Thirteen

A dark and understated album, Thirteen was something of a hard left for Teenage Fanclub after the jangling harmony-drenched pop of 1991’s Bandwagonesque. Critics and listeners who thrilled to that album's clever, compact songwriting and punchy guitar hooks were slow to warm to the slower, murkier Thirteen. But Thirteen is a minor wonder. If it meanders, it does so with the resigned majesty of rock’s great downer opuses. Where the crisp guitar pop of Bandwagonesque took Big Star’s shimmering #1 Record as its prime critical touchstone, the fuzz-soaked sprawl of songs like “Hang On” and “Gene Clark” nod more toward the bleary-eyed grandeur of Neil Young’s fabled “ditch trilogy." Though it doesn’t burn as brightly or charm as immediately as its much-fêted predecessor, Thirteen is nonetheless a collection of remarkable songs; its atmosphere of dread and disillusionment make it one of Teenage Fanclub’s most distinctive releases.