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Teenage FanclubMan-Made PeMa/Shock When Australian rock deviants Jet went on their first major tour of the United States, they took fellow Melbournians The Anyones with them. Now, even in this country few people have ever heard of The Anyones and probably don't know about their two amazing albums or their decade of existence. But Jet - well, Jet grew up on The Anyones and were only really repaying a favour by taking them on a trip around American auditoriums. After all, The Anyones are ten times the band Jet will ever be. In the same way, Scottish indie-popsters Teenage Fanclub are practically anonymous even amongst music lovers in this country; even if you've heard of them, you probably can't name more than two of their songs. But amongst musicians they are practically gods, and records like 1991's 'Bandwagonesque' or 1995's 'Grand Prix' are considered classics of the genre. And even now, when they're well past their prime, a new Teenage Fanclub record will excite many people around this fine brown land. The good news is that, whilst it doesn't quite contain classics like The Concept or Mellow Doubt, 'Man Made' is quite a good album. The band does sound quite a bit more mature (and quite a bit less like heroes Big Star), and the pop shines through at times in a little more of an adult-contemporary way. But Cells is a fine Norman Blake song (coming from the same place as Mellow Doubt, mind), and Gerard Love's ironically-titled Born Under A Good Sign is damn near brilliant. Yes, this is a record by a band who were exciting, but alas, are now less so; however, this is closer to the Hoodoo Gurus' 'Mach Schau' than REM's 'Around The Sun'. Try it out and you might just be rewarded.  |
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