Suede

<3

Suede may be one of the few bands to have been at various times among the most popular, the most overhyped and, ultimately, the most underrated bands.

I've ordered the first two albums already but looking at that site I kind of want the whole lot, I know deep down there is no reason to ever own a reissue of A New Morning.

I wish it were 5 years ago and I could justify spending more than, like, $15 on these, since they look awesome. Assuming they were even released in the US.

Why did they leave off Be My God, Art, Wonderful Sometimes and others from the new release? It doesn't seem to be because of their sound quality, a lot of the demos on the new issue sound pretty bad.

Maid In London is the one i always liked.

ah, I forgot entirely about Wonderful, Sometimes. Great song!

I picked up Dog Man Star today, mostly for the promised extended 'Asphalt World'. I was a little disappointed by this, it's only a couple of minutes longer, and half of that's the radio randomly tuning to the form guide for Newmarket at the end, which isn't quite in keeping imo.

But now I've got the album proper on and woah is it something - it definitely didn't sound as warm and clear as this back in the day, everything's been properly separated and there are tons of things going on in the background that I swear never used to be there. Shame it's taken seventeen years to put right (a pity, too, that it shows up the rhythm section as a bit leaden, but hey it's not like you could draft in Sly & Robbie to patch that aspect up).

Interesting, also, that Brett writes in the notes that nowadays he'd sequence it: Introducing - Pigs - Heroine - Wild Ones - Daddy - Dark Star - Flashboy - Hollywood Life - New Generation - Living Dead - 2 of Us - Asphalt World - Still Life. You should've just went for it here matey, that sounds great!

I am so glad these are pretty reasonably priced here, considering they still seem to be classified as "imports". I've been holding out for reissues for really diving into Suede.

I have SUCH a weird relationship to this band though. Up until I picked up Singles in the Tower closing sale, all I had was Sci-Fi Lullabies, which I dubbed to cassette and was my go-to driving tape for like eight straight months of college. With their pretty limited exposure where I was living (Oasis, Blur, MSP, Radiohead, etc all were relatively easy to track down import singles of, Suede was not for some weird reason), this meant that for the longest time I knew these guys more through B-sides than anything else at all.

If there's one band where that works though ...

Oh I know! When I first picked up Sci-Fi, I had no idea it was B-sides strictly, I thought it had A's and B's. I grabbed it on a complete whim based on what I'd read of them in the undergrad library's copy of NME.

Lol brett's tracklist replaces all the crap with the b-side bangers, good work.

Oops. Hit enter too soon. Anyway, I was blown away when I found out it was all B-sides.

But I'd go all the way and sub whipsnade for 2 of us.

Yeah I just got the Dog Man Star reissue today, really happy with it. I too was a little disappointed The Asphalt World was only a bit longer but apart from that they've done a brilliant job. I especially like the We Believe In Showbiz demo.

That's really interesting Brett picking his ideal tracklisting, I wouldn't say the songs he replaced are bad at all but there's no denying it could have been even better with those additions. Flashboy is probably my favourite Suede song ever.

I have the debut on it's way to me and I'm thinking I'll pre-order Coming Up too. It's kind of a shame that once I have all the reissues I won't have any need for Sci-fi Lullabies, it's one of my most played albums ever.

Has anyone watched the dvd disc yet? pretty interesting interview with Brett and Bernard. Even though they are obviously both grown up and theres a lot of water under the bridge there is just something really uncomfortable about them being together, like they just don't trust each other or something. Still no idea how they made that Tears album together.

Not overly impressed by the remastering of "Suede" tbh, seems a bit overcompressed and needlessly enloudened. A quick comparison with the previous Sony release seems to confirm the volume's been wacked right up. All I was hoping was they'd tweak the low-end a bit so it wasn't so tinny. Disappointing.

May still pick up DMS, if only to have those rare b-sides on disc.

DMS was at the time my favorite album of '94.

The first album still sounds patchiest to me: two ballads too many, "Animal Lover" a redundancy. And doesn't "Moving" sound more like a B-side -- an inessential one -- than "To the Birds" or "My Insatiable One"?

I've just had on the Paris gig - hilariously rudimentary picture, but actually quite reasonable sound. They were damn good live.

And now onto fnac for a four-song set that opens with 'Dolly', then 'High Rising'. Really giving the public what it wants there, guys. Pretty lovely songs to be fair.

ah, funny was just watching the dvd to "suede" ! the interviews are interesting and yeah, they don't seem too comfortable with each other but then again I don't think I've seen a video, even from 93 where they seemed like best mates etc !
I'm also a bit disappointed by the remastering job on "suede". not that it's bad or anything. just that I don't feel like there's much difference. some sounds are a bit clearer.
I've ordered DMS anyway.
takes me back to my teenage years as I really loved "suede" when it was released and butler changed my (musician) life.
I was thinking that it's been almost 20y since the debut album was released and coming back from the record store I thought I was exactly like the guys who went to buy sgt pepper on cd in 87 for its 20th bd. funny cos 67-87 seems a much longer time than this ! (of course cos it's 2years longer, one may say...).

my fave Breet n Bern interview is this, and they do actually kinda get on in a matey way.. only to then they split up within a few months
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5cT0gd5uGQ
kinda eerie actually; them sitting in the same posture and finishing each other's sentences. they were big big mates pre Suede fame by all accounts.
these ere DVDs should have THIS kinda stuff on as it's way more revealing than any 18 years-after-the-fact-chatter.

this is probs the most telling bit of footage from the just-weeks-before-the-very-end era of Suede Mk 1; Matt Osman looking forward to pretending to beating Bernard up(!)
and Brett clearly as high as a novelty kite
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Di_6IqUwKu4

That making of the video clip is fantastic. I don't know which is my favourite bit, Brett forgetting what he's talking about, Bernard's "that's mr Anderson for you" or the grin on Matt's face when talking about battering Bernard.

haha it's priceless innit??
shame that those of us in Suede worshipping, non Satellite receiving homes (musta been 95% of the country in 93/94) were starved of all this amazing stuff until You Tube appeared.

Pithf*rk weigh in with an 8.4 for the debut and an 8.9 for DMS:
http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/15493-suede-deluxe-edition-dog-man-star-deluxe-edition/

ahah, just watched the videos. the US interview one is hilarious. talking about bernard and brett being uncomfortable ! at times bernard looks like a rabbit in headlights !
and the interviewer has an interesting haircut...
our lads looked so out of place !

the PFM review is one of the best it's run recently.

yeah that review is a winner alright. almost bang on the money aside from the bit about 'Cast' who were nowt to do with early 93/94 Britpop but that's nit-picking.

so I got the DMS one. still not impressed by the remastering job. the final version of "wild ones" is clearly much better than the initial one with the pointless solo/jam (and I'm a huge butler fan !). still it's good to listen to all this stuff again. and I kinda like the interview. butler is very talkative and it's interesting to hear his side about some of the reasons why the band exploded. also I wonder why they put the fnac showcase. it's fun to watch but it's quite an awuful performance/mood (especially "animal nitrate" where brett is completely off key and he's clearly hates being there during the whole thing !).

The sound quality of the demos on DMS--those tapes must have been kept in a hot shed and regularly sprayed with vinegar

I don't have the remasters, and probably will not buy them (I do have the "Sci-Fi Lullabies" compilation anyway), but the debut album was actually unusually "un-loud" for a 1993 release, so if it has been loudened a slight bit, that wouldn't matter too much IMO. Hopefully not going to beef up "Coming Up" too much though, as that album was already a bit too loud on its original release ("To The Sea" was way too loud for its own good).

Well, this is strange.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2iURgYVoDk&feature=player_embedded#!

my god this is horrible ! but what's the point ??

High on diesel...to start with.

Mostly classic!

Search: 'Suede', 'Dog Man Star', 'Coming Up', 'Sci-Fi Lullabies (Disc One)'
Destroy: 'Head Music', 'A New Morning' (except 'Obsessions'), 'Sci-Fi Lullabies (Disc Two)' (except 'This Time').

And here we go:

http://thequietus.com/articles/09986-suede-recording-new-album

"Ed Buller is producing it."

:/

Ha, they considered Trevor Horn! Love Suede, love Ed Buller's anemic production, but not sure how I feel about this, because I don't love the last several things Anderson and/or Suede have done.

Butler's production on The Tears record is everything negative said about Buller's to the power of 10

Are any of Brett's solo records not boring?
Ppl were in a mild lather over the last one (due to the reunion, yeah?), but the tracks I heard were average pleasant predictable at best.

I actually really liked The Tears record, so... it's not like I'm the most discerning listener either. heh

I'm actually quite pleased to hear that Ed Buller's producing the record, I don't think it can be contested that the band did all of their best work with him behind the desk. I liked The Tears' album, rather than loved it; I thought it would have been much better if the album had been a couple of songs shorter. 'The Ghost Of You' is a classic Anderson/Butler composition though, IMHO.

The Tears album was really good but the live shows were even better.

I've heard all the Brett Anderson albums. The self titled one is dull with terrible production. Wilderness is a tiny bit better but sounds like a bunch of rushed demos. Slow Attack is his best work since Coming Up due to the massive Talk Talk influence, it's really beautiful in places. His last album was more of a band effort and had some good songs but nothing really special, kind of how I imagine a new Suede album would sound.

This is a new song they've been doing live that might make the album, it's just ok.

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

I feel kind of weird saying this but I kind of want them to come back with something that sounds like this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umU0r8r76to

Turns out they premiered a few songs last year on tour, according to Wikipedia:

They then performed in Athens on 11 September 2011, and wrapped up their touring commitments in Russia on 16 and 18 December 2011 where they showcased new songs "Falling Planes", "The Only", "Someone Better", "I Don't Know Why", "Cold War", "Future Nightmare" and "Sabotage".

Of course he would do a song called "Cold War"! In Russia!

Meantime in a fit of organization, scrounging through all my singles again and some headscratching, I think I've figured out a playlist of everything that didn't end up on the remasters, so I just called it The Uncollected B-Sides and Rarities. A bit of fudging here and there -- the first three songs barely got released if at all and the Modern Rock Live session tracks were only ever released on a Sony promo disc, but everything else one way or another got a formal release on Nude, Sony/Epic or the Suede fanclub. Honestly surprised how much they ended up leaving out even with the inevitable live/alternate overlaps, this is three and a half hours worth of music! So in hopes fellow obsessives find it of interest:

Wonderful Sometimes
Be My God
Art
Just A Girl (1994 version)
This Hollywood Life [Modern Rock Live session]
The Wild Ones [Modern Rock Live session]
Killing Of A Flash Boy [Modern Rock Live session]
Animal Nitrate [Live - New Generation CD 2]
The Wild Ones [Live - New Generation CD 2]
Pantomime Horse [Live - New Generation CD 2]
Shipbuilding
By the Sea (live) [Coming Up US 2 CD version]
She (Strings)
Elaine Paige
We're So Disco
By The Sea [Acoustic Version]
Picnic on the Motorway (live)
She (live) [Coming Up US 2 CD version]
Europe Is Our Playground (live) [Coming Up US 2 CD version]
Saturday Night (live) [Coming Up US 2 CD version]
Killing of a Flash Boy (live) [Coming Up US 2 CD version]
Lazy (live) [Coming Up US 2 CD version]
Digging A Hole
Another No One [Sessions CD version]
Europe Is Our Playground [Sci Fi Lullabies rerecording]
Implement Yeah! (live at Reading Festival with Justine Frischmann plus Head Music demo clips and interviews)
Indian Strings [Protocol Demo]
She's In Fashion [Protocol Demo] (full version -- for whatever reason the one on the Head Music remaster loses a minute)
Can't Get Enough [Sessions CD version]
Beautiful Ones [Sessions CD version]
Savoir Faire [Sessions CD version]
Saturday Night [Sessions CD version]
Weight Of The World
Head Music (Arthur Baker Remix)
Everything Will Flow (Rollo's Vocal)
She's In Fashion (Lironi Version)
Since You Went Away [Sessions CD version]
Everything Will Flow [Sessions CD version]
By The Sea [Sessions CD version]
Untitled [Stanbridge Demo]
Simon (Instrumental)
Simon (Radio Version)
Attitude (demo)
Attitude [Mick Jones Remix]

I forgot about Wonderful Sometimes! Such a sweet little song.

The Sci-Fi Lullabies re-recording of 'Europe Is Our Playground' is the definitive studio version as far as I'm concerned!

I'm kinda curious now if there's anything rumored left in the vault that the remasters plus all the tracks above missed. I guess the release of the full length "Asphalt World" and the studio take of "Music Like Sex" were the two big ones from the remasters.

Well, there's 'I Don't Need A High' and 'Teenage Rose' which were two songs they were rumoured to be working on alongside the likes of 'Attitude' and 'Golden Gun' etc. They were performed live, but I'm unsure as to whether they got recorded.

The full length 'The Wild Ones' with the original ending was far more of a revelation to me than the full length 'The Asphalt World'. I really wish they'd retained that part. The bands decision to edit 'The Asphalt World' down for the album was justified, I thought.

Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if, rather than cropping and recolouring the photo they used for the sleeve of their debut album, they actually used the full photo like they were originally intending to.

Someone has scanned it in here, for those that are curious/don't have the remastered edition/have never seen it before...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/16953040@N08/5952716714/

Meanwhile here's some of what Richard's been up to as well:

http://www.godisinthetvzine.co.uk/2012/07/18/interview-artmagic/

Both David Barnett and Jude Rogers posting today about how they're off to record handclaps today on a new Suede record so there you go.