It's definitely their peak. Every single songwriter in the band was on fire. Still love all their other albums but this one edges it. Great review, cheers🍀👍
It is so achingly beautiful it's actually painful at times. McGinley, Love and Blake were and are just astonishing songwriters and musicians. At the time mojo rated it one of the best of 95 and better than Bandwagonesque and you can see why. It is like you say, perfection.
For me, "Don't look back" is one of my top ten songs of forever. Beatles, Byrds, Neil Young and Beach Boys, all at once. That fuckin' lyric "I'd steal a car to drive you home", absolutely gorgeous.
I have always loved this album. Sublime songs superbly performed. For me A Hard Days Night is the best Beatles album because of its pure pop gems. Grand Prix reminds me of that album. A perfect pop song collection.
Likewise, I have loved the tunes on Grand Prix since it came out when I was 25. I was single, it was the start of summer, and I was ready to travel the world. To me the feelgood nature of the album chimed with my mood. Positive, happy, beautiful. My only regret is 26 years later TFC feel clichéd and their current songs sound contrived. Northern Britain is also a fabulous set of tracks but I don't think I will ever feel as much connection to any album as I did to Grand Prix. Perfect, joyous songwriting.
I've found some of the newer stuff more hit and miss, although there's still a lot I enjoy. I haven't heard the new album yet, but really liked 'Everything Is Falling Apart' from a couple years ago: ruclips.net/video/AffiHHlAbWQ/видео.html
One of my favorite albums of the nineties and also probably the most underrated album of the nineties. Definitely the most underrated band of all time.
I'm with you I never understood why bandwagonesque was so critically lauded. I find it doesnt move me. But the following album and then this one are life changing...my daughter and I used to go for short trips to coffee shops with Sparky's Dream on the car stereo....great memories
I got to experience most of these songs being played on three consecutive nights in small Glasgow venues, right around the time of the album's release. The Pastels supported the first night, 18-Wheeler on the second and the final night was a Friday at King Tuts with the BMX Bandits. As for Neil Jung, I believe that it addresses the same general situation that Serious Drugs was written about around the same time by the BMX Bandits.
Love Teenage Fanclub and you're right this is probably THE best Teenage Fanclub album. For me this was the album that really cemented them as one of my all time favourite bands. But they have so many great albums. Really liked your video. I hope you keep making them regularly. You'll soon get some more followers. I just hope the copyright people don't give too much of a hard time. The bands you have chosen thus far haven't hugely been hugely commercial so hopefully you will stay under the radar. Looking forward to your next video. I'll be interested who you choose next.
Thanks Harry, I really appreciate that! I'm trying to stick to the 'fair use' policy and keeping the music/footage as brief as possible whilst commenting on it. Early days for the channel (this is the fourth one so far) but I'm hoping to explore lots more underrated albums over the next year. Hope you enjoy them!
As someone else mentioned - Velvet Crush and their Mitch Easter produced 'Teenage Symphonies to God' is a Power pop/Country Rock masterpiece. Defo worth a check out. Buffalo Tom and their 'Sleepy Eyed' LP is another underrated stunner.
The Velvet Crush album you mentioned is top notch power pop and Buffalo Tom's tune "Tangerine" made it to my top 20 all time power pop playlist. I have some Wildhearts, Reds Kross, Material Issue, etc on it plus quite a few great local/regional bands from western Pennsylvania artists like the Clarks, Wine & Spirit, and Inside Out. My favorite power pop album all time is "Magnetic" from Wakeland. Unfortunately, not much from this album can be found easily. There is a live video from a battle-of-the-bands type show from tv on YT that is fantastic. If you like Velvet Crush, you'd love this album.
Great review! I agree, Grand Prix is definitely the best TFC power pop album. Not sure I agree it's the best power pop album ever made, although it's def up there. I would also consider Velvet Crush, Waxwings, Greenberry Woods, Material Issue, and others. My personal fave TFC album is Songs From Northern Britain which includes the classics Aint That Enough, Speed of Light, and Take the Long Way Around.
Thanks Toby, much appreciated! SFNB is a huge favourite of mine too - it's very difficult for me to call it between that one and Grand Prix as to what my favourite TF album is. I think GP edges it ever so slightly for me in terms of production. Good shout on those other recommendations too, thanks for sharing them!
well done, as a connoisseur of power pop as well as all alt rock over the last 42 years I agree it is the best TF album (won't debate it against Big Star); you should do a vid on The frank and walters (beauty becomes more than life!!!!!) ; and the first Catchers album....
Thank you! Every time I talk power pop with people, I go hard recommending this one, and the Fannies in general (if the other person is unfamiliar). Although I love all eras of power pop, I was in my late teens and 20s in the 90s, so that's my favorite decade of the genre, and this is a big favorite, certainly my favorite TFC disc. Great, now I have to put it on!
Really enjoyed your video, well thought out and presented. For what it's worth I completely agree with you about Grand Prix, it's a much more cohesive collection than Bandwagonesque, it has better songs and performances. It's my favourite Fannies album and given their continuingly excellent output, that's saying something. Just pure pop perfection. Cheers
Thanks so much David, I really appreciate that and I'm glad you enjoyed the video! Yeah, they've got such an array of great songs, but Grand Prix is definitely my favourite collection of them 😃
No problem, I fully agree. My number one favourite song, among so many on this album, is Going Places, very emotional song. So new subscriber here, the Auteurs maybe?
You know what, despite having read Luke Haines' book 'Bad Vibes', I've not got round to delving much into The Auteurs' albums (although I love 'Lenny Valentino'). I'll investigate further!
Hello, I remember those years when I discovered Teenage, it was with Grand Prix and Songs from Northern Britain. As a fan of The Beach Boys and an intentional musician, I was looking for a band with positive songs and great harmonies. They taught me to refine my style as a guitarist and bassist. It is in many points the perfect band and I stay aside .... I could say a lot, I would like you to talk about "Lowgold", actually I love that band very much .... Greetings from Argentina
I don't know much about Lowgold, but I remember seeing them support Coldplay on that band's first big tour in 2000. Not heard their name in years, but I do own their 'Just Backward Of Square' album!
@@2020Sound Hello, the second album is more solid. "Welcome to Winners". They have only three albums, plus a double one that contains many unreleased songs, my favorite "Silver Ocean". I saw them once when I was living in Barcelona in 2004. They share with Teenage or Coldplay in their first 3 albums, the love for "songs". They just disappeared. Regards!
I think Going places was the finest song on the Album. As an aside, I was watching them live at Reading '92 in what was a mudbath. One of TF told the crowd they were staying at the local Marriott hotel and invited everyone back for drinks :)
The next album Songs From Northern Britain was on the same level. Ain't That Enough, I Don't Want Control and Your Love Is The Place I Come From show all 3 still at the peak of their powers.
I fully agree. I assume most people’s number one TF albums is Bandwagonesque, but I think that album, while still great, is a tad overrated; I don’t think it’s THAT great. There’s some elements of that album that miss the mark for me, especially the interlude song Satan, which is basically a short grindcore song, and I don’t like it at all. It feels totally out of place and I think it’s completely pointless and dumb. Grand Prix by contrast just gets right down to business from the start, goes fully on the band’s amazing pop stylings, and just straight kick ass and give you a straight rush of serotonin. The cherry on top tho is that Grand Prix is not only my favorite Teenage Fanclub album, but also the favorite album of the band themselves! Love it!
‘Neil Young’ was a working title until they had to release it, couldn’t get a better title, and tweaked it to avoid copyright infringement on Youngs name.
I was for so long a TFC agnostic. I felt there was something almost apologetic about their music. A shrugged, "Here we go" Dunkirk-spirit band, confusing awkwardness with sincerity. In short - a band who sacked their drummer for being too interesting. Everything Flows is a piece of utter mercurial nebulous beauty. The rest? Pfft. I don't care what she thinks of Status Quo. I still don't. When I actually got off my high-horse and actually listed to parts of Grand Prix I did change my mind. Verisimilitude was my entry point. I think it's 75% a great album and that should be good enough for anyone. As for Power Pop - do Blondie count as that genre? If so, sorry, it's Parallel Lines.
Ha, yeah, it's the opposite for me - I preferred it when the shackle got less ram 😄. Although the earlier albums still have a charm and I enjoy them too.
Despite owning most of TFC's 90s albums back in the day, I only really listened to Thirteen for the first time last year! Always avoided it because I remember reading at the time that the band themselves didn't think it was any good... but it's great! Particularly love 'Radio'. I think the quote from the band after it got some weak reviews was something like "it turns out, if you tell people you think your record's crap they'll actually believe you." 😄
It is a wonderful album. Going Places is my favourite, but hard to find fault with any track. I suggest Matthew Sweet's album Girlfriend as a contender.
He's someone I've only discovered relatively recently (don't recall him getting coverage in the British music press in the 90s - my main source of discovery at the time) but loved everything I've heard.
@@2020Sound He came to me through playing on a Lloyd Cole record. He played bass on that, but is a good guitarist. There are some great tracks on Girlfriend. While I have your attention, how about doing something on the Lemonheads ? Enjoyed your approach and delighted to see you're a fan of The House of Love. Tragically, chatting to Guy Chadwick in a London pub just might be the highlight of my life.
Ha, chatting to Guy would be fun! That Lloyd Cole link's so weird - someone asked me to do a video on him the other day (he's not an artist that gets mentioned that much, is he?). I do like the Lemonheads, although never delved much beyond 'It's A Shame About Ray' - any recommendations?
@@2020Sound I would suggest Come on Feel the Lemonheads. Inconsistent, but some wonderful tunes. Lloyd is my favourite. He plays guitar on Girlfriend, as does the great Robert Quine.
I agree that it is one of the best album ever. I do find it more bittersweet (and soothing) than joyful ! But I have to add that the record cover is awful (nearly as bad as bandwagonesque). Anyway thank you for your review, looking forward for more !
Thanks for watching, Stéphane! Ha, for some reason, even though I know a lot of people dislike their sleeve artwork, they've never bothered me that much. Some of them are certainly bad, but almost in an iconic way I think (Bandwagonesque especially. It's dreadful, but one of the first record sleeves I think of from that era). I'll tell you who I think had worse album sleeves: The Charlatans. (Who I've just done a video on as well - check out the channel if you're interested 😉)
I respectfully disagree. I think this album is top class, but don't think it's *the* best power pop album. I think the second half is definitely not as strong as the first, in particular I'll Make It Clear and I Gotta Know feel a bit lacklustre in comparison to the rest of the album. I like Neil Jung, but I think it shares quite a lot of similarities with Alcoholiday, which I believe to be a much better song. The album has quite a few soft, mid-tempo songs, Versimilitude, Say No, Going Places, I think these songs are great but I do feel like the pacing of the album is dragged down a little by the lack of raucous/noisy pop the band had previously established themselves on. Not particularly original, but I do think Bandwagonesque is their best. As for the best power pop album, I don't think one rules supreme, but Copper Blue is definitely my favourite.
Thanks for the comment, cgiaretta! As it turns out, I've done a video on 'Copper Blue' too which you may like/agree with (or, at the very least, enjoy disagreeing with 😄). Thanks for watching!
Don't get me wrong, it's a fine album. But the best power pop album of all time? Maybe for some. Not for me. You didn't make your case to me. Big Star's No.1 record isn't the best of all time either, but many of the songs on there are far more timeless than the ones on Grand Prix. It leaves out Power Pop's greatest attribute - it's not about the album, it's about the songs. With that in mind, the Cars, the Odds, the Raspberries have far more anthemic tunes, even if they don't qualify as 'obscure'.
I’ve got all their albums and when I play them I can’t remember what it is I’ve listened to, it’s all a bit bland. The song that really ticks my box is The Concept and even that goes into a meaningless dirge ruining the main song.
I agree with it all except for last song and I have to admit that I hate verisimilitude. That's a bit strong maybe but on such a great album that takes me back to 1990's summers every time, it just doesn't sit with or come up to the standard of the rest of the album.
Thanks for the comment Ed! So you're a fan of 'Hardcore/Ballad'? I don't hate it or anything, my brain just refuses to find it memorable (I'm literally trying to recall the melody right now...... but it's not happening). 'Verisimilitude' i wasn't wild about at first, but it's grown on me a lot over the years and given me a great word to drop in conversations to make me sound massively pretentious 😄
Teenage Fanclub ripped off Big Star too much for me to consider them truly great. I like them, I really do, but it just feels like they try (and fail) too hard to be Chilton and Bell.
It's a great record (I prefer Songs from NB). Anyway, Power pop? Teenage Fanclub is not power pop. Please. Power pop are rocker bands that do not understand The Beatles/Byrds legacy and sound, power pop is noisy, terrible music, Teenage Fanclub is pop, indie pop. Sorry for my english.
Thanks for the comment! Overall, yeah, i wouldn't call the band a power pop group. They're just great songwriters and genre terms like power pop are always reductive, so I wouldn't bracket the band as a whole in that category. But... I would definitely argue that 'Grand Prix' itself ticks all the boxes for being a power pop album in that Big Star kind of lineage (as opposed to like the Cheap Trick branch of that genre). At least it does to my ears 🙂. I love SFNB too by the way: it's a close call between that and GP as to which is my favourite!
I won't address whether _Grand Prix_ is the greatest power pop album because I don't think "What is the greatest power pop album?" is a question that can even be answered. There are too many very, very good albums. But as for the best Fannies album, it's either _Bandwagonesque_ , _Grand Prix_ , or _Songs From Northern Britain_ , and the choice is going to be determined by one's stylistic preference. People who prefer a heavier sound are going to pick _Bandwagonesque_ over _Grand Prix_ . And that's the real problem with "best" rankings -- it's impossible to disentangle one's biases.
It's definitely their peak. Every single songwriter in the band was on fire. Still love all their other albums but this one edges it. Great review, cheers🍀👍
Thanks Martin! Much appreciated 🙂
It is so achingly beautiful it's actually painful at times. McGinley, Love and Blake were and are just astonishing songwriters and musicians. At the time mojo rated it one of the best of 95 and better than Bandwagonesque and you can see why. It is like you say, perfection.
Love Mojo - great magazine, introduced me to a lot of stuff over the years.
For me, "Don't look back" is one of my top ten songs of forever. Beatles, Byrds, Neil Young and Beach Boys, all at once. That fuckin' lyric "I'd steal a car to drive you home", absolutely gorgeous.
Incredible song, isn't it? Kinda surprised it wasn't a single (although I could say that about a lot of songs on that album 😄)
I have always loved this album. Sublime songs superbly performed. For me A Hard Days Night is the best Beatles album because of its pure pop gems. Grand Prix reminds me of that album. A perfect pop song collection.
Absolutely - a pop masterclass 🙂
Likewise, I have loved the tunes on Grand Prix since it came out when I was 25. I was single, it was the start of summer, and I was ready to travel the world. To me the feelgood nature of the album chimed with my mood. Positive, happy, beautiful. My only regret is 26 years later TFC feel clichéd and their current songs sound contrived. Northern Britain is also a fabulous set of tracks but I don't think I will ever feel as much connection to any album as I did to Grand Prix. Perfect, joyous songwriting.
I've found some of the newer stuff more hit and miss, although there's still a lot I enjoy. I haven't heard the new album yet, but really liked 'Everything Is Falling Apart' from a couple years ago: ruclips.net/video/AffiHHlAbWQ/видео.html
Great well done album! More “power pop” please. How about The Posies, Jellyfish, and Matthew Sweet?
One of my favorite albums of the nineties and also probably the most underrated album of the nineties. Definitely the most underrated band of all time.
I'm with you I never understood why bandwagonesque was so critically lauded. I find it doesnt move me. But the following album and then this one are life changing...my daughter and I used to go for short trips to coffee shops with Sparky's Dream on the car stereo....great memories
I got to experience most of these songs being played on three consecutive nights in small Glasgow venues, right around the time of the album's release. The Pastels supported the first night, 18-Wheeler on the second and the final night was a Friday at King Tuts with the BMX Bandits. As for Neil Jung, I believe that it addresses the same general situation that Serious Drugs was written about around the same time by the BMX Bandits.
Fantastic summation of (IMHO) the best album for a long time - love your Beatles & Beach Boys comparisons - just bloody amazing! 🙂
Love Teenage Fanclub and you're right this is probably THE best Teenage Fanclub album. For me this was the album that really cemented them as one of my all time favourite bands. But they have so many great albums.
Really liked your video. I hope you keep making them regularly. You'll soon get some more followers. I just hope the copyright people don't give too much of a hard time.
The bands you have chosen thus far haven't hugely been hugely commercial so hopefully you will stay under the radar.
Looking forward to your next video. I'll be interested who you choose next.
Thanks Harry, I really appreciate that! I'm trying to stick to the 'fair use' policy and keeping the music/footage as brief as possible whilst commenting on it. Early days for the channel (this is the fourth one so far) but I'm hoping to explore lots more underrated albums over the next year. Hope you enjoy them!
Nearly every single word you say is completely right. Thank you so much for sharing my personal believe.
No problem 😄 - thanks for watching!
As someone else mentioned - Velvet Crush and their Mitch Easter produced 'Teenage Symphonies to God' is a Power pop/Country Rock masterpiece. Defo worth a check out. Buffalo Tom and their 'Sleepy Eyed' LP is another underrated stunner.
The Velvet Crush album you mentioned is top notch power pop and Buffalo Tom's tune "Tangerine" made it to my top 20 all time power pop playlist. I have some Wildhearts, Reds Kross, Material Issue, etc on it plus quite a few great local/regional bands from western Pennsylvania artists like the Clarks, Wine & Spirit, and Inside Out.
My favorite power pop album all time is "Magnetic" from Wakeland. Unfortunately, not much from this album can be found easily. There is a live video from a battle-of-the-bands type show from tv on YT that is fantastic. If you like Velvet Crush, you'd love this album.
Great review! I agree, Grand Prix is definitely the best TFC power pop album. Not sure I agree it's the best power pop album ever made, although it's def up there. I would also consider Velvet Crush, Waxwings, Greenberry Woods, Material Issue, and others. My personal fave TFC album is Songs From Northern Britain which includes the classics Aint That Enough, Speed of Light, and Take the Long Way Around.
Thanks Toby, much appreciated! SFNB is a huge favourite of mine too - it's very difficult for me to call it between that one and Grand Prix as to what my favourite TF album is. I think GP edges it ever so slightly for me in terms of production. Good shout on those other recommendations too, thanks for sharing them!
well done, as a connoisseur of power pop as well as all alt rock over the last 42 years I agree it is the best TF album (won't debate it against Big Star); you should do a vid on The frank and walters (beauty becomes more than life!!!!!) ; and the first Catchers album....
This is a close tie with Songs from Northern Britain.
Thank you! Every time I talk power pop with people, I go hard recommending this one, and the Fannies in general (if the other person is unfamiliar). Although I love all eras of power pop, I was in my late teens and 20s in the 90s, so that's my favorite decade of the genre, and this is a big favorite, certainly my favorite TFC disc. Great, now I have to put it on!
Really enjoyed your video, well thought out and presented.
For what it's worth I completely agree with you about Grand Prix, it's a much more cohesive collection than Bandwagonesque, it has better songs and performances.
It's my favourite Fannies album and given their continuingly excellent output, that's saying something.
Just pure pop perfection.
Cheers
Thanks so much David, I really appreciate that and I'm glad you enjoyed the video! Yeah, they've got such an array of great songs, but Grand Prix is definitely my favourite collection of them 😃
No problem, I fully agree. My number one favourite song, among so many on this album, is Going Places, very emotional song. So new subscriber here, the Auteurs maybe?
You know what, despite having read Luke Haines' book 'Bad Vibes', I've not got round to delving much into The Auteurs' albums (although I love 'Lenny Valentino'). I'll investigate further!
@@2020Sound looking forward to that.
The bright-full-bodied sound of the album and its general consistence is as you say. But The Concept... Uff
This was the peak of their powers, amazing album!
Hello, I remember those years when I discovered Teenage, it was with Grand Prix and Songs from Northern Britain. As a fan of The Beach Boys and an intentional musician, I was looking for a band with positive songs and great harmonies. They taught me to refine my style as a guitarist and bassist. It is in many points the perfect band and I stay aside .... I could say a lot, I would like you to talk about "Lowgold", actually I love that band very much .... Greetings from Argentina
I don't know much about Lowgold, but I remember seeing them support Coldplay on that band's first big tour in 2000. Not heard their name in years, but I do own their 'Just Backward Of Square' album!
@@2020Sound Hello, the second album is more solid. "Welcome to Winners". They have only three albums, plus a double one that contains many unreleased songs, my favorite "Silver Ocean". I saw them once when I was living in Barcelona in 2004. They share with Teenage or Coldplay in their first 3 albums, the love for "songs". They just disappeared. Regards!
Great review and video!
I think Going places was the finest song on the Album. As an aside, I was watching them live at Reading '92 in what was a mudbath. One of TF told the crowd they were staying at the local Marriott hotel and invited everyone back for drinks :)
This is my favourite album and my favourite songs are Neil Jung and Going Places
I love hearing about these albums, that .00001% of us Americans know about.
you shouldn't exclude hardcore / ballad, it's right beautiful
The next album Songs From Northern Britain was on the same level. Ain't That Enough, I Don't Want Control and Your Love Is The Place I Come From show all 3 still at the peak of their powers.
I mispronounced Neil Jung at first too! Till I realized the Carl Jung/Neil Young mashup.
I fully agree. I assume most people’s number one TF albums is Bandwagonesque, but I think that album, while still great, is a tad overrated; I don’t think it’s THAT great. There’s some elements of that album that miss the mark for me, especially the interlude song Satan, which is basically a short grindcore song, and I don’t like it at all. It feels totally out of place and I think it’s completely pointless and dumb. Grand Prix by contrast just gets right down to business from the start, goes fully on the band’s amazing pop stylings, and just straight kick ass and give you a straight rush of serotonin.
The cherry on top tho is that Grand Prix is not only my favorite Teenage Fanclub album, but also the favorite album of the band themselves! Love it!
Amazing review !
Thanks Leandro!
‘Neil Young’ was a working title until they had to release it, couldn’t get a better title, and tweaked it to avoid copyright infringement on Youngs name.
I almost Agree.. i have a cassete tape.. in the mid 90's
I was for so long a TFC agnostic. I felt there was something almost apologetic about their music. A shrugged, "Here we go" Dunkirk-spirit band, confusing awkwardness with sincerity. In short - a band who sacked their drummer for being too interesting. Everything Flows is a piece of utter mercurial nebulous beauty. The rest? Pfft. I don't care what she thinks of Status Quo. I still don't.
When I actually got off my high-horse and actually listed to parts of Grand Prix I did change my mind. Verisimilitude was my entry point. I think it's 75% a great album and that should be good enough for anyone. As for Power Pop - do Blondie count as that genre? If so, sorry, it's Parallel Lines.
This album was the point that Teenage Fanclub started to lose me a little, I missed their somewhat ramshackle, distorted indie that came before.
Ha, yeah, it's the opposite for me - I preferred it when the shackle got less ram 😄. Although the earlier albums still have a charm and I enjoy them too.
@@2020Sound haha... Thirteen was peak TF for me, I love Starsign, The Cabbage, Radio etc. :)
Despite owning most of TFC's 90s albums back in the day, I only really listened to Thirteen for the first time last year! Always avoided it because I remember reading at the time that the band themselves didn't think it was any good... but it's great! Particularly love 'Radio'.
I think the quote from the band after it got some weak reviews was something like "it turns out, if you tell people you think your record's crap they'll actually believe you." 😄
@@2020Sound Thirteen is definitely underrated. ;)
Love this!
It is a wonderful album. Going Places is my favourite, but hard to find fault with any track. I suggest Matthew Sweet's album Girlfriend as a contender.
He's someone I've only discovered relatively recently (don't recall him getting coverage in the British music press in the 90s - my main source of discovery at the time) but loved everything I've heard.
@@2020Sound He came to me through playing on a Lloyd Cole record. He played bass on that, but is a good guitarist. There are some great tracks on Girlfriend. While I have your attention, how about doing something on the Lemonheads ? Enjoyed your approach and delighted to see you're a fan of The House of Love. Tragically, chatting to Guy Chadwick in a London pub just might be the highlight of my life.
Ha, chatting to Guy would be fun! That Lloyd Cole link's so weird - someone asked me to do a video on him the other day (he's not an artist that gets mentioned that much, is he?). I do like the Lemonheads, although never delved much beyond 'It's A Shame About Ray' - any recommendations?
@@2020Sound I would suggest Come on Feel the Lemonheads. Inconsistent, but some wonderful tunes. Lloyd is my favourite. He plays guitar on Girlfriend, as does the great Robert Quine.
Perfect record 🙌🏻
you are correct
ALBUM THE BEST? ITS PERFECTION !!!
I agree that it is one of the best album ever. I do find it more bittersweet (and soothing) than joyful !
But I have to add that the record cover is awful (nearly as bad as bandwagonesque). Anyway thank you for your review, looking forward for more !
Thanks for watching, Stéphane! Ha, for some reason, even though I know a lot of people dislike their sleeve artwork, they've never bothered me that much. Some of them are certainly bad, but almost in an iconic way I think (Bandwagonesque especially. It's dreadful, but one of the first record sleeves I think of from that era).
I'll tell you who I think had worse album sleeves: The Charlatans. (Who I've just done a video on as well - check out the channel if you're interested 😉)
I respectfully disagree. I think this album is top class, but don't think it's *the* best power pop album. I think the second half is definitely not as strong as the first, in particular I'll Make It Clear and I Gotta Know feel a bit lacklustre in comparison to the rest of the album. I like Neil Jung, but I think it shares quite a lot of similarities with Alcoholiday, which I believe to be a much better song. The album has quite a few soft, mid-tempo songs, Versimilitude, Say No, Going Places, I think these songs are great but I do feel like the pacing of the album is dragged down a little by the lack of raucous/noisy pop the band had previously established themselves on. Not particularly original, but I do think Bandwagonesque is their best. As for the best power pop album, I don't think one rules supreme, but Copper Blue is definitely my favourite.
Thanks for the comment, cgiaretta! As it turns out, I've done a video on 'Copper Blue' too which you may like/agree with (or, at the very least, enjoy disagreeing with 😄). Thanks for watching!
Have you heard of badfinger mate?
Yep - 'Baby Blue' always makes me think of the finale of Breaking Bad 😄
@@2020Sound fair enough, but you have every right to choose your favourite album of a band or genre, 👍
Don't get me wrong, it's a fine album. But the best power pop album of all time? Maybe for some. Not for me.
You didn't make your case to me. Big Star's No.1 record isn't the best of all time either, but many of the songs on there are far more timeless than the ones on Grand Prix. It leaves out Power Pop's greatest attribute - it's not about the album, it's about the songs. With that in mind, the Cars, the Odds, the Raspberries have far more anthemic tunes, even if they don't qualify as 'obscure'.
Marshall Crenshaw
I’ve got all their albums and when I play them I can’t remember what it is I’ve listened to, it’s all a bit bland. The song that really ticks my box is The Concept and even that goes into a meaningless dirge ruining the main song.
I agree with it all except for last song and I have to admit that I hate verisimilitude. That's a bit strong maybe but on such a great album that takes me back to 1990's summers every time, it just doesn't sit with or come up to the standard of the rest of the album.
Thanks for the comment Ed! So you're a fan of 'Hardcore/Ballad'? I don't hate it or anything, my brain just refuses to find it memorable (I'm literally trying to recall the melody right now...... but it's not happening).
'Verisimilitude' i wasn't wild about at first, but it's grown on me a lot over the years and given me a great word to drop in conversations to make me sound massively pretentious 😄
It's good, but Big Star's Radio City is better.
no. u are not talking balderdash. it is a great album. however, i prefer Songs from Northern Britian. kudos.
Discolite. Video over.
Teenage Fanclub ripped off Big Star too much for me to consider them truly great. I like them, I really do, but it just feels like they try (and fail) too hard to be Chilton and Bell.
It's a great record (I prefer Songs from NB). Anyway, Power pop? Teenage Fanclub is not power pop. Please. Power pop are rocker bands that do not understand The Beatles/Byrds legacy and sound, power pop is noisy, terrible music, Teenage Fanclub is pop, indie pop. Sorry for my english.
Thanks for the comment! Overall, yeah, i wouldn't call the band a power pop group. They're just great songwriters and genre terms like power pop are always reductive, so I wouldn't bracket the band as a whole in that category.
But... I would definitely argue that 'Grand Prix' itself ticks all the boxes for being a power pop album in that Big Star kind of lineage (as opposed to like the Cheap Trick branch of that genre). At least it does to my ears 🙂.
I love SFNB too by the way: it's a close call between that and GP as to which is my favourite!
What an ignorant comment.
I won't address whether _Grand Prix_ is the greatest power pop album because I don't think "What is the greatest power pop album?" is a question that can even be answered. There are too many very, very good albums. But as for the best Fannies album, it's either _Bandwagonesque_ , _Grand Prix_ , or _Songs From Northern Britain_ , and the choice is going to be determined by one's stylistic preference. People who prefer a heavier sound are going to pick _Bandwagonesque_ over _Grand Prix_ . And that's the real problem with "best" rankings -- it's impossible to disentangle one's biases.