Pema Vinyl & CDs

Review: Three decades deep and still going strong, Teenage Fanclub return with their eleventh studio album Nothing Lasts Forever. It's the sound of a band with a mighty grasp on warm, melodic indie rock having helped define the approach back at their inception in the 90s. The Scottish outfit are leading the album with 'Foreign Land', a single which bursts with all the soaring brilliance we've come to expect as breezy acoustic strum and fuzzed-up electric leads spiral around each other underneath Norman Blake's unmistakable vocals. That's but a primer for an album full of the nuance and reflection, not to mention ear-snagging hooks, that Teenage Fanclub have made their name on.

Review: The latest short form offering from Scottish alternative indie rockers Teenage Fan Club will do nothing to dissuade fans the Glaswegians remain at the cutting edge of their sound. After a four year hiatus, they've returned to hit us with catchy, upbeat, sweet and jangly aural sugar that masks the rather melancholic lyrical content. 'Home' bounds along with summer seemingly pouring from every guitar chord, while Bellshill's finest sing of dejection, frustration and longing.

Then we are told 'Everything's Falling Apart' through harmonious vocal delivery on the B-side: an understatement of epic proportions given the current global situation, it's indicative of the band's well-established modus. Packing suggestion and inference beneath easily-accessible instrumentation is a sure fire way to make as many people as possible stop for a long, hard think.

Review: Following the departure of co-founder Gerard Love in 2019, many Teenage Fanclub fans feared for the future of the long-serving Scottish band. They needn't have worried. Endless Arcade, their first album since 2018, feels like a gloriously baggy, jangly and positive return to form, with the rejigging line-up confidently striding through hooky, ear-catching indie-pop songs laden with a combination of atmospheric acoustic guitars, jangling, Johnny Marr style electric guitar riffs, subtle references to the Stone Roses and the kind of glassy-eyed group harmony vocals that were once at the heart of late 1960s dream-pop records. A confident, accessible set of future sing-alongs that fans old and new should adore.