Product Description

Teenage Fanclub is one of the best unoriginal bands in pop music. Borrowing heavily (some would say plagiarising) from the Byrds and Big Star, these Scots make beautifully simple--often formulaic--pop textured with lush harmonies and layered, chime-y guitars. Only the most curmudgeonly sort could resist pop this sweet.
The Fannies' sweeping, infectious melodies rouse the adolescent rock & roll romantic in us all,evincing visions of summer vacations, cruising with the windows down, and the giddiness that accompanies first love. THIRTEEN is a collection of perfect, shining pop songs, and such tunes as "Hang On" and "Radio" are sublime examples of their kind. One of the group's finest and most cohesive offerings, this disc is further proof of Teenage Fanclub's enduring and irresistible charms.

Track Listing

1. Hang On
2. Cabbage
3. Radio
4. Norman 3
5. Song To The Cynic
6. 120 Mins
7. Escher
8. Commercial Alternative
9. Fear Of Flying
10. Tears Are Cool
11. Ret Liv Dead
12. Get Funky
13. Gene Clark

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #31415 in Music
• Released on: 2001-01-15
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
Whether Thirteen amounts to a subconscious or deliberate rejection of the possibility of major success remains one for the armchair psychologists: certainly, the feeling at the time was that all Teenage Fanclub needed to do to make America roll over like a tickled puppy was bash out another spangly glam album along the lines of Bandwagonesque. Instead, to the undoubted mortification of their record company, accountants and heirs, they came up with the dark and baleful Thirteen, an album which was much criticised for not being what it patently isn't--ie Bandwagonesque II--and which sold like iced lollies on a cold day, but which, on its own merits, might even be Teenage Fanclub's best album.

The beginnings do not calculate to please: a rumble of distorted guitars that sounds like someone trying to start a misfiring truck, but from which emerges the outrageously pretty, flute-laden ballad "Hang On". From there, Thirteen is one great song after another. Though the melodies are made to fight through a slough of angry guitar noise, they're as good as any Teenage Fanclub have written--which, naturally, means they're as good as any. "Radio" is an exuberant jangle that would have sounded well at home on Bandwagonesque. "The Cabbage" is a superior Byrds pastiche that includes the eloquently embittered phrase "Are we together?/I guess we're not/Asked you for nothing/That's what I got"--a rare example of a genuinely venomous Teenage Fanclub love song. In the wholly admirable Teenage Fanclub canon, Thirteen is the misfit, the gatecrasher, but nonetheless worth owning for that. --Andrew Mueller

Customer Reviews

The comedown album, style but not enough punch
"Do you know when I was young, I'd paint my face, for the latest taste? Baby, justify the reason behind your style, find a phase that fits and stay there for a while". That segment of the single Radio says it all - this was Teenage Fanclub deliberately avoiding releasing an album similar to the much-loved Bandwagonesque, and attacking the music journos who had hyped them as the next big thing. Its thus ironic that Radio is the most catchy, and probably best, track on show.

Although it starts promisingly, with Hang On's strings and sensitivity, The Cabbage's scathing lyrics yet jaunty tune, and Radio, things quickly go a little more awry. Norman 3 is a pretty big offender - the repeated lyric gets very dull at the end, making for a peculiar choice of single, and its no surprise that it faield to trouble the charts. Plenty of the others just go on too long and fail to quite strike the right emotional chords.

All the same, a few tracks do. 120 Minutes and especially Fear Of Flying are slow-burners with impeccable style and poise, with a lovely "Hey hey hey" added to the outro of the latter.

stupendously underatted
Going by what reviews I had read of the fanclub, this appeared to be their weakest effort and so I bought it with caution lastly. I can see no faults in it whatsoever.
Here are a list of the songs
Hang on - Great heavy/quiet song beautiful melody (Love)
The Cabbage - Ridiculously catchy rocker (Blake)
Radio - Fast rocker-reminiscent of starsign (Love)
Norman 3 - Beautiful song, great guitars, one of the best moments on the album (Blake)
Song to the cynics - Lovely guitar work, cute lyrics (Love)
100 mins - One of the best songs on the album, haunting melody (McGinley)
Escher - amazingly good tune, wonderful guitars (Blake)
Commercial alternative - Fine tune fine lyrics (Blake)
Fear of flying - Yet another standout, slowburner and hauting tune (Love)
Tears are cool - Another beautiful Raymond melody and truly touching lyrics. Perhaps the prettiest song on the album (McGinley)
Ret Liv Dead - Soaring melody, lovely compact audaciously superb classic fanclub (Blake)
Get Funky - Funky little instrumental (Fanclub)
Gene Clark - Fantastic mind blowing gorgeous ending to a wonderful album (Love)

Teenage Fanclub at their worst! But wait, it's still good.
I already had Grand Prix & Songs From Northern Britain, two 5 star albums. So when I bought Thirteen I was looking forward to another great album.

I listened to it once, then stuck the CD back in it's case and onto my shelf where it gathered dust for a while. This album sounded really poor, like anything had just been stuck together. Then one day I decided to give it another listen, I was hooked!

Thirteen is still TFC, perhaps the guitars are just louder than normal here and there, it does sound a bit rushed and the production of the album isn't quite as good as usual. But despite not sounding as polished as other TFC albums, this album still has a certain charm and appeal.

"Norman 3" is my fave off the album, "120 Mins" is sweet enough for any other TFC album and among others, "Radio" and the excellent "Song To The Cynic" are also top tunes. This album is probably Teenage Fanclub musically at their worst but it still gets 4/5. That just shows the quality of (who must be) the most forgotten band of recent times. TFC fans will know what I'm talking about.

If you haven't got any TFC album, then buy Grand Prix, S.F.N.B. or Bandwagonesque first. Then consider this one.