Album: Songs From Northern Britain
Year: 1997
. . .
In 1997, I was still wishing that Teenage Fanclub would somehow revert to the fuzz and grit than lived under the pretty songs on Bandwagonesque, and therefore definitely underrated Songs From Northern Britain, which ignored my wishes and kept the songs clean and tight. And so if I sniffed it at at the time, 25 years later, it sounds pretty great, and even back then I knew that the opening track, Norman Blake’s “Start Again” was an all-time great Teenage Fanclub song.
“Start Again” starts with Blake’s electric guitar in one speaker, followed instantly by Raymond Mc Ginley’s in the other, buttressed by an organ, which might or might not have been played by Finlay McDonald. None of that matters as much as the harmonies: Gerald Love joining Blake in an instantly-reassuring manner on the opening verse.
I don’t know if you can hear me
I’m feeling down and can’t think clearly
Even though it’s complicated
We’ve got time to start again
I don’t know if you can hear me
Actually, Love sings on every single word, making “Start Again” reminiscent of an old Byrds song, which as you know, is always a good thing with this kid. Also good is how they come in just a skosh too soon on the second “I don’t know if you can hear me” in each verse.
After the third verse — there really isn’t a chorus on “Start Again,” — Blake takes a quick solo, finishes off the last three lines of a verse, and turns the soloing over to McGinley, who makes it to the end; another stellar start to a Teenage Fanclub album.
Songs For Northern Britain was the first Teenage Fanclub album that basically sounded like the previous album — 1995’s Grand Prix, for those of you keeping track at home — and in a lot of ways, signaled that they’d found the lane they would take for most of the rest of their career, ceding the loud fuzzy guitars to their U.S. cousins, The Posies. That said, in the U.K., Songs From Northern Britain was their biggest album, making all the way to #3, during the very peak of Brit-pop, and it also gave them their only top 20 U.K. single, “Ain’t That Enough,” which made it to #17.
“Start Again”
“Start Again” Live on ABC Australia, 1997
“Start Again” live in London, 2000
Did you miss a Certain Song? Follow me on Twitter: @barefootjim
The Certain Songs Database
A filterable, searchable & sortable somewhat up to date database with links to every “Certain Song” post I’ve ever written.
Certain Songs Spotify playlist
(It’s recommended that you listen to this on Spotify as their embed only has 200 songs.)
Support “Certain Songs” with a donation on Patreon
Go to my Patreon page