The best part of seven years on from its release, and the world is still squabbling over whether 'Thirteen' is any good. I listened to it the other day for the first time in four or five years and was astonished - it's far, far better than I remembered. I'd say it's actually rather better than 'Bandwagonesque', though not in the same realm as the sublime 'Grand Prix'. Perhaps the problem is that while 'Bandwagonesque' was an enormous progression on what had come before, this was an incremental step. But still it repays repeated listening. The sad thing is, the band seem to have disowned it - they have disparaged 'Thirteen' in interviews and it's a long time since I've heard them play anything from it live. For those who've not heard it, it's rockier than Grand Prix - 'Hang On' kicks off with the growling riff from T-Rex's '20th Century Boy' before hitting normal Fanclub territory (though it could do without the string coda, arranged by Joe McAlinden of Superstar). In fact, the album sounds like a band at a cusp: do they continue being drunken Indie darlings, or do they knuckle down and apply their collective talents? History tells us they took the latter course, and this was their last drunken fling. But if only we could all have drunken flings that produce music as good as this. Don't expect consistent perfection: there are glitches on this record. But there are also the moments of gorgeousness we've come to expect. And for seven bucks you can't really go wrong.