Shadows is the ninth studio album by Scottish alternative rock band Teenage Fanclub, released on 31 May 2010 on the band's own PeMa label in Europe and on Merge Records in North America. It is the band's first new album release in five years. The album contains twelve songs: four written by Gerard Love, four by Norman Blake, and four by Raymond McGinley. Blake's "Baby Lee" was released as a single.
| Shadows | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 31 May 2010 | |||
| Recorded | August 2008–January 2009[1][2] | |||
| Studio |
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| Genre | Alternative rock | |||
| Length | 47:54 | |||
| Label | PeMa (Europe) Merge (North America) | |||
| Teenage Fanclub chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Shadows | ||||
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The liner notes credit David McGowan as a member, and he has been a constant tour fixture since 2004,[5] playing keyboards, additional guitars and the slide guitar.
Recording
editThe five-year gap between Shadows and the band's previous album Man-Made was not completely intentional, according to guitarist Raymond McGinley: "We decided to take some time before we recorded anything to just do other stuff for a time, individually, and that ended up being a lot longer than we initially planned." He added, "We didn't take very long to record the actual album, it was all pretty much done back in 2008, but we did take our time mixing it and then had another break after it just to let it mature for a while before we dealt with all the stuff that goes along with releasing an album."[6]
Critical reception
edit| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [7] |
| Consequence of Sound | [8] |
| Drowned in Sound | (8/10)[9] |
| The Guardian | [10] |
| Paste | 7/10[11] |
| Pitchfork | 7.4/10[12] |
| SPIN Magazine |  [13] |
| The A.V. Club | A−[14] |
Shadows received favorable reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from critics, the album received an average score of 81, which indicates "universal acclaim", based on 18 reviews.[15] Matt Collar of AllMusic found the "sparkling and reflective" album a worthy follow-up to Man-Made, and concluded by writing "If the day [described in "Today Never Ends"] is as sun-drenched and relaxed as the songs on Shadows implies, then may it and Teenage Fanclub go on and on."[7] Noel Murray of The A.V. Club wrote "This is a work of rare craft, from a band now inclined to leave behind something timelessly beautiful."[14]
Track listing
edit| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Sometimes I Don't Need to Believe in Anything" | Gerard Love | 4:34 |
| 2. | "Baby Lee" | Norman Blake, Jo Mango, Ziggy Campbell (lyrics) / Blake (music) | 4:26 |
| 3. | "The Fall" | Raymond McGinley | 5:28 |
| 4. | "Into the City" | Love | 4:30 |
| 5. | "Dark Clouds" | Blake | 2:43 |
| 6. | "The Past" | McGinley | 3:33 |
| 7. | "Shock and Awe" | Love | 3:43 |
| 8. | "When I Still Have Thee" | Blake | 3:30 |
| 9. | "Live with the Seasons" | McGinley | 3:26 |
| 10. | "Sweet Days Waiting" | Love | 3:38 |
| 11. | "The Back of My Mind" | Blake | 4:02 |
| 12. | "Today Never Ends" | McGinley | 4:30 |
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 13. | "Secret Heart" (B-side to "Baby Lee") | Love | 4:15 |
| 14. | "Dark and Lonely" | Blake | 4:38 |
Personnel
editCredits for Shadows are adapted from AllMusic[17] and the album liner notes.[3]
- Teenage Fanclub
- Norman Blake – guitar, vocals
- Gerard Love – bass, vocals
- Francis Macdonald – drums
- Raymond McGinley – guitar, vocals
- David McGowan – keyboards, guitar
- Additional musicians
- Euros Childs – backing vocals (2, 8), piano (5)
- Tom Crossley – flute (1)
- John McCusker – strings
- Technical
References
edit- ^ McKay, Alastair (28 May 2010). "Teenage Fanclub – Shadows". Uncut. Retrieved 12 May 2022.
- ^ Clements, Chris (3 June 2010). "Teenage Fanclub look ahead after release of latest album, Shadows". Daily Record. Retrieved 12 May 2022.
- ^ a b Shadows (Media notes). Teenage Fanclub. PeMa. 2010.
{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link) - ^ Fullerton, Jamie (23 March 2010). "Teenage Fanclub announce new album release date and tracklisting". NME. Retrieved 12 May 2022.
- ^ Redfern, Mark (15 March 2021). "Teenage Fanclub Share New Song "The Sun Won't Shine On Me"". Under the Radar. Retrieved 12 May 2022.
- ^ "Ray McGinley (Teenage Fanclub) interview (2010)". Digging a Hole. 28 June 2010. Retrieved 12 May 2022.
- ^ a b Collar, Matt. "Review: Shadows". Allmusic. Retrieved 10 June 2010.
- ^ "Consequence of Sound review".
- ^ "Drowned in Sound review". Archived from the original on 6 June 2010. Retrieved 9 June 2010.
- ^ Hann, Michael (27 May 2010). "The Guardian review". The Guardian. Retrieved 12 May 2022.
- ^ Davis, Reid (8 June 2010). "Paste review". Paste. Retrieved 12 May 2022.
- ^ "Pitchfork review". Pitchfork.
- ^ "SPIN Magazine review".
- ^ a b "A.V. Club review". The A.V. Club. 8 June 2010.
- ^ "Critic Reviews for Shadows - Metacritic". Metafilter. Retrieved 30 June 2013.
- ^ 12.06.10 10:27 am. "The 40 Best Albums of 2010 | TEENAGE FANCLUB". SPIN.com. Retrieved 7 January 2012.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ "Shadows - Teenage Fanclub : Credits". Allmusic. Retrieved 30 June 2013.