Various Artists: What a Concept! A Salute to Teenage Fanclub

HOW DO WE love Teenage Fanclub? Let us count the ways on this fine tribute album, which consists of 24 mainly Yank versions of Fannies classics. The names aren’t big ones: Redd Kross (with their sterling stab at ‘Everything Flows’) and Gigolo Aunts (with an acoustic ‘Alcoholiday’) stick out of the pile. But all 24 acts bring out the infectiously bittersweet Big Star nuances of songs both early (‘Flows’) and late (‘Your Love is the Place I Come From’). This is some of the best pop music written in the last 20 years. Some of the covers are bolder re-framings than others: Splitsville’s electro-pop ‘Tears Are Cool’ and Chewy Marble’s jaunty, Lovin’ Spoonful-ish ‘Metal Baby’, for examples. Pride of place, though, goes to the General Store’s dreamily Smile-esque take on ‘120 Minutes’. It’s inspired. Join the Teenage Fanclub fanclub today!