TEENAGE Fanclub play Leeds University Union tonight in the wake of making their long-awaited return with their tenth album, Here, in September.

Founder members Norman Blake, Raymond McGinley and Gerard Love recorded the 12 tracks with soundman David Henderson, regular drummer Francis Macdonald and keyboard player Dave McGowan in three distinctly different environments: initially at Vega in rural Provence, then at McGinley's home in Glasgow, before the record was mixed at Clouds Hill in the industrial heart of Hamburg.

As ever, the songwriting on the first Teenage Fanclub record since 2010's Shadows represents democracy in action, with four numbers each by Blake, McGinley and Love.

From the almighty chime of opener I’m In Love, through The First Sight’s ecstatic soul search, to With You's paean to unerring friendship, the Scots have writen a dozen songs about "the only things that truly matter: life and love".

Teenage Fanclub may have Scottish roots but they are spread farther afield these days. Blake, for example, lives an hour outside Toronto. "I've been there for almost seven years now," he says. "My wife is Canadian and we met when she was the housekeeper where we were making the Grand Prix album [1995] at Kidlington - Richard Branson's studio when Mike Oldfield made his Tubular Bells album there incidentally!

"We lived in Glasgow but then thought it would be glood to come out to Canada."

Blake is amused by his band's latest album title. "It's ironic it's called Here because it was made in about seven places, rather than Glasgow!" he says. "Do you know, we've only ever recorded one of our albums in Glasgow.

"We ended up having far too many songs, but we like to take ourselves outside our comfort zone in different places and every location brought something to the record, influencing the songs and making the recordings more special."

So, why does Here have that title? "It was actually my wife Krista who came up with it. She'd been to a charity shop called Worth A Second Look and found these panels of Canadian landscapes with no artist's name on," says Blake.

He sent an image of one of the panels to his fellow band members, with the suggestion it would be ideal for album sleeve, and Krista's title of "Here". "'Here' was an evocative word that fitted the image," says Norman.

Here it is, then, and right here, right now, Here can be heard in Leeds tonight.