Suede

Didn't expect to be interested in hearing a new Suede album in 2013, but between this and "Barriers" I am.

I wasn't massively excited when I first heard these two songs, but they're pretty solid after a few listens.

Yeah, "pretty solid" covers it, but sometimes "pretty solid" is what you want.

Well exactly, this makes the current will.i.am/Britney joint sound like it's made of, ahem, balsa.

I really like Barriers but I love the single. The video is a bit dull but I guess they're just trying to keep it simple. I'm so excited to have them back!

Poor Suede. Bowie blowin up their spot when they put out "Barriers" - MBV doin the same for this...

Pretty good tune though!

Listening to a live version of 'Sabotage' on BBC 6music while waiting for the new OMD single to be played. Sounds pretty damn good.

http://www.npr.org/2013/03/10/173863969/first-listen-suede-bloodsports

Ok, this is great. It's everything I wanted from the album. I'm such a happy Suede fan right now.

They've just posted a link to this stream over on Facebook, going to fire it up for my first listen in a few minutes... feeling very excited about this!

Listening to this now. Sounds pretty good so far. I'm not playing 'Suede lyrics bingo', but I couldn't help notice the word 'aerosol' just now.

I'm not playing 'Suede lyrics bingo' either... but I'm onto the 4th track right now and this a very unexpected and pleasant surprise! I don't know if it's a great record yet (of course, that'll come with many many more listens), but right now I'm enjoying this record in a way that I haven't done with a Suede record since Coming Up!

In his lyrics I noticed a lot of things that are like other things, especially in the single and For The Lovers. Sadly no skylines or gasoline in sight.

I'm on my third listen, I'm chuffed to bits with how solid this is. The big pop songs are great and sound like they could be hits (if they were released in the late 90's) and the ballads near the end are moody and mytserious just like Suede ballads should be.

Hit Me is the most instant song on the album, good to hear Brett singing those "la la la's" again.

'Hit Me' is my favourite song on the album, the crunchy guitars and Brett's just-a-bit-too-ridiculous lyrics ("hit me with your majesty"). The second half of 'Always' is pretty good as well. I'd have liked the album to be a bit more like that. Better than 'Coming Up' and 'A New Boring'.

It's definitely better than A New Morning and Head Music. I still rate Coming Up quite highly, but I don't get a Coming Up type of vibe from this album, especially on the second half.

whoops I meant 'Head Music', not 'Coming Up'
Anyway, aside from 'Hit Me' this is definitely one of those albums where I'd have to be in the right mood to listen to it (as opposed to albums that force you into the mood to listen to them).

I don't know, I think the first half of this album is quite immediate stuff... the second half, with all the moody numbers, is going to take me a couple more listens... but my feeling at the moment is that this album is definitely a keeper. Better than I could have possibly imagined.

Hitting the fucking spot, this.

It's really pretty good, isn't it?

My wife and I went to see them at a showcase last week. She was a fan in the early 90s. Seeing Brett close to made her all girlish. She took photos. She has never done that at a gig before. Was fun being with someone getting so excited about the show.

I'm quite surprised this album gets such good critics.
I might even start to be interested and listen to it !
the track they released a few weeks ago wasn't particularly good, though...

On second play now and I think Barriers may be the worst track. This is much better than expected, even if the production isn't amazing (and I have no qualms with Ed Buller's 90s stuff, like everyone else seems to).

Importantly, it's appears to have their best melodies since the Coming Up-era.

I'm not quite sure what the worst track on the album is at this stage, but I can definitely say that I don't think 'Barriers' is it. I've had that damn chorus pop up in my head every so often since the track was available to listen to... same with 'It Starts And Ends With You'.

I think the weakest track for me might be For The Lovers, but it's not a bad track in the slightest, it's just the safest sounding song on the album. I love how they really went a short album with no filler. I always thought if they trimmed Head Music and actually The Tears album they would have been better albums.

Also I'll be the first (and maybe) last to say it, I think this album is miles better than the new Bowie one.

Good. "It Starts And Ends With You" was much better than it had a right to be.

Unrelated to the new album, I was flicking through some of their later B-sides on Spotify and came across Let Go from the Head Music era which I'd never heard before. That is one great song, they should have saved it for A New Morning or put it out as a single or something.

One quibble with the album is the sequencing, which seems to have been done with short-concentration-span digital listeners in mind - ending with four ballads in a row. They're all pretty good, especially the first of them, but in a row they don't work. I imagine they wanted to frontload the album with upbeat stuff, though. An old fashioned two-sided album would have allowed much better sequencing.

xpost -- Yeah, "Let Go" is a treat -- and it became an honest to God fluke hit single in Sweden in its own right!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVQ6qBfukU4

http://www.discogs.com/Suede-Let-Go/release/1881031

I don't know why but seeing brett peform with a guitar feels wrong.
a bit like jagger.

He got pretty good at the guitar though - he accompanies himself capably at his solo shows.

The "All you need is everything" backing vocals on Let Go are just killing me right now. Great to see it was a hit somewhere else but yeah as I said they should have put it out as a single here.

I was watching some of the interviews for those 2011 reissues. They asked Brett about A New Morning and why they put Oceans (probably the best song on A New Morning) hidden away as a bonus track, Brett just said "I've no idea" They really did make a lot of strange decisions in those last few years. A New Morning could have been almost decent if they had included Oceans, Simon, Let Go, Cheap, Instant Sunshine, You Belong to me along with Obsessions and maybe Lost in TV (I forget what the other decent songs on that album were)

Anyway back to the new album. I'm really starting to wonder how this album is going to sell next week, I really don't have any idea how well it will do.

This is a massive improvement upon A New Morning. I would go as far to say I love it. Nice one, Suede.

i love that i was alerted to this record via facebook by the lead singer of aerosmith.

I don't know why but seeing brett peform with a guitar feels wrong.
a bit like jagger.

did he play the guitars on "The Power"?

checks to see if i own this single with "Let Go" on it...well yes i do. it is about were i stopped buying their singles however.

did he play the guitars on "The Power"?

― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, March 13, 2013 2:14 AM (24 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Nope, he didn't... a session guitarist came in and basically recreated the guitar parts from the demo that Bernard had left behind. The session guy was uncredited on the album, and to my knowledge remains uncredited.

so I've listened to the album.
I have to say I don't really understand the enthusiasm.
I didn't find it interesting at all (not a single song grabbed me).
I guess I'm not a suedehead anymore !
maybe I'll give it another chance...

I love this album! I feel like a nutso teen fan again, which is probably what they were going for.

hum. I must be missing something !

I think Bloodsports might be my album of the year so far, this feels really odd. I haven't bought an album on the day of release in a while but today is one of those days.

Me in the Quietus about being a forlorn(ish) American fan:

http://thequietus.com/articles/11661-suede-america

A friend of mine saw them here behind that first album, when the group was iirc opening for some bigger band ... Belly? I do remember Radiohead opening for Belly. Anyway, he recalls a pretty serious case of gay panic among the dudes in the crowd, who did not dig Suede's prancing androgyny. At the same time, I recall the mocking members of the Juliana Hatfield band or Lemonheads or some combination offered to sleep with Brett after he made that boneheaded claim of being "a bisexual who has never had a homosexual experience." Same with Oasis, I guess, the US just wasn't ready for the confrontational ego of a band acting larger than life, since we were in the midst of grunge's false modesty.

Cranberries, I'm guessing. Same time of year (fall 1993).

Gotta admit, this is pretty good. After a couple of listens, I definitely prefer the second half of the record. Reviews made it sound like it ended in a series of dreary ballads but this isn't the case at all. More like mid-paced melodrama.

Mat Osman is kind of an unsung figure in rock, but some of the best bits of the album are on his bass.

The only negative is that Suede remain the band most likely to make you think your speakers are fucked. Someone should have turned the reverb down just a notch.

I recall the mocking members of the Juliana Hatfield band or Lemonheads or some combination offered to sleep with Brett after he made that boneheaded claim of being "a bisexual who has never had a homosexual experience.

was it? The interview, which appeared in Select, began with the JHT guys baiting Suede but the reporter added no inflections. I took it...straight.

Gotta admit, this is pretty good. After a couple of listens, I definitely prefer the second half of the record. Reviews made it sound like it ended in a series of dreary ballads but this isn't the case at all. More like mid-paced melodrama.

― Eyeball Kicks

I'm starting to agree with that, the first half is so instant and really good but those ballads at the end just keep sounding better and better. Hit Me is still my favourite song on here by quite a long way but surprisingly there isn't any filler.

i see this is coming out in America tomorrow, wonder if they will still add London to their name?

Press release I got calls them the London Suede.

Yup. And on iTunes as well. rmg;lrsgjshjtjt;a