Still got your record player? Dig it out. The crunchier the music, the better it sounds on vinyl: a broader noise, bigger than you get from a CD and many times fuller than what you’d hear from an execrable mp3 player. Technology does not always improve stuff. Five Teenage Fanclub albums have been re-released on vinyl, each one with its retinue of freebie extras, unreleased singles and so on, at about £18 a pop. I’ve chosen the three best.
The raw Bandwagonesque set the power-pop template: The Byrds, Alex Chilton and Crazy Horse compressed into very agreeable three minutes slabs. It gave them an unrepeated US hit in ‘Star Sign’ and a concert staple in ‘The Concept’. Better still is Thirteen, which was unceremoniously panned by the critics on its release. The sound is muddier, darker, from the T.Rex-ish
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