It’s hard to think of many bands with three songwriters that remained intact for as long as Glasgow’s premeninate power pop band Teenage Fanclub. But with their 11th official album Endless Arcade, the band has said farewell to longtime bassist and songwriter Gerard Love officially closing the book on one of the great songwriting partnerships in all of indie rock.
An integral force to the band, Love wrote some of the Fannies most well known songs and beloved singalongs like “Sparky’s Dream,” “Star Sign” and “Ain’t the Enough.” It was a sizable departure that led longtime fans of the band in doubt of the future of the beloved group.
Left to regroup with the help of new official band members Euros Childs from Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci on keys and touring member Dave Mcgowan on bass, songwriters Norman Blake and Raymond McGinley delivered one of the band’s most affecting and poignant releases to date.
Over the years, the band’s plan of attack has softened quite a bit, tracing back to the release of their sun-soaked 1997 classic Songs From Northern Britain. That album set the template for the Teenage Fanclub that we know today, as they traded in some of the crunch of some of their earlier Creation Records releases for more relaxed drumming and shimmering guitars.
At their worst, the records that followed could feel a bit too chilled out for those missing the soaring hooks of Badwagonesque and Grand Prix. But at their best, they gave just the right amount of room to highlight the pop mastery going on below the waves of distortion.
This is where Endless Arcade sets itself apart from recent albums in the band’s discography. With this album they have been able to strike a balance between Velvet Underground and The Byrds’ style of relaxed tempos with hooks that drill down deep.
Written before the pandemic, the songs take on the subjects of mortality in a more serious manner than they have in the past. Afterall, Blake and McGinley are nearing their mid fifties and the world seems to be more cruel than ever.
Songs like the McGinley’s cautiously optimistic title track (“Don’t be afraid of this endless arcade”, he warns) and Blake’s “The Sun Won’t Shine On Me” both cut through to the conflicting emotions around aging and losing the ones you love to time with an economic grace, using only the right amount of words to break your heart into pieces. The album’s true standout is the Blake-penned “I’m More Inclined.” A true through and through power-pop masterclass that he could only write, he delivers one of the best choruses he has ever put to tape.
But perhaps the real secret weapon on the album is the absolute shredfest going on between Blake and McGinley on the majority of these tracks. On the album’s seven-minute opener “Home” the song turns from a simple mid-tempo strummer into a dual lead workout from the two that feels both playful and thrilling at the same time.
After it’s final chorus, the song lets McGinley ride out the song’s remaining four-minutes ripping to his heart’s delight. Moments like this and the Thin Lizzy-esque harmonized leads on “The Sun Won’t Shine on Me” make for some of the band’s most fist-pump inducing moments on record in some time.
With Endless Arcade, Blake and McGinley have made a record that both honors the legacy of the band while proving that they are able to transcend their hardships with some of their best material since their unbeatable ’90s run. As if we ever doubted them.
Essential tracks: “Home,” “Endless Arcade,” “I’m More Inclined” and “The Sun Won’t Shine On Me”
Prerequisites: Not a fan yet? Go and listen to all of their records!