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Endless Arcade Image
Metascore
79

Generally favorable reviews - based on 18 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
6.5

Generally favorable reviews- based on 4 Ratings

  • Summary: The latest full-length release for the Scottish rock band is its first with Euro Childs of Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci and the first without co-founder Gerard Love who left in 2018.
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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 17 out of 18
  2. Negative: 0 out of 18
  1. Apr 27, 2021
    90
    Endless Arcade might be an album of recalibration and evolution, but it’s also one that more than holds its own against the lofty peaks scaled earlier in their career.
  2. Apr 29, 2021
    80
    Endless Arcade is a record that showcases both Norman Blake and Raymond McGinley as two of the most gifted (not to mention consistent) songwriters of their generation. Which means Endless Arcade feels like a diary of sorts. Rich in emotional integrity while reminiscing about the past, Teenage Fanclub exude honesty through every pore.
  3. Uncut
    Apr 20, 2021
    80
    It's excellent, with enchanting melodies, emotional depth and a few unexpected evolutions. [May 2021, p.26]
  4. 80
    Endless Arcade dwells on the end of love, as hymned on multiple TFC albums; on stoicism in the face of this emotional catastrophe, or – on Raymond McGinley’s songs – our tiny place in the cosmos and the importance of eking joy out of everything.
  5. Apr 29, 2021
    70
    Emotionally honest, across its twelve tracks the group detail feelings of longing, losing your sense of self and awaiting something more in a wholly atmospheric manner. Ripping up their rulebook? Hardly. Giving long-time fans something new to enjoy? You bet.
  6. Apr 30, 2021
    70
    For all the enjoyably sunny fatalism, though, the absence of vocalist and bassist Gerard Love, who left the band in 2018, is noticeable. Love’s unmistakable falsetto and saccharine hooks added a dynamic to the Fannies that brought a welcome contrast to Blake and McGinley’s songs. Love left the band amicably, citing his desire to tour less, but his absence nonetheless feels at home amid Blake and McGinley’s songs about growing into middle-age.
  7. Classic Rock Magazine
    Apr 29, 2021
    60
    They need just a little more musical and emotional grit to avoid fully surrendering to pastel-shaded midlife mellowness. [Jun 2021, p.76]

See all 18 Critic Reviews

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