Suede "Bloodsports" (2013)

Bloodsports
release date: Mar. 18, 2013
format: digital
[album rate: 2,5 / 5] [2,66]
producer: Ed Buller
label: Suede Ltd. / Sony Music - nationality: England, UK

Track highlights: 3. "It Starts and Ends With You" - 4. "Sabotage" - 10. "Faultlines"

6th studio album by Suede released through Sony Music Entertainment and produced by Ed Buller who produced the band's first three albums.
The album was generally met with positive reviews, which I find hard to understand. The band officially disbanded in the Fall of 2003 and Anderson and Butler were together for a short period of time with The Tears before Suede was brought back together in 2010 playing concerts everywhere. As a 'natural' consequence they started recording new material and out came this long-awaited album in 2013. Maybe they should just do like many other 'dinosaurs' of pop / rock: stay to the good old material that people basically want to hear, and just play live concerts - that's also where the money is, and I bet they do that well, but they don't seem to have anymore to say, artistically, and I think it's a bit sad. This release is not just another one in a series of lesser albums by Suede as it's easily the band's so far lowest artistic point.
Not recommended.
[ allmusic.com, The Guardian 4 / 5, NME 3,5 / 5 stars ]

Suede "Singles" (2003)

Singles (compilation)
release date: Oct. 13, 2003
format: cd
[album rate: 4 / 5]
producer: various
label: Sony Music - nationality: England, UK

Compilation album by Suede encompassing all the band's A-side single releases from 1992 to 2003 including two brand new singles - released to promote this album. It was released only a few weeks before the band officially declared its split. Suede had done studio sessions to record a follow-up to A New Morning, but the album was shelved, and this then became the band's last album - or: at least until a new incarnation came together almost a decade later.
Overall, the album is a great collection and looking at the individual songs represented really underlines its greatness. I just don't like the random order of the singles as the band stylistically, as well as soundwise, has moved from one point through various, specific stages, to end its musical tour in a completely different corner an universe, and listening to the whole album from start to finish is like a bit of a mish-mash. A much better idea would have been to release a collection containing all of the band's singles: A- and B-sides together drawing the band's progression from sheer glam rock [revival] over art rock and alt. rock to pop / rock and synthpop, although, such a release would require 3 discs. Nearly all songs on the album are taken from the band's studio albums, and this basically just serves to sum things up, and to attract attention from non-fans - i.e. collecting more dough!
[ allmusic.com 4,5 / 5 stars ]

Suede "A New Morning" (2002)

A New Morning
release date: Sep. 30, 2002
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,33]
producer: Stephen Street, John Leckie, Dave Eringa
label: Columbia Records - nationality: England, UK

Track highlights: 1. "Positivity" (4 / 5) - 2. "Obsessions" - 3. "Lonely Girls" - 8a. "[untitled]"

5th studio album by Suede. Now with this they managed to do worse than on their previous album Head Music (1999). The album does contain great tracks but, very much like on the predecessor, most of the tracks are fillers just securing a full album release by a band that just keeps repeating themselves. The best track "Positivity" is the only truly fine track, despite the fact that it sounds like a copy or remake of a single hit on some other Suede album. It's also the only real synthpop track, which seems a bit strange - the rest of the tracks are like an attempt to make more traditional britpop like Blur or Pulp with simple guitar-based compositions, and it really makes it a strange release. After all, it could be a great A-side single with two fine B-sides (tracks #2 and #3), instead it has all these poor and mediocre "bonus" tracks...
One year after the release, Suede disbanded and Anderson and Butler found together in The Tears - or at least for a while.
[ allmusic.com 3,5 / 5, The Guardian 3 / 5, Drowned in Sound 2,5 / 5 stars ]

Suede "Head Music" (1999)

Head Music
release date: May 3, 1999
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,38]
producer: Steve Osborne and Bruce Lampcov
label: Nude Records - nationality: England, UK

Track highlights: 1. "Electricity" - 4. "Everything Will Flow" (4 / 5) - 6. "She's in Fashion" (4 / 5) - 12. "He's Gone" - 13. "Crack in the Union Jack"

4th studio album by Suede. It has taken the band 2½ years to make the album but it still seems somewhat unfinished. Aside from introducing another new band member, Neil Codling on keyboards and synthesizers, it does contain great tracks like "Everything Will Flow" and "She's in Fashion" but it also contains an unprecedented number of album fillers, and the overall impression is an album on receipt - it's made more or less on the same blueprint as Coming Up just with an added synthpop touch (drum programming and synths) by Codling. The album producer Steve Osborne has previously produced for Curve, P.J. Harvey, New Order, and U2, and a similar touch doesn't do anything good for the sound of Suede.
Perhaps the band's new low point has to do with vocalist Brett Anderson's drug abuse - for whatever reasons, the album is a rather uneven experience and an immediate worst studio release from the hands of Suede, imho.
[ allmusic.com 3 / 5, NME 3,5 / 5 stars ]

Suede "Sci-Fi Lullabies" (1997)

Sci-Fi Lullabies (compilation)
release date: Oct. 6, 1997
format: 2 cd
[album rate: 4 / 5]
producer: Ed Buller
label: Nude Records - nationality: England, UK

Track highlights:
Disc 1: 1. "My Insatiable One" (4 / 5) - 3. "Where the Pigs Don't Fly" - 4. "He's Dead" - 8. "My Dark Star" - 9. "Killing of a Flash Boy" - 11. "Modern Boys" - 12. "Together" - 13. "Bentswood Boys" - 14. "Europe Is Our Playground"
Disc 2: 1. "Every Monday Morning Comes" (4 / 5) - 4. "Young Men" - 5. "The Sound of the Streets" (4 / 5) - 6. "Money" (3 / 5) - 8. "This Time" - 11. "Sadie" - 13. "Duchess"

Compilation album by Suede, which indeed is a most interesting release. Normally, compilations are best of, 'most of', or any such labels. It's interesting in that respect that it's the collection of B-side singles to all of the band's single releases - with a total of 27 tracks issued as a 2 discs album. Now, how many bands would promote such an idea with expectations of much success? Very few, I reckon, and that's why this album is quite an accomplishment. Some tracks do seem like leftovers but the above highlighted tracks could easily have been released on any of their so far three studio releases without lowering the standard, and some of the songs would undoubtedly have raised the quality.
Most tracks are (once again) produced by Ed Buller.
[ allmusic.com 4,5 / 5 stars ]

Show lyrics <- click...

~ ~ ~
"My Insatiable One"

"In the high life, I've got this feeling now
I've got this horrible feeling
on the escalator they took it out on him
as the ridiculous world went...oh

oh he is gone
he's my insatiable one
oh he is gone
he's my insatiable one...oh

On the high wire, dressed in a leotard
there wobbles one hell of a retard
on the escalator
we shit paracetemol
as the ridiculous world goes...by

oh he is gone
he's my insatiable one
oh he is gone
he's my insatiable one
oh he is gone
he's my insatiable one
oh he is gone
and he was...my inflatable one"

~ ~ ~
"Every Monday Morning Comes"

"Oh when you and I
Watch the planes go by, silver in the sky,
Do whatever we like,
Oh you and me
See the birds in the sea
People on the streets, do whatever we please

But every Monday morning comes,
Every Monday morning, yeah
Oh every Monday morning comes
Every Monday morning, yeah
Oh, when you and I

Watch the London sky, Traffic rolling by
Do whatever we like,
So we chase the day away
Feel the morning rain
Piss our money down the drain
And do whatever they say"

~ ~ ~
"The Sound Of The Streets"

"She walks the streets of summer
Inside her there's no future
She walks the streets to pass the time
The cash machines are laughing
At plastic people passing
She walks the streets to pass the time
Sadie, Sadie in the sound of the streets
Insane as anything, ah ah

Sadie, Sadie kn-knows the sound of the streets
It's the same as anything, ah ah

She sees the midnight taxis
The toilets and the backstreets
She feels the wheels and needs a line
Outside there's crazy parties
There's dames in faces laughing
So many ways to pass the time

Sadie, Sadie kn-knows the sound of the streets
It's the same as anything, ah ah

She walks the streets of summer
Inside her there's no future
She walks the streets to pass the time
Inside she feels like winter
For the child that died within her
She walks the streets to pass the time

Sadie, Sadie kn-knows the sound of the streets
It's the same as anything, ah ah"

~ ~ ~

Suede "Coming Up" (1996)

Coming Up
release date: Sep. 2, 1996
format: cd
[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,88]
producer: Ed Buller
label: Nude Records - nationality: England, UK

Tracklist: 1. "Trash" (3,5 / 5) - 2. "Filmstar" - 3. "Lazy" (4 / 5) - 4. "By the Sea" (3,5 / 5) - 5. "She" - 6. "Beautiful Ones" (4 / 5) - 7. "Starcrazy" - 8. "Picnic by the Motorway" - 9. "The Chemistry Between Us" (4 / 5) - 10. "Saturday Night" (4 / 5)

3rd studio album by Suede and the 3rd consecutive and so far last album to be produced by Ed Buller. With this, the band appears with a new line-up with Richard Oakes (replacing Bernard Butler) on guitar (Oakes had been selected among approx. 500 candidates to be guitarist of the band), and Suede introduces a more simple and lighter pop-minded album, which feels much as a natural follow-up to the glamorous debut with focus on glam rock, pop / rock (loads of 'flanger' guitar effect), and gone are the more complex and darker orchestrated arrangements found on Dog Man Star.
The album fared better than the '94 album (as it sold 'Platinum', selling more than 300.000 copies), and it also went to number #1 on the British album charts, just like the debut.
In the late 90s I found it a bit of a difficult one - I liked the hit songs, but also felt it too deep into "simple pop", which I found was the wrong turn compared to the stronger rock-bonds of Dog Man Star. In retrospect, I find it a much better album than just plain matter over content. I think, it represents a fine and durable collection of songs and it also displays the unique sound they established with this album, which I simply consider the band's second best studio release.
Recommendable.
[ allmusic.com 4 / 5 stars ]

Suede "Dog Man Star" (1994)

Dog Man Star
release date: Oct. 10, 1994
format: cd
[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,92]
producer: Ed Buller
label: Nude Records - nationality: England, UK

Track highlights: 2. "We Are the Pigs" (4 / 5) - 3. "Heroine" - 4. "The Wild Ones" (4,5 / 5) - 6. "The Power" (4,5 / 5) - 9. "The 2 of Us" - 11. "The Asphalt World" (4 / 5) - 12. "Still Life" (4 / 5)

2nd studio album by Suede introduces a new sound, although, it's made with the same producer. It has a more subtle, less glam rock production, and it's more orchestrated with horns and strings, making it more of a chamber pop release than its predecessor (e.g. "Still Life" exits with strings and horns playing Ravel's "Bolero"). With this, it appears that the band wanted to distance itself from the britpop hype and the album wasn't launched with the same pop hit videos, which may or may not be the reason to its fine reception among music critics.
I find Dog Man Star an even better release than their praised debut, and it's a highly acclaimed follow-up to a fine and original debut. It has a conceptual feel but failed to sell as rapidly as the debut. To me, this is their best studio release, and it's by many considered their masterpiece, but it also marks the end of the original line-up as the band's main musical composer and guitarist, Bernard Butler (who had already been labelled the best guitarist of a generation) left the band after the release due to disagreements on the band's musical direction. Like the debut this is enlisted in "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die".
[ allmusic.com, NME 4,5 /5, Q Magazine 5 / 5 stars ]

Suede "Suede" (1993)

Suede [debut]
Release date: Mar. 29, 1993
format: cd (2011 remaster)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,58]
producer: Ed Buller
label: Edsel Records - nationality: England, UK

Track highlights: 1. "So Young" - 2. "Animal Nitrate" (4 / 5) - 3. "She's Not Dead" (4 / 5) - 5. "Pantomime Horse" - 6. "The Drowners" - 7. "Sleeping Pills" - 9. "Metal Mickey" - 11. "The Next Life" (4 / 5)

Studio album debut by Suede originally released on Nude Records is a glam rock and britpop release. The album is produced by Ed Buller, who would go on to produce all their first three albums and the 2013 comeback album, Bloodsport. The sound of the band is slightly different here compared to their successive albums as guitars and Brett's voice are more distorted - especially on their single hit tracks ("So Young", "Animal Nitrate"), which is a kind of a shame, I think. Beside that, I think it's quite a strong release with really fine songs. Suede is known as a britpop band alongside Blur, Pulp, Oasis, Manic Street Preachers, The Verve, and several other artists of the '90s but Suede has a distinct glam rock style that distinguishes it from the others.

Suede was rather well-received by the British music press, as it was nominated to a lot of prizes, and also won the Mercury Music Prize in '93 ahead of Sting, PJ Harvey, and New Order, among others.

I purchased the album shortly after the release but had a difficult time getting accustomed to the British glam rock revival and actually resold it a year or two later in a stack with other cds in order to finance new albums. In the mid-90s I simply found it too extravagant; however, I got hold of the album again at some point in the late 90s, and when the remastered 2-disc Deluxe Edition was released in 2011, I simply purchased the album to see if the process of the remastering would improve the sound. The release contain an additional 7 bonus tracks (demos) and a disc consisting of B-sides (and 'Extras') with two single releases from the album, which makes it a fine bargain. However, I'm not fully convinced that the remaster makes that big difference. Edsel has made it a bit of their 'virtue' to harvest the market - and especially the independent music industry - for small record labels that have ceased to exist. Edsel then buy a specific record label's back catalogue with all master recordings, and then engage an engineer to 'remaster' the original releases, add (unedited) bonus material and resell the whole lot as 'Remastered Deluxe Edition'. Now who's to blame? Fact is, they make big profit from it, and we all help Edsel to exist. Naturally, a remastered edition with (the right) people involved in the original recording, mixing or mastering process, as well as say: central band members, would serve as a more adequate setup, which is not the case here. The album is enlisted in "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die".

[ allmusic.com 5 / 5, Rolling Stone, Q Magazine 4 / 5 stars ]

Suede

~ ~ ~

Suede: formed 1989, London, UK. Current members: Brett Anderson (vocals, 1989-2003; 2010-), Mat Osman (bass, 1989-2003; 2010-), Simon Gilbert (drums, 1991-2003; 2010-), Richard Oakes (guitar, 1994-2003; 2010-), Neil Codling (keyboards, 1996-2001; 2010-).

Former members: Justin Welch (drums, 1989-91), Mike Joyce (drums, 1991), Bernard Butler (guitar, 1989-94), Alex Lee (rhythm guitar, keyboards, backing vocals, 2001-03).

Aka The London Suede. Suede was the new hype already before releasing anything. They had been labelled "The Best New Band in Britain" by the English music press (who has always been notoriously "good" at hyping new artists). In the initial state of a line-up, Mike Joyce, former member of The Smiths, played drums for a short period, although, he left the band before they made any major releases. After a decline in their sales and after two poorly received albums, the band split in 2003. In 2004, Brett and Bernard (together with 3 other band members) formed The Tears, a band that lasted until 2006. In 2010 Suede was officially a band again. My first acquisition of Suede was the debut. I believe, I bought it second-hand round about 1994 but before their second album was released. I enjoyed it... some but eventually found it too strange and extravagant, too "glamourish" and resold it to buy something else, I guess. After listening to Dog Man Star, I was impressed, and rebought the debut. The only albums, I have bought upon their release were Coming Up, Head Music, and Sci-Fi Lullabies. The other albums have been bought some time after their original release. I have always had ambivalent emotions for their music. Some of their songs are utter beauty, and I love the electric energy on i.e. Sci-Fi... and the early period, and although I enjoy their harmonic (lost) love songs, I also think it too much at times. Their strength is both the energetic 'pop/rock' songs and the slow ballads, but sometimes the 'glam' 'pop' and Brett's wining phrasing are sometimes... over the hill. You really have to be in the mood for this music, but when you are, it's really great.

~ ~ ~