Customer Reviews

Thirteen

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This price for 19 songs by one of the best bands of the last 10+ years? A steal! Only Bandwagonesque obsessives (it's my favorite too but there's a life outside of it) and those who avoid interesting music and anything not sold at departmetn store could pass this one up. It's unjustly underated and deserves your attention. A cover of Older Boys by Gram Parsons and a few other tracks reveal a love of country/rock(including the excellent song titled for pioneering ex-Byrd Gene Clark)and the influence of Neil Young is noticed on the tracks that feature long passages of distorted guitar (any fan should try to track down their rare cover of Young's Don't Cry No Tears). I'm not saying it's derivative just influenced by these and other folks. I'm obviously not one of the people who writes them off as a bunch of soundalikes. After all,if a band is just a cold copy could it really last as long as the Fanclub has? There is primo power pop to be had in Radio,Fear of Flying and The Cabbage plus Tears Are Cool is one of the most beautiful things the band has ever recorded. The rest has fine moments spilt through out,even if a few tunes do sound similar(there's not too much of that though).Sure,there are a few songs that don't fulfill their potential but they are a tiny minority. Thirteen is a fine part of this bands history and fits nicely along side their other albums. It dosen't have the immediate thrills that made Bandwagon a cult classic but it is a very solid record by a great band that's stretching it's wings a bit. The band has made a distinctive place for themselves and kudos to them for continuing to do so. I could think of a few billion bigger crimes against humanity than baring a slight resemblence to Big Star,Neil Young or the Byrds(or their individual parts).

The best part of seven years on from its release, and the world is still squabbling over whether 'Thirteen' is any good. I listened to it the other day for the first time in four or five years and was astonished - it's far, far better than I remembered. I'd say it's actually rather better than 'Bandwagonesque', though not in the same realm as the sublime 'Grand Prix'. Perhaps the problem is that while 'Bandwagonesque' was an enormous progression on what had come before, this was an incremental step. But still it repays repeated listening. The sad thing is, the band seem to have disowned it - they have disparaged 'Thirteen' in interviews and it's a long time since I've heard them play anything from it live. For those who've not heard it, it's rockier than Grand Prix - 'Hang On' kicks off with the growling riff from T-Rex's '20th Century Boy' before hitting normal Fanclub territory (though it could do without the string coda, arranged by Joe McAlinden of Superstar). In fact, the album sounds like a band at a cusp: do they continue being drunken Indie darlings, or do they knuckle down and apply their collective talents? History tells us they took the latter course, and this was their last drunken fling. But if only we could all have drunken flings that produce music as good as this. Don't expect consistent perfection: there are glitches on this record. But there are also the moments of gorgeousness we've come to expect. And for seven bucks you can't really go wrong.

'Thirteen' is a real gem and a very underated album. TFC can't make a bad record, and 'Thirteen' isn't a exception. How can people say that an album that contains songs like 'Hang On', 'The Cabbage', 'Gene Clark', 'Fear of flying', 'Escher', Ret live dead'or 'Song to the cinyc' is a flop? You're blind and you need to listen again. Buy this CD and you'll enjoy this wonderful music with influences from Beatles, Big Star, Byrds and Neil Young. Although 'Bandwagonesque' is their best.

I have the fortune (or misfortune) to have discovered TFC only recently. After spending weeks listening continously to tracks of all TFC albums days and nights, I conclude 13 is the best. BTW I am 55 years old and have been listneing to pop, rock etc since 1960.

Teenage Fanclub's musical ablity and emotion is showed at its best on this album. The album is nothing short of amazing. It's not quite pop though, so if you are expecting another album of similar style to their others you might be surprised. It's a far less happy and far more difficult album. The lyrics are simple but they become better with each listen.

Despite the fact it is called Thirteen and may feel teenage at first, it is the most grown up music the group has written. It goes far beyond pop and is quite an interesting listen. I would prefer this album to many newer bands like Coldplay, Jet, The White Stripes, The Strokes, etc. because the quality of the music is not even comparable. Teenage Fanclub deserves a place in music history well before any of these bands. Buy the album and enjoy it.

The notion that *Bandwagonesque* represents some never-again-to-be-achieved acme of Teenage Fanclub's career seems to have passed straight through myth-status to have become something like a natural law. This is unfortunate. And, as in all such irrational situations--Matthew Sweet's *Girlfriend* & *Altered Beast* is a parallel case--the follow-up album's reputation suffers most conspicuously. *Thirteen* is an excellent album--better, in many ways (production, songwriting consistency), than its immediate predecessor. It has no one song anywhere near as great as "Acoholiday," but 99% of bands go entire careers without writing anything so sublime. Lost in the brilliant glare of that song and a couple of others is that fact that T. F.'s second album is a spotty, somewhat sonically-botched affair. Think of *Thirteen* as an aggressive, anglo-Beach Boys album, with no obvious lapses and nothing as reverent of its inspiration as *Bandwagonesque*'s "December" is of Big Star. Don't believe the anti-hype--buy it.

For those who say this album is bad, I feel sorry for you. Obviously, anybody who has negative things to say regarding this album has sadly bought into all the undeserved "Teenage Fanclub's disappointing follow up..." hype that surrounded it's release. This may not be TFC's strongest effort but it is still an amazing record. I've been listening to it on a regular basis since it was released and have never understood why anyone didn't like it (especially those of you who are supposed fans). This a brilliant album. It may not contain a "Sparky's Dream" or an "Alcoholiday" but, as a whole album, it is much better than what almost any band has done or could do (including Teenage Fanclub). Possibly, the reason some don't like this record is because of their high expectations after "Bandwagonesque." But hey, Orson Welles only made one "Citizen Kane." Have another listen...

If this was still the day and age of records or cassettes, I would have worn this album out. I've listened to it completely through a few hundred times over the last 7 or so years, and I'm still not tired of it. It's that good! Get it.

A further move away from the noise accents of the band's early sound. "13" has a very heavy Byrds influence as illustrated by "Gene Clark" obivously. The songs are all first rate and very melodic in that Big Star/Byrds/R.E.M. tradition.
This is a very underrated CD and a modern guitar pop masterpiece by a very consistant band. If you can, get the release with the added tracks, they are all very worthwhile and no fan of the Fanclub should be without them.
Very highly recommended.

Thirteen marks the last full length Fanclub record with drummer/resident jokester Brendan O'Hare. There are a few good songs here (Radio, Hang On, The Cabbage) but after that, the album seems to fall apart. The production seems to get looser and the songwriting seems to sputter into uninspired, boring rock songs. After this album, the band went on to make "Grand Prix", and "Songs from Northern Britain" which are both stronger and more serious releases in my opinion. Fanclub is a severly under-rated band in North America. Which is a dam shame because they never tour here anymore. There are 2 version of "Thirteen". I'm not sure which one this is, but one of them has about 6 bonus tracks. It's very hard to tell the difference because the tracks aren't listed on the back and they are both DGC releases. The songs aren't that great, but they add value. If this is your first Fanclub purchase, try "Grand Prix" or "Songs From Nothern Britain" instead. Also, keep in mind that "Howdy" is just around the corner: October 23rd, 2000.