A Catholic Education

Teenage Fanclub | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Label: Matador
• ASIN: B0000036QM
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #334,322 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Too Much Too Young, June 1, 2001

By 

[e-mail] (Scotland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Catholic Education (Audio CD)

If you like music (you know, tunes and that), you'll love the Fannies. Catholic Education was their first try at the big time and it's bloody great. At the time, this record - yeah I bought it on black plastic - along with their often drunken gigs, was a breath of fresh air in the midst of a shoe gazing, nerdo environment.

These guys understand tunes, hooks and a pish laugh...... Everyting Flows is a true classic. You can't quite make out the lyrics, but who cares, the washy, cheapo guitar nails it.

So it's muddy, you have to turn the treble to 11, it was recorded in downtown Maryhill for feck sake.

It's a classic, buy it and be a proud owner.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars My Favorite Fanclub, June 10, 2011

By 

kabalabonga - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Catholic Education (Audio CD)

No one I know who listened to "Bandwagonesque",Teenage Fanclub's first widely released CD, before "A Catholic Education", their first release, have a lot of love for the raw production values and aggressive, punchy structure of many of the songs contained on their inaugural CD with the exception of "Everything Flows" and "Eternal Light". Most of the tracks don't have the fluid progression that cuts on later releases have (again, comparisons to "Bandwagonesque" are the first one my friends reference), and a murky sound, rather than a crystalline one.

Nevertheless, this CD is full of hook-laden material, even in its primitive setting. "Heavy Metal II" "Everybody's Fool", "Every Picture I Paint", and "Too Involved" require a few listen-throughs to sift out superficial discordancy, but they're well- constructed songs. In fact, "A Catholic Ecuation" is worth getting just to trace the genesis of the band's sound, which I feel was firmly in place on this CD, though the lower-grade production doesn't lend itself toward showcasing this. Personally, I think every fan of Teenage Fanclub should receive "A Catholic Education".

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Very Good Album, October 13, 2006

By 

splanky57 (New Joisey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Catholic Education (Audio CD)

I really like this album. But then again I really like the band. I think this was the second album I bought of theirs after Bandwagonesque and I was not disappointed. Therefore I agree with M. Haverstock's observation that since this album depicts the band as a "work in progress" it's not representative of their more recent stuff. However, this album is as good as it is unique.

It will take you awhile to get to know this album, but aren't all good records like that? These songs are not pop songs like their later stuff. These songs have a kind of dark, droning, layered feel to them laid-down by great strumming dirty guitars. The songs also tend to be long and almost impressionistic (but not lacking in structure). They also have the Fanclub's trademark good melodies.

The songs are minimally produced which really lets the feel come through. Whenever I put this album on it's not to hear one track but to let the whole thing run through, sometime twice. This album is probably not for everyone, but it's definately worth a try for Fanclub fans.