Seaside Stars - The Magic of Stereo

by Tommy Gunnarsson

published: 20 / 12 / 2001

Label: Firestation Tower
Format: CD

Teenage Fanclub is a band that I have been watching with great interest for the past five years or so. They have gone from making an almost unbearable noise on their 1990 debut effort 'A Catholic Edu

Review

Teenage Fanclub is a band that I have been watching with great interest for the past five years or so. They have gone from making an almost unbearable noise on their 1990 debut effort 'A Catholic Education' to now playing Byrds-influenced popsongs , and each album they make is more soft than the previous one. I am presuming, therefore, that the follow-up to last year’s 'Howdy' will be a very very soft record. That is if there will ever be a follow-up. You never know with the Fanclub. A band that obviously have been listening a lot to the Teenage Fanclub’s last three albums ('Grand Prix', 'Songs From Northern Britain' and the already mentioned 'Howdy') is the Seaside Stars whose two members come from Munich and Hamburg in Germany. The band consists of multi-instrumentalists Andi Schuwirth and Hans Forster, and together they make music that makes you realize just how influential TFC have been on the guitar pop scene of the 90’s and in the new millennium. Well, they didn’t really do anything revolutionary, they just modernized the sound of The Byrds and Big Star, but despite this fact many bands seems to look up to them. And I’m not surprised, because it’s great pop music. According to the band’s website ( www.seasidestars.net , a great-looking site, pay a visit!), this debut album is a collection of old demo tapes that have been re-recorded for this release (plus a new song), and the recordings were all done at home, which is a nice thing. I often prefer home recordings to studio recordings, mostly because music recorded at home is more unpolished and doesn’t tend to get over-produced. Well, the Seaside Stars seems to have quite good equipment at home, because this sounds like a studio recording to me. Although that said, this isn’t over-produced, which I am very thankful for. I think I have been avoiding the subject here for a while now. 'The Magic Of Stereo' is a good record, and there is no doubt about these two men’s ability to write catchy pop tunes. Many of the songs here would easily have fitted onto one of the last two TFC albums (alright, I will stop making comparisons to the Scottish popsters now, sorry), and when I hear handclaps on “OK” I can’t help but to like them a bit more, and when they complete the picture with perfect harmonies, I shine like a sun. But this is music that is very enjoyable in small doses. It tends to get a bit much when listening to it for a longer time. I think a four or five-song EP would be a absolutely perfect way to listen to the Seaside Stars, but since that isn’t possible at the moment, you can always program your CD-player.