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Do Not Dare to Dream (Merge Records)
Add date: 10.20.2026
Release date: 10.9.2026
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Norman Blake and Raymond McGinley have been making music together in Teenage Fanclub for 37 years, and while some parts of being in a band have gotten easier with time, the simplest things can still trip them up. According to Blake, “It’s difficult when it comes to, y’know, coming up with a name for an album. Especially after you’ve made 12 of them.”
Teenage Fanclub’s 13th album Do Not Dare To Dream — out October 9, 2026 on Merge Records — takes its name from one of Blake’s songs on the record, “I Do Not Dare To Dream,” an infectious anthemic song driven by ringing acoustic guitars, joined at the end by duelling electric guitars that wrap around each other like a reassuring hug. Blake says that the title is meant to mock those memes that urge people to “dare to dream,” which to him are “kind of ridiculous... I don’t think the world works that way.”
And yet, just like the song that inspired its name, Do Not Dare To Dream is in no way a gloomy or pessimistic record. Like 2023’s Nothing Lasts Forever, Teenage Fanclub’s 13th album is full of songs that are calmly resolute, taking stock of the fraught state of the world without succumbing to despair. “I Do Not Dare To Dream” describes how it feels when hopelessness becomes a habit, but it does so in a way that offers comfort. Blake’s warm, organ-washed midtempo ballad “Day In The Sun” and McGinley’s “Over And Over” (a haunting and hypnotic song that evokes the harmonies of songs and hymns from centuries ago) both speak to how everyone can find a renewed sense of purpose by opening their hearts.
Raymond: “We can still be cheerful and optimistic in the face of things not being great, you know? My parents’ generation lived in Glasgow when there were bombs falling out of the sky. And here we are, however many years later. Things change.”
Blake says that just like his “Day In The Sun,” the album-opener “There Was You” (a classic “I was lost but now I’m found” song, setting the tone for the album with its relaxed rhythm and singalong melody) and “Be With You Tonight” (a store of musical treasures, with its rippling piano, Mellotron strings and fuzzy dual-guitar instrumental break) were inspired by some positive personal developments, including moving to a new house in the countryside near Glasgow and beginning a new relationship.
Norman: “I’m in a better place now in terms of happiness and wellbeing, and my songs on this album are really just a reflection of that. I’ve found that the easiest thing to write about is yourself. It can be quite cathartic. It’s sort of like doing your own therapy.”
A similar sense of brightness illuminates McGinley’s “Tomorrow People,” a song which — almost by accident — takes its name from a 1970s British science-fiction series.
Raymond: “There was a whiteboard in the studio, so we started writing song titles on it. Made up, stupid titles. I don’t know how it started, but the titles were based on TV series from the ’70s and ’80s, and one of those was Tomorrow People. I couldn’t even remember what the TV series was like, but I started thinking about ‘Tomorrow People’ as a concept, and I think I started singing, as a guide vocal, some joke thing about ‘Tomorrow People’ in the outro section, something I was making up in the moment. And then I thought, ‘There’s something in that.’ So, the title started as a joke, but the song isn’t a joke.”
“Tomorrow People” has an unusual structure, beginning as a toe-tapping number about going through the motions from day to day while trying to maintain faith in the future. Then the song breaks suddenly for an organ solo at the two-minute mark, before shifting into a new phase. In the song’s second half, McGinley sings in a hushed but insistent voice about what “the Tomorrow People know.” It’s as though the song rewards its singer’s belief in a better world to come.
Norman: “I really like ‘Tomorrow People.’ The way that its two sections are quite different. It’s a lot of fun to play when it gets into the metronomic beat in the latter section. I like the optimism in the lyric. The idea that the world could be a better place. I think the ‘Tomorrow People’ are the people you would hope would exist in the future.” Why not?
Blake and McGinley are joined on Do Not Dare To Dream by their bandmates Euros Childs (keyboards and vocals), Francis Macdonald (drums), and David McGowan (bass). This quintet has played together long enough now that neither of Teenage Fanclub’s principal songwriters and guitarists feel the need to fuss over their songs or work up arrangements before they enter the studio. They’d rather wait for the rest of the group’s input.
Raymond: “What I want to hear is not necessarily an idealized sense of what ‘a good record’ is. I want to do something that has an identity that exists with the people, with us. I want to hear the personalities of the people involved.”
Norman: “We’ve been playing together for such a long time, and the guys are all really great musicians. The thing is to not be too precious about your own songs in terms of arrangement and structure. That’s something that we do collectively. What happens is you end up having something that’s maybe slightly different than what you had initially envisaged, but it is invariably better.”
The initial sessions took place over 14 days at Black Bay Studio, in the township of Kirkibost, on the Scottish Outer Hebrides island of Great Bernera. Teenage Fanclub likes to take advantage of what a studio has available to use, and at Black Bay the band found a Domus church organ (prominently heard on many songs, including “Over And Over”) and a lot of different synthesizers. Euros Childs on keys brings a lot of sonic colour on this record, from the ’70s sound of the Solina String Ensemble on “Tomorrow People” to the Mellotron flutes on McGinley’s gently reflective “Take Time”, and across every other song. Add to that the musicality of David McGowan’s counterpoint melodies on bass and Francis Macdonald playing so freely and expressively on the drums and you can hear how it all adds up to the confident collective identity of the band that McGinley was talking about.
As longtime fans are likely aware, Teenage Fanclub likes to record each album in a new place so that they can let its unique atmosphere influence the music. Great Bernera is their most remote recording location yet, which helped the band focus on the work but also put them in a place of awe, surrounded as they were by the crashing sea and ancient ruins.
Norman: “Not too far from the studio, on the adjacent island of Lewis, there’s an ancient monument called the Callanish Stones, which is older than Stonehenge. The whole area is kind of magical.”
Raymond: “It’s a place where they had a lot of Neolithic monuments. Later on it was a Viking area. And on our time off, we’d go see these things which are like, I don’t know, 5000 years old. Some of us went for a walk every morning, ‘round over the hills and stuff. I think all that plays into the feeling on the record, being in this kind of timeless landscape with connections to unknown civilizations from a long, long time ago. All those things that make you feel small, but in a good way.”
The result is a collection of songs suffused with the proper perspective of musicians who have been around for a while, recorded in a place that has been around even longer. As Blake puts it, “I think what happens is you just move from one thing into the next and before you know it, 30 years have passed. McGinley adds: “Yeah, it’s been a while since we started doing this thing we do, but to us it feels like no time at all. In the place where we made the record people would have been singing thousands of years ago. Life is short, but music is eternal.”
Apple Music
Bandcamp
Merge Records
Official Website
Spotify
Tidal
YouTube
Norman Blake and Raymond McGinley have been making music together in Teenage Fanclub for 37 years, and while some parts of being in a band have gotten easier with time, the simplest things can still trip them up. According to Blake, “It’s difficult when it comes to, y’know, coming up with a name for an album. Especially after you’ve made 12 of them.”
Teenage Fanclub’s 13th album Do Not Dare To Dream — out October 9, 2026 on Merge Records — takes its name from one of Blake’s songs on the record, “I Do Not Dare To Dream,” an infectious anthemic song driven by ringing acoustic guitars, joined at the end by duelling electric guitars that wrap around each other like a reassuring hug. Blake says that the title is meant to mock those memes that urge people to “dare to dream,” which to him are “kind of ridiculous... I don’t think the world works that way.”
And yet, just like the song that inspired its name, Do Not Dare To Dream is in no way a gloomy or pessimistic record. Like 2023’s Nothing Lasts Forever, Teenage Fanclub’s 13th album is full of songs that are calmly resolute, taking stock of the fraught state of the world without succumbing to despair. “I Do Not Dare To Dream” describes how it feels when hopelessness becomes a habit, but it does so in a way that offers comfort. Blake’s warm, organ-washed midtempo ballad “Day In The Sun” and McGinley’s “Over And Over” (a haunting and hypnotic song that evokes the harmonies of songs and hymns from centuries ago) both speak to how everyone can find a renewed sense of purpose by opening their hearts.
Raymond: “We can still be cheerful and optimistic in the face of things not being great, you know? My parents’ generation lived in Glasgow when there were bombs falling out of the sky. And here we are, however many years later. Things change.”
Blake says that just like his “Day In The Sun,” the album-opener “There Was You” (a classic “I was lost but now I’m found” song, setting the tone for the album with its relaxed rhythm and singalong melody) and “Be With You Tonight” (a store of musical treasures, with its rippling piano, Mellotron strings and fuzzy dual-guitar instrumental break) were inspired by some positive personal developments, including moving to a new house in the countryside near Glasgow and beginning a new relationship.
Norman: “I’m in a better place now in terms of happiness and wellbeing, and my songs on this album are really just a reflection of that. I’ve found that the easiest thing to write about is yourself. It can be quite cathartic. It’s sort of like doing your own therapy.”
A similar sense of brightness illuminates McGinley’s “Tomorrow People,” a song which — almost by accident — takes its name from a 1970s British science-fiction series.
Raymond: “There was a whiteboard in the studio, so we started writing song titles on it. Made up, stupid titles. I don’t know how it started, but the titles were based on TV series from the ’70s and ’80s, and one of those was Tomorrow People. I couldn’t even remember what the TV series was like, but I started thinking about ‘Tomorrow People’ as a concept, and I think I started singing, as a guide vocal, some joke thing about ‘Tomorrow People’ in the outro section, something I was making up in the moment. And then I thought, ‘There’s something in that.’ So, the title started as a joke, but the song isn’t a joke.”
“Tomorrow People” has an unusual structure, beginning as a toe-tapping number about going through the motions from day to day while trying to maintain faith in the future. Then the song breaks suddenly for an organ solo at the two-minute mark, before shifting into a new phase. In the song’s second half, McGinley sings in a hushed but insistent voice about what “the Tomorrow People know.” It’s as though the song rewards its singer’s belief in a better world to come.
Norman: “I really like ‘Tomorrow People.’ The way that its two sections are quite different. It’s a lot of fun to play when it gets into the metronomic beat in the latter section. I like the optimism in the lyric. The idea that the world could be a better place. I think the ‘Tomorrow People’ are the people you would hope would exist in the future.” Why not?
Blake and McGinley are joined on Do Not Dare To Dream by their bandmates Euros Childs (keyboards and vocals), Francis Macdonald (drums), and David McGowan (bass). This quintet has played together long enough now that neither of Teenage Fanclub’s principal songwriters and guitarists feel the need to fuss over their songs or work up arrangements before they enter the studio. They’d rather wait for the rest of the group’s input.
Raymond: “What I want to hear is not necessarily an idealized sense of what ‘a good record’ is. I want to do something that has an identity that exists with the people, with us. I want to hear the personalities of the people involved.”
Norman: “We’ve been playing together for such a long time, and the guys are all really great musicians. The thing is to not be too precious about your own songs in terms of arrangement and structure. That’s something that we do collectively. What happens is you end up having something that’s maybe slightly different than what you had initially envisaged, but it is invariably better.”
The initial sessions took place over 14 days at Black Bay Studio, in the township of Kirkibost, on the Scottish Outer Hebrides island of Great Bernera. Teenage Fanclub likes to take advantage of what a studio has available to use, and at Black Bay the band found a Domus church organ (prominently heard on many songs, including “Over And Over”) and a lot of different synthesizers. Euros Childs on keys brings a lot of sonic colour on this record, from the ’70s sound of the Solina String Ensemble on “Tomorrow People” to the Mellotron flutes on McGinley’s gently reflective “Take Time”, and across every other song. Add to that the musicality of David McGowan’s counterpoint melodies on bass and Francis Macdonald playing so freely and expressively on the drums and you can hear how it all adds up to the confident collective identity of the band that McGinley was talking about.
As longtime fans are likely aware, Teenage Fanclub likes to record each album in a new place so that they can let its unique atmosphere influence the music. Great Bernera is their most remote recording location yet, which helped the band focus on the work but also put them in a place of awe, surrounded as they were by the crashing sea and ancient ruins.
Norman: “Not too far from the studio, on the adjacent island of Lewis, there’s an ancient monument called the Callanish Stones, which is older than Stonehenge. The whole area is kind of magical.”
Raymond: “It’s a place where they had a lot of Neolithic monuments. Later on it was a Viking area. And on our time off, we’d go see these things which are like, I don’t know, 5000 years old. Some of us went for a walk every morning, ‘round over the hills and stuff. I think all that plays into the feeling on the record, being in this kind of timeless landscape with connections to unknown civilizations from a long, long time ago. All those things that make you feel small, but in a good way.”
The result is a collection of songs suffused with the proper perspective of musicians who have been around for a while, recorded in a place that has been around even longer. As Blake puts it, “I think what happens is you just move from one thing into the next and before you know it, 30 years have passed. McGinley adds: “Yeah, it’s been a while since we started doing this thing we do, but to us it feels like no time at all. In the place where we made the record people would have been singing thousands of years ago. Life is short, but music is eternal.”