User Pick of the Day #115: Bandwagonesque [noWaxJim] - Music

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Bandwagonesque by Teenage Fanclub

Chart: Top 100 Greatest Music Albums by noWaxJim
Rank on User's Chart: 10
Year: 1991
Rank on BEA Overall: 1,034
Average Rating: 77/100
Summary Info: The third studio album by Scottish power pop band, Teenage Fan Club. This album famously beat out Nevermind for Spin Magazine's album of the year in 1991.

noWaxJim wrote:

PICK - The Concept; FIRST HEARD: 6th Form. Glam rock meets Alex Chilton in Northern Britain, wears denim and sounds like the backdrop to many a foppish 90s disco. Of which I rarely attended, bearing in mind everyone was listening to Nirvana at the time. Great cover too.

Details on the implementation and chart selection process of "User Pick of the Day" can be found here and here, respectively. A chart documenting the previous picks can be found here.

Romanelli

Bone Swah

Gender: Male

Location: Broomfield, Colorado

Moderator

Maybe the most blatant attempt by any band (Teenage Fanclub) to unashamedly sound exactly like another band (Big Star) ever recorded. Norman Blake has no shame about his love for Alex Chilton & Chris Bell...he even called another Teenage Fanclub album (the one right after this one) Thirteen. I like this album a lot, but it's also probably the most derivative rock album you will ever hear in your life. Just feel that shouldn't be overlooked when talking about this one.
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RepoMan

Romanelli wrote:

Maybe the most blatant attempt by any band (Teenage Fanclub) to unashamedly sound exactly like another band (Big Star) ever recorded. Norman Blake has no shame about his love for Alex Chilton & Chris Bell...he even called another Teenage Fanclub album (the one right after this one) Thirteen. I like this album a lot, but it's also probably the most derivative rock album you will ever hear in your life. Just feel that shouldn't be overlooked when talking about this one.

Wow! I didn't realize that Big Star's guitars and drums were so heavily influenced by My Bloody Valentine. ( Razz

)

But seriously, Bandwagonesque is an incredible update of Big Star's glorious power pop sound found on #1 Record and Radio City. And I would certainly suggest binging (repeatedly) on all three of Big Star's masterpieces before suggesting diving into Teenage Fanclub's wonderful canon. Because knowing some power pop history only gives you more respect for what Teenage Fanclub accomplished over their remarkable career of nine glorious, immaculate power pop gems.

Jimmy Dread

Old skool like Happy Shopper

Location: 555 Dub Street

Moderator

Romanelli wrote:

I like this album a lot, but it's also probably the most derivative rock album you will ever hear in your life. Just feel that shouldn't be overlooked when talking about this one.

Does that really matter in these days where a fair old chunk of rock is rehashed from the music of old? People who've never heard Bandwagonesque (or of Chilton and co, for that matter) may read your statement above and go 'oh, it's derivative, sounds like Big Star, maybe I should leave it alone and head straight for Radio City'. And that would be a huge shame, as you as a fellow fan of this LP would doubtlessly agree (edit - looks like RepoMan's come up with a justification for going with Big Star first whilst I was constructing this. Fair do's to him - either way, don't be blinkered by thinking The Fannies are to Big Star what The Explorers Club are to the Beach Boys, i.e. total rip-off merchants).

Bandwagonesque will always hold a special place in my heart, a place which was cemented the first time I ever saw the video for What You Do To Me on the Chart Show c.1991. The Fannies had everything - trendy label (don't forget Creation also put Loveless out the same year this was released), Caledonian cool, a lurid LP cover that Kiss sued them for, a (very) well-meaning nod to their influences, and above all 3 song writers who could all pen perfect pop songs. Add into the mix Is This Music?, which should be adopted by an independent Scotland as their National Anthem depending how the vote goes later this year (and is one of the most evocative and emotional instrumentals I've ever heard), and you've got an absolute masterpiece of an album.

Not only that, but you'd be hard-pushed to find a better opening rhyming couplet than "she wears denim wherever she goes/said she's gonna get some records by the Status Quo". Smile

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Last edited by Jimmy Dread on 07/19/2014 20:40; edited 4 times in total

Romanelli

Bone Swah

Gender: Male

Location: Broomfield, Colorado

Moderator

RepoMan wrote:

Wow! I didn't realize that Big Star's guitars and drums were so heavily influenced by My Bloody Valentine. ( Razz

)

But seriously, Bandwagonesque is an incredible update of Big Star's glorious power pop sound found on #1 Record and Radio City. And I would certainly suggest binging (repeatedly) on all three of Big Star's masterpieces before suggesting diving into Teenage Fanclub's wonderful canon. Because knowing some power pop history only gives you more respect for what Teenage Fanclub accomplished over their remarkable career of nine glorious, immaculate power pop gems.

Yeah...because MBV did come first.... Laughing

Teenage Fanclub is good...but I wouldn't give them THAT much credit.
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Of her mystery
And crashing through the walls
Of dying history

NickVolos

Segnahc Reve4

Gender: Male

Location: Land of the Argonauts, Centaurs and other such creatures

Recently discovered this gem along with Grand Prix & Songs From Northern Britain. Yeah, heavily - and that's an understatement Smile

- influenced by Big Star nevertheless the music stands on its own as a testament to that great band.

Grand Prix > Bandwagonesque > Songs From Northern Britain

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Romanelli

Bone Swah

Gender: Male

Location: Broomfield, Colorado

Moderator

noWaxJim wrote:

Does that really matter in these days where a fair old chunk of rock is rehashed from the music of old? People who've never heard Bandwagonesque (or of Chilton and co, for that matter) may read your statement above and go 'oh, it's derivative, sounds like Big Star, maybe I should leave it alone and head straight for Radio City'. And that would be a huge shame, as you as a fellow fan of this LP would doubtlessly agree.

Bandwagonesque will always hold a special place in my heart, a place which was cemented the first time I ever saw the video for What You Do To Me on the Chart Show c.1991. The Fannies had everything - trendy label (don't forget Creation also put Loveless out the same year this was released), Caledonian cool, a lurid LP cover that Kiss sued them for, a (very) well-meaning nod to their influences, and above all 3 song writers who could all pen perfect pop songs. Add into the mix Is This Music?, which should be adopted by an independent Scotland as their National Anthem depending how the vote goes later this year (and is one of the most evocative and emotional instrumentals I've ever heard), and you've got an absolute masterpiece of an album.

Not only that, but you'd be hard-pushed to find a better opening rhyming couplet than "she wears denim wherever she goes/said she's gonna get some records by the Status Quo". Smile

No...if we're going to talk about an album, let's talk about it. If people blindly follow what I say, then shame on them. Put the facts out there. Allow people to, you know, kind of say how they feel about it and how they hear it. If we're going to listen to albums with nothing written about them...with clean slates, if you will...we might as well shut down the forums right here and now.

You should go straight for #1 Record and Radio City. And if you're fortunate enough, those two albums would lead you to Bandwagonesque. Big Star's are better albums, and would serve to introduce you to Teenage Fanclub very well.. If you want to start with Bandwagonesque, cool too...but Big Star wrote the blueprint. I like it a lot. It's a great album. But I think it's fair to let people know that it sounds like Big Star, in a very direct way. (And the best part of the opening line is the way he sings the two "oh yeahs" afterward.)

Or, I could have just said this, which I'm sure people would have found really helpful:

"Great album."
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Of dying history

meccalecca

Voice of Reason

Gender: Male

Location: The Land of Enchantment

Romanelli wrote:

Teenage Fanclub is good...but I wouldn't give them THAT much credit.

From what I can tell, no one ever did really give them enough credit. Aside from Spin naming Bandwagonesque the best album of 1991, they haven't really been showered with praise. The Replacements were incredibly influenced by Big Star, but people don't give them shit for it. The fact that Teenage Fanclub could even capture an ounce of that Big Star spark is an anomaly. They had good enough songwriters to somehow pull it off.

Grand Prix is my personal favorite Teenage Fanclub record, but this one isn't too far behind
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Jimmy Dread

Old skool like Happy Shopper

Location: 555 Dub Street

Moderator

I respect you, Rom, but feel a debate coming on... (other rhymes on request):

Romanelli wrote:

You should go straight for #1 Record and Radio City. And if you're fortunate enough, those two albums would lead you to Bandwagonesque. Big Star's are better albums.

Better to you maybe, not to me. That's not to say I don't love Big Star (although I've personally never thought Third/Sister Lovers was all that), but Bandwagonesque is a better listen for me from start to finish than either the above. Your statement also insinuates that The Fannies are nothing but a Big Star tribute band - a wildly unfair statement which isn't a million miles away from saying you should listen to The Pixies before hearing Smells Like Teen Spirit, or even Killing Joke before allowing Come As You Are to enter your ears.

Romanelli wrote:

If we're going to listen to albums with nothing written about them...with clean slates, if you will...we might as well shut down the forums right here and now.

Get your point here, but there's something to be said about approaching a record for the first time with a carefree naivete and without other's (very forthright) opinions to steer you. That's why some of these tournaments on this site work so well - I haven't got a clue what I'm about to listen to until I stream some of these nominations for the first time (the Natural Snow Buildings LP that came up in the +1500 tourney recently, for example). Sometimes a clean slate/lack of foreknowledge can be a good thing, and can open your eyes to albums and even genres you'd previously not given a stuff about - do you not agree?
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