Teenage Fanclub: Single released ahead of new album Nothing Lasts Forever

Teenage Fanclub have shared “Back To The Light”, the latest single to be released from their forthcoming record. The track was written by Norman Blake who says: “I liked the idea of using being in a band as a metaphor for a personal relationship. They are not entirely dissimilar experiences. Like a few others on the album, this song has saxophone on it. The first time we’ve had that since Songs From Northern Britain. Stephen Black (Sweet Baboo) played those parts; we really like the richness it brings to the song. Steve will be with us when we head out on tour in October in Europe.”

The track follows lead single “Foreign Land” and album highlight “Tired Of Being Alone”. Following the upcoming release of ‘Nothing Lasts Forever’, Teenage Fanclub will be also embarking on world tour throughout the Autumn and into 2024. This will include a date at the Tramway Theatre on 5 November.

One of the recurring themes on ‘Nothing Lasts Forever’ is light, as both a metaphor for hope and as an ultimate destination further down the road. Although the band’s songwriters Norman Blake and Raymond McGinley found themselves touching on similar themes, it was pure coincidence.R

Raymond: “We never talk about what we’re going to do before we start making a record. We don’t plan much other than the nuts and bolts of where we’re going to record and when. That thing about light was completely accidental; we didn’t realise that until we’d finished half the songs. The record feels reflective, and I think the more we do this thing, the more we become comfortable with going to that place of melancholy, feeling and expressing those feelings.”

While the vocals and the finishing touches on ‘Nothing Lasts Forever’ were recorded at Raymond’s place in Glasgow, the music was recorded in an intense ten-day period in the bucolic Welsh countryside at Rockfield Studios, near Monmouth in late August. You can hear the effect of that environment on the record - it’s full of soft breeze, wide skies, beauty and space.

The band that recorded ‘Nothing Lasts Forever’ - Blake, McGinley along with Francis Macdonald on drums, Dave McGowan on bass and Euros Childs on keyboards - arrived at the residential studio without a fixed plan. Their confidence and ease with working together meant the record came together quickly.

Looking for positives while faced with the grim realities of the 21st century, Teenage Fanclub’s latest album finds their ability to effortlessly turn melancholy into glorious, chiming harmony very much intact.