Suede

Yeah, the newest Suede and Phoenix albums are tied for the most unlistenable mastering in recent history award.

You all need to listen to the most recent Phoenix record to hear an example of what a brick wall really sounds like.

― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, February 13, 2014 8:38 PM (54 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Death Magnetic and Vapour Trails bad? Or worse!?

Death Magnetic I've never heard. Vapour Trails I've not listened to in years, so can't say. But the Phoenix hurt my ears I turned it off. Bloodsports hasn't hurt me the same way, but then, like I said, I don't think the first Suede album or DMS are sterling audiophile works, so my expectations were not for some sort of Steely Dan slickery.

i literally couldn't stand to listen beyond 3 tracks of the new album. i hate where his voice sits, the shrillness, the shininess, everything. i'm sure the songs are maybe better live but.. urgh.

I'd thought the problem with 'Bloodsports' was as much in the mix as the master, but I'm no expert.

I'll agree on the Phoenix album. It's actually given me a small headache listening to it, completely off-putting mastering job.

another recently unearthed, needlessly tense very early 90s Suede interview. christ knows what show it is (MTV Europe?) but Toyah hosts!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZG5nhykpzGc

production on bloodsports v dissapointing yes, but good songs and singing imo - would like to the material live, which hopefully will happen since Suede are touring to back their UPCOMING ALBUM NIGHT THOUGHTS
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_Thoughts_%28album%29

I can't wait for this!

I see that they're working with Buller again on this one, hopefully they'll approve a mastering job on it that serves the songs well.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Undercurrent_(Bill_Evans_and_Jim_Hall_album)

yeah, I'm hyped too!

looks like a v good Bill Evans album, is it somehow suede-related?

The cover on the new Suede alb looks very similar

aaah, of course! indeed it does

Another Suede album that'll clash with the release of a Bowie album.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AL15Nvlf7ZU

Pretty good song. Around the chorus is occured to me that it could pass for something like Muse if the Muse singer were singing, but then it would suck.

There should be a thread for bands associated with specific fonts.

I was just coming here to post that Bowie is trying to steal their thunder again. Does this mean we can expect a new My Bloody Valentine record that month too?

Looking forward to a new album even though I'm not keen on Outsiders.

I quite like it, and I'm curious as to what the rest of the album is going to be like. From the looks of things, they're showcasing the album at some gigs next month, so now doubt that stuff'll be all over Youtube afterwards.

*now=no

not bad, all abt the chorus, verse is just a vehicle

sad his voice is so manipulated

btw stating the obv: bowie coincidence thing is kind of interesting since brett is one of the singers who took bowie's style most to heart

It's telling that the better Britpop bands seemed to be more influenced by Bowie/Roxy and contemporary '90s sounds and the ones that have aged dreadfully were more influenced by the '60s.

^word

interesting idea although, far from me the intention to defend them, oasis were more influenced by the pistols/t-rex/baggy than the 60s, to me (I suppose you had them in mind !).

Oh yeah, I definitely detect Pistols/T-Rex/Baggy in Oasis' sound, particularly on the first album, but after that the Beatles fetishism seemed to kick in, particularly with Liam Gallagher and his Lennon fixation...

I also had Cast, Ocean Colour Scene, Kula Shaker etc. in mind too.

that's true. the first album was fun then they became old bores.
the exact moment that happened was the "whatever" single, I guess.
(I think even noel gallagher agrees that only their first album was good !)

oh yeah, all these terrible, terrible bands...

but I guess it's the wrong thread to talk about oasis !

xxxpost:

Whereas bands like Suede, Pulp, Super Furry Animals, Supergrass and Blur seemed to come from more of a Bowie/Roxy thing, and weren't closed to soaking up what was going on around them at the time. I know that Blur started off as a baggy/shoegaze hybrid and a lot what made of Albarn doing a "Ray Davies" thing in the mid '90s, but musically I always detected far more late '70s/early '80s New Wave in Blur's sound than I ever did The Kinks. 'For Tomorrow' and 'Strange News From Another Star', just to name two, are Bowie as fuck, 'Trouble In The Message Centre' is very Numan etc.

Yeah, totally the wrong thread, but I didn't wanna bump the Britpop thread again!

this doesn't sound half bad
http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/21417-night-thoughts/
will try and blast it when I get home

hum. I must say this got me interested (although I didn't care about the previous one and the little I heard of the new one seems meh...).
I'll give it a try but I don't expect much !

I thought the last one was great (b-sides were a bit dull though aside from "Nothing Can Stop Us Now") but yeah haven't been crazy about the little I've heard from this . . . that review gives me hope.

Same here. Bloodsports was so eager to please but the songs were really good so they got away with it. These new songs have done nothing for me at all.

http://thequietus.com/articles/19571-suede-night-thoughts-review

Hrm. I was looking forward to this, because I love Suede and liked "Bloodsports" a lot, but then I sort of stopped looking forward to it. Then some positive notices started popping up and my enthusiasm went up again. But now I'm encountering a little too much hyperbole for comfort. "Musically, Night Thoughts is the most solid and focussed-sounding album Suede have ever realized." Guess I'll find out soon enough.

too much hyperbole for comfort, good expression

psyched too though!

Brett ranks the Suede albums:

http://noisey.vice.com/blog/rank-your-records-suede-brett-anderson?utm_source=noiseytwitterus

I really, really enjoyed Bloodsports and have liked what I've heard from Night Thoughts, and also the fact it's getting such good reviews is encouraging - I can see myself liking this record a hell of a lot.

I keep getting surprised by the good reviews Bloodsports gets, including Brett ranking it so high... I may give it another try.
And I feel the new one will leave me scratching my head too !

I'm surprised Brett is so happy with the production on Bloodsports, it's so offensive, sounds compressed, not a pleasant listen - but good songs and good playing

good interview

ah, so the new album is on spotify.
I'll give it a try this w-e...

http://www.metacritic.com/music/night-thoughts/suede

pr for this alb is amazing! gave it a quick background play in the office, sounded good

naw, too damn noisey - production makes it (on first listen) very hard on the ears, it's like trebly noise rock (not what I want from suede)

so even though songs sound good, I'm afraid I won't be listening much to this one - just like Bloodsports I'll be waiting for a good live album with these songs

Psyched to listen to this in an hour or so, but those first two albums are so Brit-pop era treble-heavy that that seems like a weird complaint. That lack of low-end and shrill guitars, I could never tell if that was bad production or just an affectation, like someone heard "Raw Power" and thought, I want my rock album to sound like that, but I've gotten used to it.

I agree that the first album lacked low-end (Butler also had trouble with that if I remember correctly some interviews). DMS was better on that matter... but then they drowned it all in reverb !
still, I loved these first two so the sound wasn't that much of an issue.
I guess it won't be one for the new one either if the songs are good (which I doubt since, after giving Bloodsport another try, I still find the songs alright but very generic Suede... the sound is not even an issue !)

I think Dog Man Star has great sound, and high production value too with strings and all. I think it's down to modern production techniques, it's like too much is happening at once in the soundscape - it becomes noisey, shrill, sounds compressed. So it's not because I miss bass, just that it sounds sort of unintentionally MBVish to my ears. But will of course give it more spins.

like for all the treble on DMS it's a quite relaxed sonic "room" for me