Nothing much ever changes in the world of Teenage Fanclub. Man-Made is the first album to be released on their own label, but the easy-going Scots haven't exactly taken the opportunity to rip up the rulebook and start again. Instead it's business as usual: West Coast harmonies, lovelorn lyrics and swooning melodies that sound naggingly familiar the instant you've heard them. The mood is possibly a little more maudlin than before, but otherwise most of these songs could have fitted neatly on the Fannies' 90s classics Grand Prix and Songs from Northern Britain. Just occasionally you wish that these naturally gifted performers would push themselves a little - it's little short of a scandal that they've got twice the talent and half the sales of, say, Oasis. Then again, what's wrong with a little guilt-free pleasure once in a while?
