Suede

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

I'm so shocked at the good reaction this album has had, even from the critics.

http://www.metacritic.com/music/bloodsports/suede/critic-reviews

It really does deserve it though. Listening to it last night I realised I actually like as much as Coming Up. It's totally turned me back into a Suede fanboy.

When I was in America a couple of years back I bought a copy of Coming Up by The London Suede and took it back for my friend in the UK. He was delighted and just couldn't believe they had to do that name change in the first place. I should get him some Charlatans UK too next time I'm there.

I actually like the name London Suede, and find it much better than Suede UK.

Always makes me think of London Fog, though.

I like The British Suede and think they should be called that everywhere all the time. See also: The Chelmsford Squarepusher, The British Bolt Thrower, Morrissey UK and Anglo-Blur.

At least the US band the Charlatans was fairly popular and still shows up frequently on '60s psych-pop comps; I've never heard of the American Suede except in regard to the legal tussle with the popular British band.

Is this a thing? For some reason all these "XYZ UK" bands are all late 80s - early 90s

xpost That's why I think it's hilarious, that some DC area folk singer that no one has heard of forced Suede to change its name in the US.

xp - oops I meant: is this STILL a thing?

this sounds good but pluralizing "bloodsport" is simply terrible

http://cdn1.screenrant.com/wp-content/uploads/Bloodsport-Remake-Phillip-Noyce.jpg

pluralising sport is simply terrible

It should be pluralized "spurts."

Bloodspurts.

bloodsports is usually plural isn't it? (at least in UK)

Bloodmaths.

Joining the chorus of this being surprising good.

ditto. Not sure about the final couple of tracks though, give me more like 'it starts and ends with you'

ROBBIE WILLIAMS SPEAKS OUT ABOUT BRETT ANDERSON
http://www.robbiewilliams.com/news-blogs/just-musing-a-supposed-brett-anderson-quote
THEN THANKS HIM
http://www.robbiewilliams.com/news-blogs/thank-you-brett

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.

― Eyeball Kicks, Monday, March 18, 2013 9:09 PM (4 days ago)

I've also never heard such a bad mastering job. The clipping on tracks 8 and 10, especially, is nuts.

PLEASE SAY HELLO TO YOUR DRUMMER
HE WAS CONSISTENTLY LOVELY WITH ME

is the drummer the gay one?

is the drummer the gay one?

― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, March 22, 2013 3:39 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yup!

Still very much enjoying this album!

consistently lovely with me