POLLing of a Flashboy - Suede, "Sci-Fi Lullabies"

This is a lot tougher than the singles poll ... I figure "My Insatiable One" will win though.

Song quality falls off a cliff after "Sound of the Streets", but everything up to and including that is pretty much perfect.

"My Insatiable One" = perfect pop, perfect guitar.

"My Dark Star" and "To the Birds" not far behind.

It's a pity because due to the accident of timing this leaves off all the Head Music B-sides -- seventeen all told! -- which collectively make for a sprawling and interesting mess of an 'album,' it actually all fits on one CD. Everything from their messed-up-as-fuck Fall tribute "Implement Yeah!" to their only released instrumental ("Seascape," I think the title is) to "Let Go," which has CSN-style harmonizing, became a huge chart smash in Sweden and won them a Grammy equivalent there. All pretty strange!

to the birds

Have a soft spot for W.S.D, but only because it's my initials. Otherwise it's likely to be something from the first three, will have to relisten to it again.

I4ve always had a soft spot for "whipsnade".

"Another No One" might be Brett's prettiest lyric ... "you'll never find another no one to take the shit like I have" gets me every time. Brett definitely overused swear words in his lyrics, but here it's actually warranted and perfectly captures the sadness and frustration of the character.

They must have the most impressive b-sides catalogue ever. I could vote for pretty much any of the first fourteen, and not a few of the others. I've got a beautiful version of 'Europe is our Playground' from the Mark Radcliffe show, which I'll probably never hear again 'cos it's on tape. Hell, I can't possibly decide this now - probably a toss-up between 'Flash Boy' and 'The Living Dead'

He's Dead by a nose. i think.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO CANNOT DECIDE CANNOT DECIDE.

oh god oh god.

Flash Boy or Europe Is Our Playground.

Or.. or.... oh god. Can't decide.

the first 11 (basically cd1) would have made the best album of the britpop era !

CD1 is still pretty much my favourite Suede album, ever.

so many i could pick, but i'm going to have to go with The Living Dead

"If I was the wife of an acrobat would I look like the living dead, boy?"

^voted for this as well

To The Birds. Because whenever I hear that grating, petulant voice whine, seemingly from above the clouds, "don't take your life because your bicycle won't fly," I picture that indelible scene in "An American Family" where Lance Loud is actually riding his bicycle in the very same tone! And it gives me a shiver.

without a doubt it's "My Insatiable One." this is one of the best b-sides compilations ever, i never bought it because i owned all the singles before this came out.

"Modern Boys" narrowly beats "Sound of the Streets" with "My Dark Star" in a near third. This album is so much better than any other Suede album.

The first disc at least is probably the best pure b-sides compilation ever imo. The only albums I can think of that come close (past masters 2, hatful of hollow etc) include singles and live tracks. Any other candidates?

I actually think the balance of CD1 would be improved if they'd stuck in Dolly or Painted People - it's all great but it feels a bit one-paced and tasteful in the middle there. Gotta be Flashboy though.

why aren't dolly and painted people on it, by the way (not that I miss them) ?

Listening to Painted People now. I guess it wasn't deemed good enough for disc one ( which it isn't) and wouldn't fit chronologically on disc 2.
Digging out Dolly in a minute.

So that Suede obsessive completists would still have something to stab each other with mascara wands over!

Like a lot of acts, their first b-side was their strongest. Arguably a lot better than its a-side, actually. So my vote for "My Insatiable One", which is easily in my Suede all-time Top 10 best songs.

^^ kate & geir - both truth.

Underwhelmed by Dolly & also amazed at how faded and yellowed my Suede singles are. It really was 16 years ago, bloody hell.
Was fun digging them out and seeing what other singles I bought at the same time... Bono and Gavin Friday wtf?

Never owned Sci-Fi Lullabies, my brother had a copy though and I bought a few of the CD singles. Really can't choose between 'My Dark Star' and 'Killing Of A Flashboy', even after a quick refresher listen on Spotify last night. One of my favourite bands of the time, without a doubt. I reckon most of Disc 1 would stand up well.

Living Dead. Lots of great stuff onthe first CD though.

I chose My Dark Star, but it has to be said My Insatiable One, To the Birds, Where the Pigs Don't Fly & He's Dead are all just as good.
This album really underscores how crucial Bernard was to the band. Oakes was a good guitarist to be sure, but the less he apes Butler's style the worse the songs get.

I look at the flip side of that argument -- Brett's vision for Suede won out in the long run, and he brought out the best in his guitarists by sticking to that vision and forcing them to adapt. If it was up to Bernard, Suede would have doing entire albums of "Asphalt World"s, but after he left, Brett plugged Richard into his (Brett's) formula and we got "Trash" instead (a pretty good trade, IMO).

why aren't dolly and painted people on it, by the way (not that I miss them) ?

Room, I guess? Though I don't think either CD is packed full.

The one fan club show I would have loved to have seen them do was the B-side one -- anyone have a recording of it? Their final time ever performing in LA, on the tour where their instruments were stolen, they did the first night electric on new gear, the show I attended, but it fucked them off so much -- Brett was visibly angry with how the mix was turning out -- that the following night they did one of the irregular acoustic gigs that followed the theft which apparently had a number of B-sides, including "This Time," which I always wish I could have seen. Still am very glad I saw "My Dark Star" as the final song of the 1995 show, though.

Digging around I found my own homemade Sci-Fi Lullabies 2 collection, which was pretty much everything left off SFL, B-sides or otherwise, that could have counted at the time of its release. (At least I think it's everything, minus most radio/TV appearances.)

Disc 1:

Wonderful Sometimes
Be My God
Art
My Insatiable One (piano)
Brass in Pocket
Painted People
Dolly
Stay Together (full length)

(then a three song live-in-studio set for some American syndicated radio show, with Oakes on guitar at this point:

This Hollywood Life
The Wild Ones
Killing of a Flash Boy)

This World Needs a Father
Eno's Introducing the Band

Disc Two:

Asda Town
Animal Nitrate (live)
The Wild Ones (live)
Pantomime Horse (live)
Shipbuilding
Europe Is Our Playground (original version)
Sam
Saturday Night (demo)
Feel
Digging a Hole
Rent (live with Neil Tennant)
Saturday Night (live with Neil Tennant)
Poor Little Rich Girl

If it was up to Bernard, Suede would have doing entire albums of "Asphalt World"s, but after he left, Brett plugged Richard into his (Brett's) formula and we got "Trash" instead (a pretty good trade, IMO).

Yeah, I'd agree completely. DMS has some major highs but is terribly uneven whereas Coming Up just nails it.

Ned, you didn't include the piano version of "The Living Dead"!

(my favourite version of the song and my reason for voting for it in this poll)

Oh that's right, it's around here somewhere...

I see your point, but if "Yes" or "You Do" were Suede songs, they would be considered some of their best work. I think I read that most of the guitar on DMS was session players replicating Bernard's guitars from the demos or something. In any event I don't think the final product was particularly fair to Bernard. If The Tears taught us anything it was that Suede Mk1 was musical lightning in a bottle, once Bernard left there were a lot of potential that was gone for good. Although to be fair I'd take "Trash" over Bernard's solo efforts (excluding "Stay") any day of the week.

What are the highs of DMS? Because I've never been able to get my head around that album, and it pretty much made me give up on the band for some time.

My usual edit went 'We are the Pigs', 'Heroine', 'The Wild Ones', 'New Generation', 'This Hollywood Life', 'The 2 of Us', 'The Asphalt World'. It cuts out the unformed or boring bits, while keeping the ever-more-epic progression of the longer album.

'Still Life' is a beautiful thing, but it's just too much. I'd've preferred it as in its stripped-down acoustic form. I believe that's how it was premiered, as their encore headlining Glastonbury - they were pretty audacious, this lot

To the Birds

I'd never heard this stripped "Still Life," I like that a lot! I like the song but the over-the-top production relegated it to a rare listen.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Really great singing in that Still Life video, for a guy often thought to have an annoying voice.

Absolute best b-side not on Sci-Fi Lullabies = This World Needs A Father.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Quite right.

Not a great fan of Ismael's DMS edit tbh, I mean it doesn't have "Daddy's Speeding" on it for a start

Have listened to S-F L on Spotify a couple of times, and yeh, some strong tunes.

Have listened to S-F L on Spotify a couple of times again, and the massive standouts from Disc One are He's Dead and Europe Is Our Playground, closely followed by To The Birds and High Rising

standing by this as the definitive suede album & the only one anybody really needs to own

it's really pretty good

Hey brad w did you ever get a chance to listen to those Head Music B-sides?

definitely would've voted "whipsnade", such a pretty one. i had a poster of this album in high school, it got really mangled while moving at some point. kinda agree that this is all you need. 1st disc, anyway, is the most consistent full-length they've done. what the hell was wrong with these 90s british bands releasing some of their best songs as b-sides?

fuck me disc 1 is amazing, so much better than dog man star

the sequencing is great. the stretch from "the big time" through "my dark star" is so languid and dreamy... love how sort of gradually hushed everything gets and then the drums/guitar from "my dark star" kick in like sunlight peaking through clouds

i do think i slightly prefer DMS, though. and even though i'm usually a bitch about bonus tracks, "modern boys" is a kickass, riding-into-the-sunset way of ending DMS.

it's awesomely-sequenced and there aren't really ANY weak-spots. 'my dark star' is rapidly ascending my order of preference, but i think 'he's dead' is still greatness. mind you the opening track is a freaking stormer and 'high rising' is exquisite

first disc of this is the best album ever

It really is

I think we polled this another time too. Not sure if I will ever get around to doing this artist poll I signed up for 😟

without a doubt it's "My Insatiable One." this is one of the best b-sides compilations ever, i never bought it because i owned all the singles before this came out.

― Bee OK, Thursday, March 19, 2009 7:25 PM (fourteen years ago)

I can live with that but that Stay Together single with Star and Dead is almost unmatched

ivy. otm

when I bought the Stay Together EP in '94 I played "Dark Star" to death.

*MY Dark Star

it’s perfect. I love the unhurried windswept intro

I was lucky enough to see them do "My Dark Star" on the early 95 American tour for Dog Man Star as part of the encore. Great moment, great song.

my dark star and my insatiable one are both perfect songs but i'd have to have gone for the new version of europe is our playground, which rivals the 2 of us for my favourite suede song overall

i do not understand how every song is so good. "my dark star" -> "killing of a flash boy" happens and you're like, wow, that's two really amazing songs in a row, surely another can't be waiting around the corner, yet there is, and it's "whipsnade"

"Whipsnade" should've been 12 minutes long and given the Nerve Net-era Eno remix imo

the atmosphere and production is consistently great and it doesn't feel like these songs were recorded in separation sessions months-to-years apart but like they were recorded in a single session, intended for this particular sequence, even though they're arranged chronologically, even though disc one ends with three songs sans butler plus oakes!!!! it's impossible that this ever happened

i like disc two a lot too! obv it lacks the same dynamic

the atmosphere and production is consistently great and it doesn't feel like these songs were recorded in separation sessions months-to-years apart but like they were recorded in a single session, intended for this particular sequence, even though they're arranged chronologically, even though disc one ends with three songs sans butler plus oakes!!!! it's impossible that this ever happened

― ivy., Thursday, 18 January 2024 20:35 (six minutes ago)
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agreed

I think it's almost as miraculous that they didn't just find a replacement for Butler, they found in Richard Oakes someone that may have been the *best possible* replacement for Butler. Or, for that matter, have the *other* new guy, Neil Codling, who just happens to be the cousin of the drummer, eventually turn out to be a pretty good (and perfect for Suede) songwriter in his own right. Something in the water, I guess.

Disc One being so good has helped to quell any thoughts I've had about whether they got the debut album tracklist right (it's one of my all time favourite albums) - we can have both of these amazing things

High Rising as the closing track ahead of The Next Life, though...

Whipsnade wuz robbed.

the outro to “whipsnade” is the most intoxicating piece of music ever

They’d had Whipsnade knocking around since the debut album sessions supposedly. There’s a really good book(let) that comes with one of the many recent box sets that has BB and BA going through the early years track by track and it’s wonderful so it is.

disc 2 is super fascinating too for how much darker and dreamier in tone it is compared to coming up. I think I like it better actually?

better than coming up I mean, I’m not that messed up

Gotta say that chatting with them all again the other year (well, not Butler obv but otherwise the quintet) confirms something I felt when I first met 'em back in 1993 -- they're just solid and friendly people! Seen it all but absolutely commit to the performance.

Got Stay Together single for my 13th birthday and it fooled me into expecting b-sides on CD singles to be of that standard

Thanks for leading me back down this rabbit hole ivy. Like Oasis, their first two albums along with their B-sides comp is all you pretty much need. Tho Suede are on a different level even if the other band was more popular. I do like parts of the next three albums but haven't played any of them in years. Post reunion is a blind spot for me...

What's the best album from their second life, including that Tears album? I'm sort of in the mood to play Head Music right now.

Oh man, if you haven't heard Autofiction, fire it the hell up.

Autofiction and Bloodsports are both fantastic.

I love Night Thoughts.

A New Morning is the only genuinely patchy one imo. But my unpopular favourite is Head Music - even though it is a bit patchy too (the title track, Elephant Man).

I've been listening to Here Come the Tears, and without ever being bad it's fairly lackluster, like the furtherest extent of their ambitions was, "let's make A New Morning that's adequate rather than weak".
Bloodsports had a few very good uptempo songs but the ballads felt thin in inspiration and texture.

Actually the only Tears album also reminded me of the only Zwan album: a 90s malcontent tries to embrace "positivity" and joy in a way that is convincing personally but not so much musically.

the atmosphere and production is consistently great and it doesn't feel like these songs were recorded in separation sessions months-to-years apart but like they were recorded in a single session, intended for this particular sequence, even though they're arranged chronologically, even though disc one ends with three songs sans butler plus oakes!!!! it's impossible that this ever happened

yeah I thought it was at the least re-ordered to make the flow smooth. like, "Europe is Our Playground" doesn't feel right as anything but a closer. I've never quite gotten behind disc 2, but disc 1 is the best album they ever made

I also think I didn't vote in this because "Whipsnade" has been my favorite for years

how did "Whipsnade" earn no votes, for god's sake

^^^ the outro to “whipsnade” is the prettiest thing in the world

Flashboy and Whipsnade are incredible songs but can't imagine them as part of DMS

Brett came up with this alternate tracklisting in his liner notes from the DMS reissue:

ALTERNATE ‘DOG MAN STAR’

Listening back to all this stuff makes me want to re-write history. If I could do it again I’d do it slightly differently:

Introducing The Band
We Are The Pigs
Heroine
The Wild Ones
Daddy’s Speeding
My Dark Star
Killing Of A Flashboy
This Hollywood Life
New Generation
Living Dead
The 2 Of Us
Asphalt World
Still Life

^^^ the outro to “whipsnade” is the prettiest thing in the world

The bridge is pretty amazing too. Might be my favorite Suede song

Brett's revised tracklistings are a load of nonsense IMO

Great albums + singles with no bad b-sides was a wonderful time all round and I wouldn't change any of it