Suede

I would've liked their 2nd album lots if it weren't so damn over the top AND stupid. Brett Anderson should not trill. From what I've heard after that rekkid, he hasn't improved much. The music was quite agreeable, though (if a bit grandiose and grandiose).

That all being said, Suede are both classic and dud. Suede with Bernie were absolutely fantastic (despite godawful production), dogmanstar was one of my favorite albums for ages. Then Bernie left. Brett's voice has gotten continually worse (which would've happened with or without Bernie, just very convenient it happened when it did), and the song structures are not as good. They've become a parody of themselves. Though the dance mix of Everything Will Flow is fantastic.

Search: The first two albums, Stay Together EP

Destroy: Neil Codling.

But they do a cover of Elvis Costello's "Shipbuilding" that I absolutely love, probably more so than the original. It's shorter, less subtle, and very glam, but great because of that .. check it out, if you're a Suede afficionado.

Most unfair, he's left the band too. ;-) I always appreciated his Louche Bastard nature on stage.

Anyway, I'm hardly neutral in this, as I fired up the Suede fan mailing list six years back and have stuck with it ever since. They've definitely had their ups and downs, but I still like 'em -- still, the new album really does need to do better than the last. Right now I'm looking forward to the DVD video collection, and they just played in Portugal and apparently did a great job.

I think : Bernard-era - not very good at all. Bad production, bad Bowie impersonation from Anderson and as everyone agrees, mainly dire words. "To the Birds" (B-side of The Drowners) is ace though.

"Coming Up" - similar production, slightly worse songs, a few good hooks - overall the sound of wheels spinning.

"Head Music" - Their best. Inessential, but likeable.

As for Pinefox's question about significance - I'd say not, at least not in any definition of 'significance' that I recognize. They were/are a competent glam-rock band for the 90's who failed to transcend their all-too-obvious influences (Bowie/Steve Harley/Roxy).

Anyone heard Bernard's solo LP? It was so boring and bland I wanted to fling it in the garbage; traded it in for a couple bucks instead.

That said, Head Music was the absolute end for me. It was painfully dull, and the lyrics were so beyond the pale it just seemed ludicrous to keep listening. I tried liking it (in fact I still sort of like Can't Get Enough), but in the end I've lost all affection for them.

Still, I'd probably get the dvd if it wasn't Region 2 encoding.

But I did think them significant. I think they represented a union of 'indie world' and 'media hype' - of alternative and mainstream, more simply - which seems natural now but was genuinely strange then. They did on (retrospectively) a homely scale what Oasis then went and did on an absurd scale. In other words, I think they represent a major stage in The Reclassification Of 'Indie'.

I also think they had good material, and good musicianship. The first LP was a fine debut, but DMS beat it - it was a remarkable record, a masterpiece, within the Suede perspective. If you don't like that 'world' (lyrics, sound etc) then it's just an ugly folly, I daresay, but if you do (as to an extent I did when it came out) it felt like a very major achievement. Better, I'd still say, than Different Class, This Is Hardcore, The Great Escape, Be Here Now and a bunch of other Britpop behemoths. (But not necessarily better than, for instance, Parklife - another record I view as Significant.)

I loved the flashness of Coming Up when it came along in the autumn of 96. You just had to admire Anderson’s survivalist instincts despite it being obvious they were never to be centre stage again. It had a cetain romance about it. They went for that deliberately cold, robotic, and mechanized sound with Head Music but what initially to me sounded brilliant soon wore away after a few weeks – it was the Suede LP that was stranded without context.

Saw them from speaker distance in the 100 club between their first 2 singles at the height of the hype and it was fantastic esp. after spending the summer at lank haired grunge gigs. I remember some of the radio interviews around the time of the DMS release. Brett seemed fucked out of it from the drugs but the album seemed like a strange but necessary anomaly in those last months of 1994 amongst the explosion of jungle, trip hop and Loaded culture. Anderson might have been an asshole but rather him than the whining and supercilious musoness of Butler.

Fave songs: The Chemistry Between Us, Wild Ones,

But THEN I SAW SENSE

I mean, just think of it this way, Brett looked less Instant Decadance than the Manics did. I mean, talk about putting any old clap on and then pretending to be fabulous, lordy.

NICK YOU HAVE NO SENSE.

So what does everyone think of the McAlmont & Butler album then?

That new single gives me no hope of great things to come... But I'm not really representative of their public anymore I guess since I didn't really care for any of their latest albums.

I still haven't properly dug into Suede Mark III (although bloody love "Fautlines"). I like the new single, although weirdly the beat makes it sound very "indie" in a way Suede aren't usually.

Is there anything as good as Apollo 13 on the rest of the Tears record?

Oh I love the Tears record !
For me it's an approximation of what the 3rd Suede album could have been if Butler had stayed : lighter, poppier with a rnb/soul touch (basically a mix between coming up and yes !) but 8 years later...

some interesting ideas on their recent material, I just can't get with the production

would love to catch them live, happy they're still at it

Bloodsports was a 'back to basics' effort that fell almost completely flat imo, and the last two albums have been pretty great, so...hmm

Haha we have the exact opposite opinion on this run of albums. Bloodsports is the only one I'd save in a fire.

I'm experiencing diminishing returns with the reunion albums. Apart from Barriers being a slightly disappointing opener, I thought Bloodsports was fantastic and a great apology record for A New Morning and how it ended the first time round. Snowblind, It Starts & Ends With You and Hit Me are great Suede in glam pop mode moments and the darker ballads at the end are all really effective. I still play the album a lot. Night Thoughts is good but can be a bit much in one sitting. Some of the upbeat songs (especially Like Kids) aren't up to much. I've listened to Blue Hour several times and still can't remember a single song on it. It's not a New Morning style embarrassment, but just a bit bland.

Overall, I'm glad they're still going and they've done an excellent job of reminding people of why they were so special. It was tragic how it ended. If they'd called it a day after Head Music (using the good songs like Simon, Oceans and You Belong to Me from the New Morning era as the token new songs on the best of) their legacy wouldn't have been in tatters for those few years.

I'll still check out the new album. Based on the new single and the description, I'm actually looking forward it more than the last one.

Well FINALLY touring here in the US again. Plus another band, it turns out!

https://americansongwriter.com/the-london-suede-manic-street-preachers-tour-north-america-in-2022/

O_O

Since I've been digging through and posting old Late Night talk show performances...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEKGxtNov_4

Suede doing the Top 10 US Modern Rock hit "Metal Mickey" on Jay Leno in '93.

Holy shit!!!! Suede US tour!

xpost Saw that at the time!

And yes a tour at long last. They did do a one-off at Coachella when the reunion first happened but nothing over here since -- it's quite literally over 25 years now since the last US tour.

I somehow totally missed that there was another new album coming. I read some review of their secret show this past week and it compared them to the Cult, which I'd never considered. But this song sounds a bit like the Cult, lol, and is also pretty good:

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

(YT makes it sound like it was recorded in a bathroom, for some reason)

Got two pretty good seats in the presale, $250 total inc. fees. Suck it, Springsteen.

I got middling but only ~$70 seats for Toronto, still happy! It’s a small and beautiful venue

xxp it sounds a bit Cult-y but is that because of the guitar intro and there being a shit-ton of reverb on everything? Anyway this song rules but yet again I'm wishing I could hear Brett's vocals clearly:

"We are stink in the aaaarse" = "We are stained in our hearts"

"Laying in the Roman" = "Lying in the road"

"We are stink in the aaaarse" can be the new "She smells farts."

Got GA on the floor at the Warfield, $70 including charges! No complaints!

Looks like there are still lots of reasonable tix here. Every once in a while I check back in, see them and think, shit, I should just buy some more! Kind of like when you're in a record store and you find a super cheap copy of an album you like and just buy it to give to someone some day.

Looking over my old ticket stubs I have seen Suede twice

June 11, 1993 Hollywood Colonnade

And then with the Cranberries
October 2, 1993

I might have also seen them when I lived in San Francisco as well if they toured?

I want to go but this might come down to the 1975 or. If that's the case then the 1975 will win.

And then with the Cranberries
October 2, 1993

Was there as well! Had been hanging with Sony/Polygram promo friends beforehand, which led to an amusing run in with half the Cranberries along the way.

Really enjoying Autofiction so far, and it really reminds me - appropriately enough - of the Manics.

Brett almost sounds like JDB at points of That Boy on the Stage

"We are stink in the aaaarse" = "We are stained in our hearts"

― Being cheap is expensive (snoball)

I was hearing "we are Sting in our hearts".

Sounds good on first listen. Lots of it reminds me of early U2. They really did an excellent job with this whole comeback.

this is decent, improves after a rocky start, but i'll take the two previous albums over it

I'm loving this one. Not as much as Night Thoughts but for sure more than (what I remember of) Blue Hour.

Really is a strong album. Occurred to me today that there really are very few examples of a reunion phase like this happening at all to work so well; even if, as past posts are showing, there's high points and lower ones for folks -- I enjoy them all in different ways -- to have a run like this makes me think of nothing so much as Roxy Music's late seventies return or perhaps more appropriately the continuing existences of Wire, and even in the latter case Bruce Gilbert permanently left a while back into their third phase whereas this looks like it'll just keep on until the core five decide they've had their fun -- given the reception this album's received already and the live reports I'm sure we're getting a fifth album and therefore a full equal run to the first decade. Almost uncharted territory.

Like I wrote on Twitter, the production for once mixes the voice and guitars so that they're not shrilly at odds.

I haven't heard this record yet but I will soon. I notice I'm flip-flopping all over the place in the thread above about the post-2010 stuff. For most of the past decade, I think I mostly only ever listened to these records on headphones, where they do tend to sound truly diabolical. Recently, I made a point of listening to all of them through speakers - even reading the lyrics while doing so - and the experience was revelatory. Fuck me, with a bit of air between your ears and the overstuffed arrangements, these records are really fucking good. Night Thoughts especially. I've never heard such perfect descriptions of stifled middle-aged horniness. For example, I was amused to discover that the song Outsiders, which I'd previously dismissed as Suede-by-numbers with a title to match, was actually about two people having the kind of affair where you literally have to fuck outdoors.

Anyway, when I do hear the new one, I'll give it a proper listen before jumping in with any criticisms.

I look forward to your listen.

Because streaming is so easy I tend to listen to music in the shittiest manner possible, almost like a transistor radio. but when I listen on the stereo and actually get the physicality of the music, it's such a refreshing change.

Surprised to see this go in at number two and be their highest charting album since Head Music. I know album sales are crazy low at the moment, but 14,000 is actually not too bad and apparently higher than the last few (Blue Hour opened with 10,000). Even though I'm still unsure about some of the album, I'm happy for them and what they've achieved with this comeback. Keeping up the momentum this long since their reunion show in 2010 is not something I expected. It's crazy to think that the same time has passed from Bloodsports to the new one as their debut to A New Morning.

I bought tickets to their Chicago show, since I never expected I’d see them live. (I was also too young for their peak, having only started listening to them in 2005, in my 20s). I remember hearing the Tears and some of their first comeback LP, but I see I’ve missed a lot in the interim. Guess I’ll have to brush up on their last few, or at least, find a "best of" playlist that covers the last ten years. I have even less idea of what the Manics have been up to—I’m a fan of The Holy Bible more than I’m a fan of the band, though I dig assorted other songs.

I keep getting stuck replaying Personality Disorder and forget to listen to the rest of the record

Jesus Christ was that ever a show last night.

They were so great! Really hope they don’t take another 25 years to come back.

(to the sf Bay Area)

Show is tonight, I'm psyched. Looks like they might have reduced prices for leftover seats.

I saw a couple tweets from Mat Osman today or yesterday, one making fun of overcooked American food and the other making fun of Chicago's currently gloomy weather, and I immediately thought to myself, come on, dude, you're British, you invented overcooked food and gloomy weather.

The timing is nice; I revisited their discography and bootlegs a year or so ago, for the first time since I fell for them in 2007. My fervor for them at 38 year old isn't quite what it was at 23 (I'm less tolerant of Anderson's yelps) but it's a literal "once in a lifetime" chance. "The Wild Ones" was my go-to wallowing track whenever I'd fly home after visiting my long-distance girlfriend, and I spent many a sore-fingered afternoon trying to replicate Butler's guitar lines. Plus, the amazing Pavement shows last month thawed my resistance to seeing 30 year old bands. Finally, it'll be nice to just be among other fans; I've never met anyone IRL who's heard of Suede, and have only heard them in the wild at a Britpop night at the bar I used to frequent. (Club Foot, for fellow Chicagoans who remember it.)

It's more accurate to say I'm a fan of The Holy Bible than of the Manics; I bought the reissue when I was just discovering Howard Zinn etc. in the Bush years, so all those leftist quotes and iconography hooked me. I was on the fence about staying for them, but their setlist has enough stuff I'm familiar with that I might as well. Perhaps all those old ILX references to Nicky Wire in a banana suit will finally make sense...

At least he recognized how beautiful the venue is:

Chicago’s Auditorium Theatre is stunning pic.twitter.com/CNGlOunXye

— Mat Osman (@matosman) November 16, 2022

Wow, what a band.

So, I've never really understood Manic Street Preachers, and indeed, midway through the opening set, my wife leaned over and said "I don't get this band." I certainly can't see them following Suede, have they really been swapping headlining slots?

Yup, they have. Over in the UK that would likely make total sense but here...yeah, hm.

Suede headlining SF meant I had the right night.

Suede opening in Toronto means my friend and I get to leave early and go for a few drinks before getting home at a reasonable hour on a work night!

So which band is likely to be opening tonight in Silver Spring? Chicago was the last show.

Probably Suede, as the Manics opened in Chicago, and I believe they’re alternating.

I saw Suede at the Øya festival in Oslo in August. I loved it and it was the festival highlight for me. But obe thing surprised me, and that was the lack of new songs. The entire set contained the the new single and one song from "Bloodsports", nothing else from the reunion years, everything else from the 90s even including some deep cuts from the debut album (so great to hear "Pantomime Horse" at a Suede gig in 2022). And they had s new album coming in even, but ignored it completely save for that one single.

Looking at their setlists, this seems to be a typical thing. I like their new albums a lot (especially the two moodier ones in the middle) but they almost ignored that phase completely. This may have made the concert better, because even though the new songs are good, fans are less familiar with it than the old stuff. Especially since this was a festival eith not only hardcore fans in the audience.

Hmm. We got two from the new album, one from Blue Hour, one from Bloodsports and iirc none from Night Thoughts (which may be my fave of the comeback albums). One b-side (Flash Boy), the rest hits (as such). I suspect that because of the dual headliner nature of the set that the band lost some stage time.

I've seen them quite a few times in the last 10 years, and they play a lot more of their newer songs in regular tour gigs. Festivals are definitely greatest hits affairs, and they seem to be treating the US tour that way too. I would expect a few from the new album and its immediate predecessors when I see them in Glasgow in March, though they'll no doubt end the set with a lot of of the big ones.

They played a slew of shows tied in with Autofiction's release that was nothing BUT the new album plus "It Starts And Ends With You." So it does vary.

Giving nothing away about the conversation: when I had that nice chance to hang with the band the other week, it was very clear they're very conscious about their setlist choices and what they play depending on where they're at, the nature of the show etc., and that they're open to turning over ideas among themselves.

Was listening to "Night Thoughts" and boy, remembering back to finally getting to see them a couple of years ago, it feels like a dream. I remember it being cold and wet and foggy and dark (outside) and the band being awesome (inside). Here's a photo Mat Osman's posted of that pissy day:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FhnaRhtXwAAjYSc?format=jpg&name=large

They only just wrapped up the Autofiction tour cycle in China -- they've been crazy huge in East Asia in recent years, a Chinese friend has caught them multiple times now. And the next album is in the works, which will equal the amount they had on the first run. Crazy how great they're having it now.