By RUSSELL BAILLIE
(Herald rating: * * *)
Never quite fitting in nor having enough of a personality to stand out, Glasgow's Teenage Fanclub have delivered a likeable line in jangle- and harmony-heavy unhurried pop-rock for a decade-and-a-bit.
But the band, which forever sounded as if their inspiration was Californian West Coast
rock rather than the banks of the Clyde, was always going to fight for attention in the post-grunge and Britpop eras.
The last of their six studio albums showed they had gone off the boil, while the collapse of their label Creation Records due to the company having too many eggs in a basket marked Oasis has made further career advancement look unlikely.
So if this sort-of best-of looks like a loss-cutting exercise, at least it's a pleasingly substantial one, with its wrap-up in 21 non-chronological tracks and two accompanying booklets: one a biography, the other a series of essays from band associates.
The songs include three new tracks, none suggesting a late-arriving change in direction. Otherwise, the tracks lean towards their best albums - the mid-90s efforts Grand Prix and Songs from Northern Britain - with just a few nods towards their slighter rougher and readier beginnings.
It makes for one hefty slab of bittersweet tunes, one on which all those solidly strummed mid-tempo songs can start to blend into one another.
But compensations come in its sheer warmth and frequent single-song glories, such as Mellow Doubt, Neil Jung, the very Byrdsian I Don't Want Control of You and the exceptionally Beatlesque About You. For those who missed them first time through, Short Cut is an enjoyable crash course.
Label: Sony
