To me this album hangs on 4 tunes - Concept, What You Do To Me, Starsign, and Alcoholiday. The rest are good but those are a cut above.
Their best anyway - Grand Prix is solid but doesn't have that layer of fuzz and really could almost be any power-pop band, and I miss Brendan O'Hare
Can't believe Alcoholiday wasn't on that best of they put out - it's probably their best ever IMO
― Master of Treacle, Friday, 22 July 2011 00:22 (twelve years ago) link
'I Don't Know' because it was the soundtrack for the first time I fell in love.
― Shin Oliva Suzuki, Friday, 22 July 2011 01:05 (twelve years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― System, Saturday, 23 July 2011 23:01 (twelve years ago) link
voting "Star Sign" as "Alcoholiday" seems to get enough love.
― Bee OK, Sunday, 24 July 2011 03:15 (twelve years ago) link
star sign
― cave duel (latebloomer), Thursday, July 21, 2011 1:21 PM (3 days ago) Bookmark
― in 77 everything is fine (Drugs A. Money), Sunday, 24 July 2011 04:12 (twelve years ago) link
― in 77 everything is fine (Drugs A. Money), Sunday, July 24, 2011 2:12 PM (16 minutes ago)
― Who? Well, I've never heard of Mogwai. (electricsound), Sunday, 24 July 2011 04:29 (twelve years ago) link
Forever associated with the girlfriend who left our long table of friends at the cafe with the girl she'd fallen in love with instead of with me, informing me of her change of plans just before. So classic, I guess?
― Pete Scholtes, Sunday, 24 July 2011 06:28 (twelve years ago) link
At the time I remember TFC saying they really loved 3rd/Sister Lovers, but that album really bears no resemblance to their own material.
I think they were talking about how they were influenced by Big Star more around the time of "Thirteen". I haven't heard that album in forever, but I think the Big Star comparisons on that album are more on the mark?
Other than that, never heard much similarity. Spin got it right in calling this better than Nevermind, which I'd gladly never hear again...
Yeah, it's much, much better than "Nevermind".
― NoTimeBeforeTime, Sunday, 24 July 2011 07:19 (twelve years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― System, Sunday, 24 July 2011 23:01 (twelve years ago) link
metal baby and pet rock deserve more votes. interesting that alcoholiday and the concept are 1-2, as they always seemed very similar melodically.
― mizzell, Sunday, 24 July 2011 23:29 (twelve years ago) link
Amazed that December didn't get more votes. I'll have to go back and listen to Alcoholiday again as I can't really remember it. Not heard the album for a while and I seem to think of it (obviously wrongly) as somewhat top-heavy.
― kraudive, Sunday, 24 July 2011 23:32 (twelve years ago) link
Voted for "is this music"; great sports show end credits stuff
― am I diversified? (blank), Monday, 25 July 2011 00:02 (twelve years ago) link
I like this album, but I wouldn't put it in the same universe as Big Star or the best tracks on Nevermind.
― Pete Scholtes, Monday, 25 July 2011 20:26 (twelve years ago) link
i might
― monogalomaniacal (Drugs A. Money), Monday, 25 July 2011 21:56 (twelve years ago) link
Sorta surprised by the Alcoholiday love. I don't recall ever hearing anyone single out that song.
Bandwagonesque is definitely one of my fave albums from the 90s, even though Grand Prix and Songs From Northern Britain are technically better albums, imo.
I always found Bandwagonesque super top heavy - side one is golden, and it slips down a few notches on side two - hence my non-appreciation for Alcoholiday.
Pet Rock deserved at least one vote.
― Brooker T Buckingham, Monday, 25 July 2011 21:59 (twelve years ago) link
I'm pretty sure I bought Bandwagonesque and Loveless on the same day. I was working in a record store and was going nutty waiting for the shipment to arrive.
― Brooker T Buckingham, Monday, 25 July 2011 22:02 (twelve years ago) link
damn the guitars on this album sound nice.
― by another name (amateurist), Friday, 12 August 2011 23:11 (twelve years ago) link
i also remember being pretty knocked out (at age 13) by their SNL performance.
― by another name (amateurist), Friday, 12 August 2011 23:12 (twelve years ago) link
I'm pretty sure I bought Bandwagonesque and Loveless on the same day.
WTF the hugest release date ever. And both are on the same label.
― billstevejim, Friday, 12 August 2011 23:13 (twelve years ago) link
also wtf this album is 20 years old???????
― by another name (amateurist), Friday, 12 August 2011 23:13 (twelve years ago) link
20 years is nothing these days.
― billstevejim, Friday, 12 August 2011 23:15 (twelve years ago) link
also re big star it's all about the coda in the concept which sounds like daisy glaze
― by another name (amateurist), Friday, 12 August 2011 23:15 (twelve years ago) link
Alcoholiday is one of the great Teenage Fanclub 'Fuck' songs - see also Everybody's Fool, Weird Houses, Fear of Flying, Verisimilitude, and of course Some People Try to Fuck with You.
― ledge, Friday, 12 August 2011 23:17 (twelve years ago) link
(Everybody's Fool maybe not that great. Weird Houses, Fear of Flying and SPTTFWY are blinders tho.)
― ledge, Friday, 12 August 2011 23:18 (twelve years ago) link
star sign single is pretty much _exactly_ 20 yrs old this week
― by another name (amateurist), Friday, 12 August 2011 23:20 (twelve years ago) link
sorry that is throwing me for a bit of a loop
"Maybe i've been fucked already" makes me kinda pensive
I love Everybody's Fool.
― billstevejim, Friday, 12 August 2011 23:21 (twelve years ago) link
it's 'baby' not 'maybe', ain't it? maybe, baby.
― ledge, Friday, 12 August 2011 23:23 (twelve years ago) link
yeah, it's baby.
― by another name (amateurist), Friday, 12 August 2011 23:25 (twelve years ago) link
and yeah alcoholiday is the pinnacle of this record
Google search says it's "baby." no fair.
― billstevejim, Friday, 12 August 2011 23:26 (twelve years ago) link
Oddly, TFC rarely play anything beyond 'The Concept' off this album these days. They did an unplanned encore of Starsign in Glasgow last year though
― Colin Allstations (PaulTMA), Saturday, 13 August 2011 16:16 (twelve years ago) link
This album is distinctly inferior to Grand Prix. I really don't get the love for it; it seems sort of middling, and also as other have stated, this bears only a passing resemblance to Big Star, mostly in the vocal harmonies,
― Poliopolice, Friday, 13 February 2015 09:06 (nine years ago) link
i like grand prix AND bandwagonesque. but i prefer bandwagonesque as it is dirtier, noisier, as it is more like a perfect marriage of distortion and melody. grand prix is a little too clean and slick and therefore boring for my likes. and of course the year 1991 was much more life-shattering than 1994 or whenever grand prix was released.
― it's the distortion, stupid! (alex in mainhattan), Monday, 16 February 2015 19:13 (nine years ago) link
The songs on Bandwagonesque seem unfinished to me... like they could have done more with them but just decided to be lazy.
― Poliopolice, Monday, 16 February 2015 21:44 (nine years ago) link
normally, I'd agree that dirtier would be better, but in this case, it doesn't really work for me.
I would take the point about the messier elements of Bandwagon, but to me there are 4 or maybe 5 tunes on there that destroy everything else they did, before or since.
That's what 'saves' it for me - that, and the fuzz
― Master of Treacle, Monday, 16 February 2015 21:45 (nine years ago) link
Songs from Northern Britain tops 'em all, imo
― alpine static, Monday, 16 February 2015 22:26 (nine years ago) link
listening to these dudes a lot lately. i had never heard grand prix until recently. i don't know if it's better than bandwagonesque but it sure sounds nice.
― dynamicinterface, Tuesday, 1 December 2015 19:04 (eight years ago) link
would not have guessed back in the day that they would have such a consistent, solid catalog 20 years later but here we are
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 1 December 2015 19:35 (eight years ago) link
Only one (lacklustre) album in the last 10 years though. Every album they knocked a few edges off until eventually there's nothing left.
― everything, Tuesday, 1 December 2015 19:41 (eight years ago) link
I missed the fuzz...part of that trend of indie bands who really turned the distortion down as the decade progressed
― Master of Treacle, Tuesday, 1 December 2015 20:25 (eight years ago) link
I like the last album a lot fwiw
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 1 December 2015 21:15 (eight years ago) link
http://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/scotsol/homepage/news/music_scotland/6944812/Scotlands-greatest-ever-album-Rollin-v-Bandwagonesque.html
― PaulTMA, Monday, 22 February 2016 16:37 (eight years ago) link
A place in teh semi - finals now up for grabs.
― Mark G, Monday, 22 February 2016 16:39 (eight years ago) link
Listening to this now, it's so obvious now that Supergrass were "inspired" by the riff on 'Satan' when writing 'Richard III' ...
― Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Wednesday, 10 April 2019 17:22 (five years ago) link
Oh, and this is 'Alcoholiday' all the way. At one point I wouldn't have hesitated to claim Grand Prix was the superior record, but right now I'm not completely sure.
― Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Wednesday, 10 April 2019 17:23 (five years ago) link
that's because Bandwagonesque, Grand Prix and Songs From Northern Britain are three of the greatest rock albums of all time and differentiating between them is basically impossible and oh by the way they were all written and recorded by three core fookin' geniuses and thank god they met each other and formed a band many many years ago.
― alpine static, Thursday, 11 April 2019 07:50 (five years ago) link
wot no thirteen?
― what if bod was one of us (ledge), Thursday, 11 April 2019 09:49 (five years ago) link
― dorsalstop, Thursday, 11 April 2019 12:02 (five years ago) link