Teenage Fanclub released Do Not Dare to Dream on Friday, October 9. It is their thirteenth studio album, arriving three years after Nothing Lasts Forever. Norman Blake and Raymond McGinley made the record with Euros Childs, Francis Macdonald and David McGowan at Black Bay Studio on the Scottish island of Great Bernera.

One of the recording details is worth keeping in mind as you listen: the band used the studio’s Domus church organ. Guitars, synthesizers and acoustic instruments are part of the arrangements too. A particular instrument in a particular room gives you something to follow through the songs. We have the recording information here, rather than a listening review of how it all turned out.

There are ten tracks. The two advance songs, “Be With You Tonight” and “Day in the Sun,” come fourth and eighth, respectively. Before reaching either, the running order takes you through “There Was You,” “Tomorrow People” and “Over and Over.” Even if the singles are what brought you back to the band, the album offers another place to begin.

Thirty-nine minutes, with room for a full listen

We added the published track times: thirty-eight minutes and fifty-nine seconds in total. “Tomorrow People” is the longest at five minutes and sixteen seconds. The closer, “Young and Wise,” is the shortest at three minutes and six seconds. There is just over two minutes between the longest and shortest tracks, with the other eight sitting between them.

For anyone fitting music around a busy day, that is a manageable stretch to set aside. Start with the opening song and let the two familiar singles arrive in their places. You may end up hearing a favourite differently after the songs that lead into it. That is a suggestion for approaching the sequence, rather than a verdict about the album’s flow.

It is also the reason Spiritland’s album playbacks at the Barbican caught our attention last week. A complete record gets its own time slot there. This Teenage Fanclub album has not been announced for that programme; the useful connection is the habit of giving an album time from start to finish. You can try that at home without waiting for a scheduled session.

There are several ways to own the record: CD, cassette, black vinyl, opaque-orange vinyl and a digital edition. The published tracklist gives the same ten-song album, rather than promising extra tracks for choosing a coloured pressing. Physical copies ordered through the label’s store include a download, so a collector can keep the sleeve and still take the music out of the house.

Teenage Fanclub are touring through Europe and the UK this autumn, with the run extending into November. The album is already here for anyone heading to a show. Fans who have followed Blake and McGinley for decades now have another set of songs to spend time with. Newcomers have a fairly short first listen available. Either way, the full running order offers more to explore than replaying the advance tracks alone.