 Teenage Fanclub Grand Prix
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Q Magazine (12/99, p.84) - Included in Q Magazine's "90 Best Albums Of The 1990s." Q Magazine (2/96, p.63) - Included in Q's 50 Best Albums of 1995. New Musical Express (12/23-30/95, pp.22-23) - Ranked #5 in NME's 'Top 50 Albums Of The Year' for 1995 - "...simple, savoury, soul-tickling tunes and sweet melancholic harmonies. If the Beach Boys had been born in Glasgow they might...have sounded this great." Q Magazine (6/00, p.64) - Ranked #72 in Q's "100 Greatest British Albums" Q Magazine (7/95, p.131) - 4 Stars - Excellent - "...the band have honed a particularly agreeable sound, chimingly melodic guitar rock replete with history but thoroughly modern....saner folk will simply Read More revel in the abundant tunefulness, zest and melancholy of a great band." Alternative Press (8/95, pp.99-100) - "...a lovely record, beautifully textured, gentle, warm, and sad in turns, snatchingly humourous, engagingly derivative...
It's easy to knock this Scottish quartet's love for chiming guitars, dense retro-'60s chord changes and Beach Boysish harmonies. Throughout their last three albums, they've been the fuzzy pranksters of punk-pop, as prone to making musical blunders as they are to making inspired music. But "Grand Prix" signals a huge leap of melodic faith for Teenage Fanclub: They've toned down their sloppier edginess for 13 simply crafted, gorgeous songs of testosterone angst and infatuation. Which is not to say that the band's gone soft -- there's still plenty of six-string buzz and snarl in songs like "Mellow Doubt," "About You" and "Going Places." Granted, old fans might be astonished (and dismayed) by the seeming Paul Westerberg-meets-the-Mamas-and-Papas transformatio
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