Do Not Dare To Dream

Teenage Fanclub return with Do Not Dare To Dream, their 13th album, named after Norman Blake’s I Do Not Dare To Dream. It’s a quietly resolute record, facing a fraught world without giving in, and finding optimism in songs like Day In The Sun and Over And Over.

Blake and Raymond McGinley are joined by Euros Childs, Francis Macdonald and David McGowan, a line-up now so settled they leave space for ideas to emerge together in the studio. Childs adds organ, Mellotron and synth colour throughout, while McGowan and Macdonald bring melodic, expressive depth.

Recorded over 14 days at Black Bay Studio in Kirkibost on Great Bernera in the Outer Hebrides, the album draws on its surroundings. A Domus church organ and vintage synths shape the sound, while nearby Callanish Stones, older than Stonehenge, and a landscape marked by Neolithic and Viking history give the record its timeless perspective.