our Dreams" is faintly in thrall to Neil Young, while the epic opener, "Home", reveals debts owed to Tom Verlaine, Richard Lloyd, and the rest of Television. That one indulges in a restless exploration of riffs that's something not heard on recent Fannies product, though it's somewhat like older classics from the era of "The Concept", for instance.
Endless Arcade suceeds on the laid-back back of the best numbers here, like "The Sun Won't Shine On Me", an instant TFC classic, even as the entire album captivates almost in spite of itself. "Warm Embrace" and the title cut, for example, are not as entirely catchy as similar Fanclub numbers in the recent past, but they largely work, and don't hold up the progression of the whole record. Produced by the band, Endless Arcade is largely engaging, and a worthy successor to Here, a release which felt sunnier. That said, maybe the Teenage Fanclub of 2021 should be one which sounds a bit more subdued and subtly morose. The output of Norman Blake and co. has always been like that, the continuing product of a noble attempt to combine the Byrds-ian hooks of the past with a contemporary DIY furtiveness.
[Photo: Donald Milne]