Rocktrospectiva: THe Dark Heavy "A Catholic Education" Turns 35

Released on 11 June 1990 "A Catholic Education" was the debut studio album by Scottish alternative rock band Teenage Fanclub, the album spawned two singles "Everything Flows" & "Everybody's Fool" that helped the album to received positive reviews from UK music journalists and critics. 

Teenage Fanclub had been formed in 1989 by ex-members of BMX Bandits. Their 1990 debut, A Catholic Education, is far less devoted to 60's jangle-driven songwriting, and instead features more Hard Rock-oriented power-chording and pentatonic leads akin to Deep Purple and Killing Joke. It's not that distorted nor that extreme, but is noticeably more youth-oriented than their following works, and the half-spoken vocal performance is more off-key as well. Still, the D tuning adds some melodic uniqueness on the songs, especially on tracks such as "Don't Need a Drum",  and the intense "Heavy Metal II", other highlights are "Everything Flows", "Don't Need a Drum".

The album's dark, heavy sound has been described as differing in tone and style from the band's later power pop work. The main influences on that first Teenage Fanclub album would've been Sonic Youth's Evol and Daydream Nation, those records. And we liked Exile on Main St. a lot. We liked Arthur Lee."  Buffalo Springfield, the Beatles, and Neil Young also proved influential.

After finishing his drum parts for the album, Macdonald left the band to be replaced by Brendan O'Hare. Macdonald: "I’d always said, "I’m happy to be on the record, but I’ll probably go back to university and finish my studies afterwards." Even though the band now had an album’s worth of material, they weren’t completely happy with it, so they decided to re-record four songs at Suite 16 in Rochdale with O'Hare on drums. 

Norman Blake said of the album title in 2016: "A Catholic Education was an irreverent thing, we thought it would get a reaction living in the west of Scotland and we knew people would say ‘what do they mean, what’s that all about,’ kind of thing. I wasn’t Catholic but I think we wanted to provoke a response. ... Certainly no one was angry with us for calling it that. We also meant it in the other meaning of Catholic being eclectic and bringing a lot of influences to the band. We just thought it sounded good as well."

At the time of release, A Catholic Education received mainly positive reviews from music critics praising the record as a gloriously sloppy and sludgy sound" was far removed from the "sparkling power pop" of their later albums. Instead, the album "prefigures the emergence of grunge, its viscous melodies and squalling guitars owing far more to Neil Young than Big Star." Ankeny concluded that despite the album's differences in attitude and approach. Straightforward guitar pop" was presented in a "flattering light", but that the album suffered from uneven songwriting. They felt that after "Everything Flows," "Critical Mass," "Eternal Light" and "Everybody's Fool", "slim pickings keep A Catholic Education from being a full course."

 

A Catholic Education Track List: 

 

1. Heavy Metal

2. Everything Flows

3. Catholic Education

4. Too Involved

5. Don't Need A Drum

6. Critical Mass

7. Heavy Metal II

8. Catholic Education 2

9. Eternal Light

10. Every Picture I Paint

11. Everybody's Fool