Hard to believe now, but
Teenage Fanclub first attracted critical attention for a record far removed from the sparkling power pop on which their fame largely rests -- with its gloriously sloppy and sludgy sound, their debut album
A Catholic Education instead prefigures the emergence of grunge, its viscous melodies and squalling guitars owing far more to
Neil Young than
Big Star. With not one but two songs dubbed "Heavy Metal," it's pretty obvious where
A Catholic Education is coming from; the title track (also here in duplicate) is a surprisingly snarky attack on the church (at least for a band not exactly renowned for its political agenda), while the great "Everybody's Fool" is a merciless scenester put-down without any of the gentle sarcasm that characterizes similarly themed efforts like
Bandwagonesque's "Metal Baby." Regardless, for all its glaring differences in attitude and approach, there's no mistaking the effortless melodicism that remains the hallmark of all
Teenage Fanclub records -- in particular, the opening "Everything Flows," for all its meandering abrasiveness, is still as good as anything the band ever recorded, and that's saying something.