Six Reasons I Love Teenage Fanclub

1. For the best opening couplet on any album ever:
She wears denim wherever she goes,
Says she’s gonna get some records by the Status Quo.
(“The Concept” from 1991’s Bandwagonesque)

2. For being generally regarded as the most promising new band of 1991 and going on to prove why they deserved that title long after the demise of Nirvana.

3. For not relegating Raymond McGinley to George-Harrison-third-wheel status, but allowing him to flourish into an equal among the band’s other two great songwriters, Norman Blake (John) and Gerard Love (Paul).

4. For being Scottish and sounding so unbelievably American.

5. For a great love song with a progressive message: “I Don’t Want Control of You.” In its own way, it is as overwhelmingly wonderful as anything from Pet Sounds.

6. For the lovely subdued power pop of 2005’s Man Made, which captures, better than any other album I can think of, the exhilaration of watching the sweet, sweet world pass by. It has all the makings of a swan song, but hopefully it will not prove to be so.