Teenage Fanclub – Do Not Dare to Dream

Teenage Fanclub are a likeable band with two classic albums in their catalogue, but when was the last time you truly loved one of their records? The band’s eighth album of the 2000s, Do Not Dare to Dream, while undoubtedly pleasant, contains little evidence of the razor-sharp songwriting that propelled Bandwagonesque and Grand Prix to greatness. And let’s be honest: the spark was missing long before Gerard Love’s departure.

The Fannies have never really been a lyrics-first band. They demonstrated such an imperious command of harmony in their prime that they could have got away with singing the phone book, but at the slower tempos of Do Not Dare to Dream, the strangely adolescent nature of their lyrics often stops you in your tracks.

Take the tediously titled “Day in the Sun,” for example: “The race was run/But now it feels like it’s only begun/Yeah, with you I’ll have my day in the sun,” is beyond trite. And once you start noticing these clunkers, you realise how abundant they really are. “I Do Not Dare to Dream” is one of the stronger tracks here, but can I overlook a line like, “I woke up in the morning/But I stayed in bed past noon/I watched the sunlight fade/And now I’m waiting for the moon”?

Musically, Do Not Dare to Dream contains few, if any, surprises. Warm, twinkling acoustic guitars place most of the material squarely in the folk-rock domain. “Be With You Tonight” features a few orchestral embellishments, but its plodding rhythm lends it a very sedate air. The sparse guitar shapes of the melancholy finale “Young And Wise” are much more effective, allowing space for Euros Childs’ mournful keys to add a sense of character that is sorely lacking elsewhere.

There are many artists of Teenage Fanclub’s vintage making vital, thrilling music. Do Not Dare to Dream is neither. Yes, it is comfortable, easy, and pleasant—but to be brutally frank, it is criminally dull. Far from a dream, it is the regrettable sound of a venerable band sleepwalking into irrelevance.

Do Not Dare to Dream is out now via Merge.