Are Suede criminally underrated?

I'm on a huge Suede kick lately after witnessing their last week's stunning performance on Moscow's Afisha Picnic Fest and the more I hear the more I come to the conclusion that we're talking about one of the greatest bands of the last God knows how many years. I always loved obvious classics like Dog Man Star and Coming Up (in the Top 50 albums of all time I did recently) but last few days I'm revisiting Sci-Fi Lullabies, an epic 2 CD set of B-Sides and outtakes and all I can say is that it blows away quite a few of "classic" double albums. This band was never as popular as Blur or Oasis and certainly for all their chart success doesn't get the respect that the phenomenal talents of Mrs. Anderson and Butler deserve. Not only Bernard Butler was easily the greatest 90's guitar player but even his replacement Richard Oakes is incredibly good. Their ability to write anthems is well known but it's their incredible talent for inserting a small barely noticable cool hook or guitar lick here and there that is pure genius. These guys really belong up there with a very small company of greats.

 

They might have been the best act I ever saw the 5 times I went to Coachella and I know exactly how you feel. In 2011 they did a US exclusive show(first trip to the US since 1999) there as a quartet as one of them had a hiccup on their police record.

The new album is one of the best reunion albums out there. Blur/Roses wish they could do something that good now, let alone release anything new.

 

Was giving the latest record a spin last weekend - those first three tracks are brilliant and it was obviously an attempt to return to their earlier style.
Sci fi Lullabies was fantasic considering it was just a collection of B Sides but I'd have to say their third record was by far the catchiest, radio friendly collections of songs since god knows when. They werent much cop on that tour though and only played for just over an hour.

 

Here's what I wrote about Coming Up review in my Top 50

I know this is no the critically-acclaimed or even the classic line up Suede record but this is the one, that got me truly obsessed back in the 90's. I was playing it non-stop, for a moment I had a feeling this is gonna be the Ziggy Stardust of the 90's. In many ways it was. Yes, it had no Bernard Butler, but Richard Oakes guitar lines were just as cool and memorable (sometimes I feel I prefer Oakes to Butler, sacrilege I know!). Coming Up was a hit record and a brilliant one at this - a true soundtrack of mid 90's british neo-glam unisex decadence packed to the full with stunning hooks and Brett Anderson mannerisms that could make both Bowie and Morrissey proud. A lot of people felt that Suedee really WERE the worthy 90's successors to 70's Spiders from Mars and 80's The Smiths - I was certainly among those. And if you're indifferent to that kind of music and aesthetics, you can always get your kicks from the most hilarious mockney on record since Small Faces' Lazy Sunday Afternoon! Overall I must say that this record which sold really well (5 top-10 singles and ALL brilliant) but truly should have sold tens of millions. Many major bands would kill to have their Greatest Hits as catchy as this one LP! To this day Coming Up brings a huge smile to my face.

 

Indeed - I remember hearing 'Trash' on the radio and realising they had gone all out to make an album of singles (which is no bad thing). I think the best indicator of how good an album is if it reminds you and takes you back to a certain time in your life and the reminiscing is pleasant and heightened because of it. 'Coming Up' and my first year in uni are inseparable for me .

 

It certainly does make you want to shake your meat to the beat!

 

I loved them too back in the day and I like them still, but underrated, no.

They are too much of a one-trick-pony, although it is a damn near perfect trick, to be rated higher ...... what for instance makes Bowie a much bigger artist is, that he did a ton of different and also great things in music, whereas Suede did not ........

 

Is there anyone left who's not criminally underrated.

 

Made sense 20 year ago.

 

One Direction?

 

My thoughts exactely. At the moment the word "underrated" seems to be a forum favourite being thrown at everybody and the solo Beatles

I love Suede but why would they be underrated?

 

Because the quality of their music is much higher than their "90's MTV glam-britpop darlings" status.

 

Is it? The first two albums are very, very good. The third is very good. Albums four and five are OK and the comeback is good. I guess Suede have exactely the status they deserve with the first two albums being acclaimed 90's classics. What else would you want?

 

I think they lost a big part of their trademark sound when Bernard Butler left. The interaction of his guitar with Anderson's vocals was really gorgeous! I still liked the later works but Dog Man Star is their best album to date.

 

For a band with one of the most wooden rhythm sections I've ever heard, I think they did quite well.

 

Only compared to Oasis

 

The cd/dvd deluxe editions of the first few albums are an incredible value and a case where the extra bonus tracks are first class, and yes I think they belong in the same conversation as groups like The Smiths , Stone Roses , Primal Scream & the rest of the Brit Pop era greats. http://www.amazon.com/Dog-Man-Star-...1406206396&sr=1-1&keywords=suede+dog+man+star

 

Coming Up does have a whiff of early 70s Bowie about it. Not least in Anderson's vocals. The debut album is also very good, but I honestly didn't think much of the rest.

Then again, I really liked Embrace. So what do I know?!

 

So did I so you arent alone! Cracking gig at Glastonbury in 1998. Even if I had to endure it in a pair of borrowed wellies that were two sizes too small for me

 

I agree that they're criminally underrated. You'd be hard-pressed to find people in America who even know who they are, let alone rate them. And yeah, they're undervalued in their own country, IMO. First three albums are virtually peerless, and the comeback album was magnificent.

 

It's always the little things you remember!

 

The cream rises to the top. Over the course of time, I think everyone gets rated exactly as they should. Sometimes a band might get overlooked initially, but if their work has enduring quality, it will get recognized (i.e. Big Star, Nick Drake).

 

I love Suede, but they're legally rated just about right. And it does meam a thing even if it never enjoyed that massive popularity ca-ching. Great example of a killer cult band with a lot of self-limiting elements in their history and line-up.

 

I always said that Coming Up is (or rather should have been) 90's Ziggy Stardust.

 

Yeah, it's a cracker of an album. And, it has to be said, it's one of the few I actually recognised from your recent favourite albums thread! A plus for me!