Here (Teenage Fanclub album) explained

Here
Type:studio
Artist:Teenage Fanclub
Cover:Teenage Fanclub - Here.jpeg
Recorded:2013–2015[1]
Genre:Alternative rock
Label:PeMa (Europe)
Merge (North America)
Producer:Teenage Fanclub
Prev Title:Shadows
Prev Year:2010
Next Title:Endless Arcade
Next Year:2021

Here is the tenth studio album by Scottish alternative rock band Teenage Fanclub, released on 9 September 2016 on the band's own PeMa label in Europe and on Merge Records in North America. It was the band's final album to feature bassist and co-founder Gerard Love, who left the band in November 2018.

Recording

Teenage Fanclub began recording Here in 2013 at Vega Studio in Provence in southeastern France. The studio was primarily chosen for its vintage EMI desk, which is said to have been used for recording two Rolling Stones albums.[2] "We always like to go somewhere that's not Glasgow because I think your environment affects what you're doing while you're working," guitarist Norman Blake said in 2016. "If you go to an exotic location like the south of France, hopefully you feel a little more inspired."[3] The band spent three weeks at the studio, completing most of the backing tracks during their stay.[2] The band then went their separate ways for a few months, ruminating on what they had recorded so far.[3] All vocals were then recorded at guitarist Raymond McGinley's home studio in Glasgow in two weeks spread over a couple of months, with the band's three songwriters taking turns putting down their lead and harmony vocals. "Because we write our lyrics while doing this," Blake said, "it's inevitable that we end up writing about similar things as you can't help but pick up on what the others are writing about."[2]

The band worked on the album for three years intermittently between other projects,[1] with Blake even recording some additional harmony vocals in a hotel room in Halifax, Nova Scotia in Canada[2] when he was performing solo at the Halifax Urban Folk Festival.[4] "I emailed those to Raymond and he dropped them into the song the same day," Blake said.[2] Mixing of the album took three weeks in late 2015 at Clouds Hill Recordings in Hamburg, Germany.[3] It was mastered at Abbey Road Studios in London, England. "Three years, four studios and four countries," as Blake put it.[2]

Critical reception

Here 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 79, which indicates "generally favourable reviews", based on 21 reviews.

The album made the twenty-strong longlist for the Scottish album of the Year Award 2017 but did not make it to the ten-strong shortlist.[5]

Personnel

Credits for Here are adapted from AllMusic[6] and the album's liner notes.[7]

Teenage Fanclub

Additional musicians

Technical

Notes and References

  1. Book: Pace, Neil . 2016 . Writing about music: Submissions from the front line of local music journalism . https://books.google.com/books?id=CPfTDQAAQBAJ&dq=teenage+fanclub+here+three+years&pg=PT116 . Neil Pace . Teenage Fanclub Here album review. B0189RJ4LQ. 12 May 2022.
  2. Web site: Teenage Fanclub on the making of new album Here . . 9 September 2016 . 12 May 2022 . Blake . Norman.
  3. Web site: Teenage Fanclub returns with new album Here . . 30 November 2016 . 12 May 2022 . Davidson. Chris.
  4. Web site: The Halifax Urban Folk Festival Presents! Chuck Prophet & The Halifax All Stars + Neil Osborne (54-40), Norman Blake (Teenage Fanclub) & Ron Hawkins (Lowest of the Low) . . 2015 . 12 May 2022 .
  5. Web site: Home . sayaward.com.
  6. Web site: Shadows - Teenage Fanclub : Credits. Allmusic. 1 December 2016.
  7. Here . CD liner notes. Teenage Fanclub. PeMa . 2016.