Best track on DOG MAN STAR

LJ otm itt

this is really great by the way; a BBC radio docu about the whole album, interviewing everyone involved.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01j6srs

ooh looks nice!

Suede are one of those 90s bands who completely passed me by. Guess I was just a bit too young to really get them, but I'm intrigued now. Is this a good place to start?

find it weird that these guys were lumped in with Britpop. Sure, British pop, but they seemed to have more in common with goth than, errr, Menswe@r

I've always preferred the first album since it was the one I was obsessed with upon release but DMS is still impressive, especially when you consider the musical landscape of the times.
Clearly, "The Wild Ones" is the best song on it and one of their greatest ever.
That said, one of the tracks that I didn't like much at the time, "Black or Blue" might be the one I enjoy the most now.
It has a french 1900/Debussy touch that is even weirder for the "britpop" days.
Actually, I wonder if it was on purpose that you get that early 20th century french classical touch again during "Still Life" (which is a great song but as said upthread, and even by Butler and Anderson in the intws for the remastered boxset, it's a bit over the top).
The only song I have NEVER liked on the album is "The Power". It should have been a b-side at best and replaced by "Killing of a Flashboy" or "Whipsnade", for instance.

Xxp I think a good intro to them is CD2 of this comp. All the hits are on CD1 but man CD2 is the shit

https://www.discogs.com/Suede-The-Best-Of/release/2737700

I wish I could hear this stuff all over again for the first time.

find it weird that these guys were lumped in with Britpop. Sure, British pop, but they seemed to have more in common with goth

This is sort of OTM. DMS is like a Goth Bowie. In fact, in one of the docs Butler claims Joy Division's "Closer" was his model when he was writing these songs, even if it's not always obvious in the music. Iirc, Anderson cites Scott Walker.

I don't mind "The Power." It's not a great song, but it sort of breaks up an otherwise pretty dense and oppressive album nicely.

The best intro to 'em is the debut, really, which is still a brilliant record. Listen to 'em in order from the debut up to Coming Up (including Sci-Fi Lullabies since CD 1 is their best album) and then Bloodsports and Night Thoughts.

Head Music and A New Morning are for the completists, really, although there was some good - if uncharacteristic - stuff in this period too.

Britpop didn't exist, so there's that.

Everything Must Go, Lovelife, Coming Up and Wake Up IMO wouldn't be the same albums without "Britpop", whatever you want to call it. Short, snappier, hits, 40 mins.

All 1995/96 comebacks from pre-94 acts.

Wow, that boxset sounds like a huge waste of money - 7 discs and nothing new?

The one potentially interesting bit is the Blu-Ray disc, I'll have to look out for a rip of that.

What Turrican said. Starting anywhere but the S/T just seems wrong

Britpop didn't exist - it was a media invented term for a bunch of guitar bands from the UK which caught on because people are idiots. None of the bands thought of themselves as Britpop, nobody has any concrete idea of what it is or isn't - it's a nothing term that means jack shit. It didn't exist.

Everything Must Go, Lovelife, Coming Up and Wake Up IMO wouldn't be the same albums without "Britpop" the success of Parklife and (What's the Story) Morning Glory?

Fixed for accuracy.

That's an interesting (and old !) debate. Of course Britpop was a media/marketing creation but I'm not sure you can totally dismiss the idea that there definitely was a scene for a while and most bands, if not all of course, knew each other, were friends/in competition with each others, took and shared ideas, inspiration (and more), etc.
So there WAS something, call it Britpop or else, for a short while in a specific musical field in the UK.
I mean, certainly more than now, I guess !

There wasn't a scene. There was a bunch of journalists and people who happened to be in bands drinking weak lager in Camden boozers, but that wasn't particularly relevant to anything. It was more that people were mery buying a lot of guitar music that happened to be from the UK, and there were a lot of bands.

such a great album. this/first album/stay together 12 inch is better than most bands will ever do. our 1992-1994 beats your entire 90's. should be their motto. okay, that's a dumb motto. but it's true.

also, i have no interest in britpop at all. other than suede. and denim. who don't really count. lawrence music being its own genre. and "girls and boys". which, as a song, would make a list of my fave 90's songs. i have never stopped listening to the first two suede albums. never get tired of them.

I'm always in awe of bands and acts that cram such an incredible amount of amazing music into a tiny span of time. Suede, Beatles, CCR (like, 5 albums in 2.5 years?), that sort of thing. I wonder, when was the first act that took over a year or two to release their second record? Bands used to crank shit out!

xxposts

hum. well, I wasn't there at the time (I was in Paris enjoying... "britpop" !) so maybe you're right and the pop music scene in the UK wasn't anymore or less cohesive than now or any other time.

I'm always in awe of bands and acts that cram such an incredible amount of amazing music into a tiny span of time. Suede, Beatles, CCR (like, 5 albums in 2.5 years?), that sort of thing. I wonder, when was the first act that took over a year or two to release their second record? Bands used to crank shit out!

yeah, me too ! Also Stevie Wonder, Prince, Bowie... and actually this is still my idea of what a band/artist should do instead of waiting like 4 years between 2 albums like bands do nowadays...

in the states you used to have to pay union overtime if you went over 3 hours in the studio and a LOT of albums in the 50's and 60's were made here in under 3 hours. or, at best, they might go in the next day and do another 3 hour session. so, 6 hours total. so many classic jazz albums made in the time it takes to watch a michael bay movie.

3h ? man, it's the time it takes to tune a drumkit now ! (to paraphrase someone, maybe it was McCartney, I'm not sure...)

I generally find it difficult to be into things that don't exist either.

I'm guessing the reason that bands don't put stuff out at the same rate as they used to is they're conscious of not burning themselves out, and also record companies wanting to squeeze as much as they can out of a release.

Or maybe fewer/different drugs? I'm struck by how so many of those streaks of productivity, from Beatles to Elvis Costello, coincide with rampant amphetamine use.

there's just a completely different attitude toward the whole thing now. everything is carefully prepared and stuff. knocking out one album after the other is for "garage bands"

lawrence music

what is this, scott?

i just meant denim. which is music made by lawrence. as only he knows how to make it.

Drive-By Truckers have released 11 mostly excellent records since 1998, some of them doubles, some of them back to back, all while touring non-stop and shedding members. That's a pretty great run!

the only reason i think of denim in connection with britpop is because my copy of denim on ice has a *on tour with pulp* sticker on it.

such a great album. this/first album/stay together 12 inch is better than most bands will ever do. our 1992-1994 beats your entire 90's. should be their motto. okay, that's a dumb motto. but it's true.

― scott seward, Wednesday, October 18, 2017 10:07 AM (four hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

truth!

after a pleasant relisten to one of the most listened albums of my life I think poll winner is ok legit

I never listened to Suede at the time (I found "Metal Mickey" a super annoying single & so tuned them out) but I've been listening to this album since the weekend & am obsessed with "New Generation". one of those verses >> chorus songs but really it's the chug-chug-chug almost Sterling Morrison guitar thing that's got me hooked (that maybe no one else hears, I dunno)

b-but that chorus is sublime!

it's great but the verses are that much greater! can't stop listening

'New Generation' is incredible... the only problem I have with it is that it's one of the tracks on that which gives a lot of weight to Bernard Butler's complaints about the production - there's far too much reverb and it's badly EQ'd. It sounds like a mess, but the song still comes through.

the excess reverb is extremely good, thank god the album sounds the way it does

one trick they do well here is synchronizing violent acoustic strums with snare hits. so awesome.

see "we are the kings" verse e.g.

suede seem like a low-key 90's equivalent of xtc - an english rock band that all of ilx likes, somehow

PIGS lawl

well, because they're amazing, obv, but ykwim

i don't really like xtc... i like "dear god"

i would definitely kick it with andy patridge, he seems like a fun dude

It sounds great on some tracks, but not others. It sounds immense on 'Introducing the Band', but sucks on 'New Generation' ... There's moments I think that Butler had a point, but having heard his own productions I'm not convinced it would have been the album it is if he'd produced it. It would have been too far in the other direction - far too clean.

In other words, I think the sound of the album is suitable for it but it's far from flawless.

This remains my favorite album of 1994.

Ooh, I dunno... that was a strong year!

iirc it was BA who had issues with "Stay Together", wasn't it ? That said his lyrics and performance ARE terrible on that song !

Ahah

I disagree, I think 'Stay Together' is a great song. Both Anderson and Butler had problems with it for different reasons.

Butler also had a problem with 'Killing of a Flashboy' and he's wrong there too.

stay together rules so hard.

actually this is still my idea of what a band/artist should do instead of waiting like 4 years between 2 albums like bands do nowadays...

King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard have released six albums in the last 2.5 years and toured all of them

What was his issue with "flash boy" ?

"it's a squalid song about junkies"

it's Suede tho

re:Stay Together, I'm not sure I'd ever heard it before yesterday when I saw it so highly praised, it didn't make a great initial impression but it's growing on me.

I have a weird relationship w Suede since I've listened the first 4 albums to pieces but never really dug into b-sides/non-album singles. I know esp the b-sides are highly acclaimed but I ever got into them, I used to own Sci-Fi Lullabies but for some reason I never put it on.

Like there was a window of opportunity in which Suede's music was able to make a big and lasting impression on me, but then after that I became less open to "new" Suede sounds.

It's strange you should say that - if I had to take just one of their albums to the desert island with me, it'd be the first disc of Sci-Fi Lullabies!

Maybe I'll get into it someday, I try every once in a while. Listening to the first track now, it certainly sounds good.

Yeah, disc 1 of scifi is their best album with the s/t. Simply wonderful.

yep