''Shadows'' is the ninth

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...

band

Teenage Fanclub Teenage Fanclub are a Scottish alternative rock band formed in Bellshill near Glasgow in 1989. The group were founded by Norman Blake (vocals, guitar), Raymond McGinley (vocals, lead guitar) and Gerard Love (vocals, bass), all of whom shared ...

, released on 31 May 2010 on the band's own PeMa label in Europe and on

Merge Records Merge Records is an independent record label based in Durham, North Carolina. It was founded in 1989 by Laura Ballance and Mac McCaughan. It began as an outlet for music from their band Superchunk and music created by friends, and has expande ...

in North America. It is the band's first new album release in five years. The album contains twelve songs: four written by Gerard Love, four by Norman Blake, and four by Raymond McGinley. Blake's "Baby Lee" was released as a single. The liner notes credit David McGowan as a member, and he has been a constant tour fixture since 2004, playing keyboards, additional guitars and the slide guitar.

Recording

The five-year gap between ''Shadows'' and the band's previous album ''

Man-Made Artificiality (the state of being artificial or manmade) is the state of being the product of intentional human manufacture, rather than occurring naturally through processes not involving or requiring human activity. Connotations Artificiality ...

'' was not completely intentional, according to guitarist Raymond McGinley: "We decided to take some time before we recorded anything to just do other stuff for a time, individually, and that ended up being a lot longer than we initially planned." He added, "We didn't take very long to record the actual album, it was all pretty much done back in 2008, but we did take our time mixing it and then had another break after it just to let it mature for a while before we dealt with all the stuff that goes along with releasing an album."

Critical reception

''Shadows'' received favorable reviews from music critics. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from critics, the album received an average score of 81, which indicates "universal acclaim", based on 18 reviews. Matt Collar of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

found the "sparkling and reflective" album a worthy follow-up to ''Man-Made'', and concluded by writing "If the day escribed in "Today Never Ends"is as sun-drenched and relaxed as the songs on ''Shadows'' implies, then may it and Teenage Fanclub go on and on." Noel Murray of ''

The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...

'' wrote "This is a work of rare craft, from a band now inclined to leave behind something timelessly beautiful." ''

Spin Spin or spinning most often refers to: * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thread by twisting fibers together, traditionally by hand spinning * Spin, the rotation of an object around a central axis * Spin (propaganda), an intentionally b ...

'' named ''Shadows'' the 40th best album of 2010.

Track listing

Personnel

Credits for ''Shadows'' are adapted from

and the album liner notes. ;Teenage Fanclub * Norman Blake –

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

*Gerard Love –

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass gui ...

, vocals *

Francis Macdonald Francis Macdonald (born 11 September 1970) drums with Teenage Fanclub. He makes music for filmmakers and TV and manages Camera Obscura and The Vaselines. On 30 March 2015, he released ''Music For String Quartet, Piano And Celeste'', described b ...

–

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

*Raymond McGinley – guitar, vocals *David McGowan –

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

, guitar ;Additional musicians *

Euros Childs Euros Childs (; Welsh: ; born 16 April 1975) is a Welsh musician and songwriter, perhaps best known as the frontman for the band Gorky's Zygotic Mynci and—as of January 2019—the keyboardist for Teenage Fanclub. His sister, violinist Megan Ch ...

– backing vocals (2, 8),

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

(5) * Tom Crossley –

flute The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...

(1) * John McCusker –

strings String or strings may refer to: *String (structure), a long flexible structure made from threads twisted together, which is used to tie, bind, or hang other objects Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Strings'' (1991 film), a Canadian anim ...

;Technical *Nick Brine –

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

, mixing *Andy Bell – assistant engineer *Dave Pye – assistant engineer *Steve Rooke – mastering *Toby Paterson – artwork *Robert Dallas Gray – layout

References

{{Authority control Teenage Fanclub albums 2010 albums