Teenage Fanclub - Man-Made

Genre rock Publisher Merge Records External Links Official Site Merge Records

After making 15 years of recordings, you would think it would be time to spread your musical wings. On Man-Made, Teenage Fanclub have no interest in exploring their usual musical landscape and intend to stay the course. If you like that kind of consistency, then you will find no problem with this album. After a decade and a half of revising the same low profile pop rock, it's a safe purchase. Just another take on the same tired genre.

It seems the only markedly different thing on this album is that it was recorded in Chicago, and judging from the promo sheet, they are excited about that. What's to be excited about? I'm not sure, as far as I know about the recording process they have the same instruments, same people, and same method to record the album as they did back in there hometown of Glasgow, Scotland. It's like if I decided to sleep a night in Iowa and thought of it as a revolutionary thing. Sure it'd be different scenery, but I'd still have a bed and be able to wiggle in seven hours of sweet dreams in between the night terrors.

Judging Man-Made on its own merits and not the similarities to its predecessors, Teenage Fanclub bring forth a strong collection of understated pop rock with an indie edge that isn't as popular today as it was in 1994. The sweet vocal melodies of Norman Blake, Gerard Love, and Raymond McGinley about lost love make for great, if uninspired, Saturday moping around the house music.

One of the stronger tracks, "Only With You" tackles the usual missing or leaving love of your life, but has great instrumentation and a haunting piano chorus that you will get lost in. "Fallen Leaves" could have been ripped right out of the Badfinger canon and it's sickening how non-threatening this song is. "Born Under a Good Sign" is a Nuggets inspired jangle track with the best guitar work on the CD, an interesting solo and the only real spot on the whole disc where they let loose.

Man-Made is the sound of a band running out of ideas, where they should be at the point of their careers to musically grow. Maybe they already tried that and figured this was the only genre they can excel in, and kudos to them for staying together and working on the craft they enjoy so much. But maybe it's time to try other pursuits than updating the same sound every two or three years. On its own merits Man-Made is solid, but in retrospect it just sounds like a tired band going through the motions.