TEENAGE FANCLUB - Do Not Dare To Dream

There's no doubt about it: the inexhaustible songwriting vein of Norman Blake and Raymond McGinley has allowed Teenage Fanclub to sail past the three-decade mark with barely a dip in form and an artistic consistency that still manages to surprise. “Do Not Dare To Dream” follows two albums that were dignified and praiseworthy but not exactly memorable for the Scottish band, “Endless Arcade” and “Nothing Lasts Forever”, and marks a change of pace, defined by more introspective lyrics and a folk-pop vein with pastoral, deceptively simple tones, where the gripping jangle-pop riffs give way to soul and psychedelic touches as delicate as they are precious.

To record their thirteenth album, the five musicians retreated to the island of Great Bernera, rediscovering the chemistry that has defined the finest pages of their now considerable body of work, and facing together even the minor setbacks that cropped up during the final recording sessions (off-season colds and ailments). The result is a project that's as intense and inspired as it is complex and direct at the same time: an album destined to become required listening for fans of the band.
Despite the usual bright colours of the cover art, the Scots' new record is a succession of chiaroscuros, where shadows and light echo with 70s tones that line up Byrds, CSN&Y, Badfinger and even Moody Blues, Clifford T. Ward and Cat Stevens (the latter audible in tracks like “Be With You Tonight” and the harmonious “A Day In The Sun”). The comparisons just mentioned are purely qualitative: Teenage Fanclub take hold of their career again with a record that forgoes routine for an emotional coming out that reaches the listener unfiltered.

The flowing folk-pop melodic line of “There Was You” – quite different from the guitar scratch of “Foreign Land”, which opened the penultimate album – and the empathetic psych-folk ballad “Take Time”, flute in tow, leave no room for doubt: the Scots are facing middle age with ease and renewed creative drive. Between elegant chamber-folk touches (“Over And Over”), intense soul-psychedelic vibrations (“Somewhere To Land”) and melodies as understated as they are gripping (the title track), Teenage Fanclub pick up the thread of that small romantic gem from 1997, “Songs From Northern Britain”.

Naturally, fans of the more upbeat Big Star/Byrds spirit will find plenty to sink their teeth into with the rollicking “Tomorrow People”, and incurable romantics will find comfort in the fine vocal harmonies and light keyboard touches of “The Same Air”; everyone, however, will be granted a melody to treasure before finally accepting, without further hesitation, the surrender of a band that has soundtracked the dreams of a generation. A band that watches helplessly as illusions and hopes crumble, without screaming out in pain, but instead seeking further comfort in small things, like a set of ten songs as comforting as they are compelling.

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10/10/2026