Editorial Reviews Music Review:
Music Review
Giacinto Scelsi: 5 String Quartets; String Trio; Khoom
Music: Mission Horizon [Import]
Have You Felt This Way Before [Import]
Game of Life [Explicit Lyrics]
Good News For People Who Love Bad News
Berlioz: Harold in Italy Op16; Mort de Cléopâtre, scène lyrique
Amazon.com
Teenage Fanclub were touted as the next big thing for three minutes after its 1991 major-label debut, Bandwagonesque. That album is still the band's best--a sly, effortless approximation of Big Star, capturing most of that band's charm with only a fraction of the emotional turmoil. Six years and a few music trends later, Teenage Fanclub were still writing and singing sunny, optimistic tunes that sound great blasting from a car stereo. Songs from Northern Britain doesn't match the band at its peak, but "Ain't That Enough" is the best Byrds knockoff released in years, and "Start Again" sounds chipper enough to make you believe no romance is too doomed to be saved. The band's three equal songwriters--Norman Blake, Raymond McGinley, and Gerry Love--are all incurable romantics. When written on paper, a lyric like "can't feel my soul without you" is easy to make fun of, but when their voices melt together with obvious feel-good sincerity, only a cynic could complain. --Keith Moerer