The Concept

"The Concept" is a song recorded by Scottish rock band Teenage Fanclub. The song was released on 21 October 1991 through Creation Records, as the second single from the band's third studio album Bandwagonesque. The song was written and sung by vocalist and guitarist Norman Blake. The song peaked at number 12 on Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart in the USA, and at number 51 on the UK Singles Chart. Background The song lyrically centres on the object of the narrator's affection, a woman described in the song's opening lines: Writer James Cosby of PopMatters finds the lyric "a bit tongue-in-cheek," and calls the song "a quite clear character study of maybe anyone in a "scene". Blake goes on to sing rather thoughtfully in describing a woman who really is pretty cool and hip—though maybe a bit too much for her own good." Blake, in a 2015 interview, revealed the song's lyrics came together only twenty minutes prior to recording the song. He remembered that much of Bandwagonesque contained lyrics written in an impromptu manner, and that his only goal with "The Concept" was to "write something with a narrative."