ALBUM REVIEW: TEENAGE FANCLUB, DO NOT DARE TO DREAM

Do Not Dare Dream is vibrant and concise. It is a series of colourful and comforting textures paired with lyricism that slyly tricks you into feeling something. It sounds like they took the softness of the song Thirteen by Big Star and then delicately layered it with cozy guitars and keys with an undercurrent of synthy sounds.

The Fannies are not repeating the pop ultra-ride of Grand Prix here. In fact, with the departure of songwriter Gerard Love in 2019, responsible for some of the Fanclub’s most driven songs like Sparky’s Dream and Star Sign, they are more intimate than ever. Single There Was You shows this well. The song still has the melodies and harmonies that the Fannies are so good at while being smaller and softer in its scope.

Similarly soft, Day In The Sun is practically the twee-est song possible. Jangly guitars, an organ, a song about a day in the bloody sun? Masters of twee, Belle and Sebastian have made whole albums about that! Like many of the lyrics on the album Day In The Sun tells a story of disconnection that is remedied by simple joys. Sun on your skin, spending time with your lover. Simple and sweet.

But this is not to say the lyricism lacks nuance. Closing track Young and Wise has very few words but is incredibly poignant. Ray McGinley’s words on a page are nostalgic “I followed you | To paradise | We were young and wise | We knew” but aloud the words are tinged with regret and sorrow. The pregnant pauses between each line linger, invoking a thoughtful sadness. It is a complex feeling, remembering the happiest days of your life and it makes you both smile and long for them. McGinley is an expert at capturing this so fluently.

My favourite song is track two Tomorrow People. This is the most synth-heavy, spacey track but it doesn’t feel like an outlier. With the album’s snug optimism, it takes you on a ride. All of its build-up ends with a delicious groove that swells along with the melody “Tomorrow people know | Where the rainbow ends.” The only issue with it is that its the albums highest peak and it is right at the beginning. I think if it was in the album’s final third it could feel like the climax of a journey.

The album is about hope in a cold world. They still hold onto the twee optimism that the band has always had. Finding love and joy despite the world’s horrible injustices. Their mission statement is found in Tomorrow People “We’ll live in happiness | While the world descends | We’ll live inside ourselves | Till existence ends.” Maybe this is a contradictory message. Maybe you could criticise it as a privileged and overly simple worldview; personally, I think it is part of what makes the album such a lovely escape. When you turn it on you relax and dream of a better world.

Do Not Dare To Dream delicately captures joy and sorrow, hope and cynicism in song, sometimes even at the same time. The songs can be deceptively simple. You could reduce all the lyrics to: ‘the world is doomed but we will love each other anyway’ but in doing so ignore the emotional nuance that makes the songs moving.

Forty years into their career but they don’t give you the ‘oh fuck not these guys again’ that most successful, aged bands give you when they release their umpteenth album. In their understated way, the Fannies continue to go in a new direction.

(Bonus trivia, the brilliant album cover was designed by Cardiff based musician H. Hawkline who is also the partner of the brilliant Aldous Harding -my favourite musician-. You should check out this Joyzine review of a show on Aldous Harding’s last tour -not by me unfortunately-).