Suede Album-by-Album Discussion Thread

I don't know if it's true, but I read somewhere (I think it may have been Baker's Dozen on The Quietus) that Brett runs into Eno and they have tea, and I couldn't help but think how awesome it would be if Eno produced Suede (and my other fantasy is that Suede do a cover of Genesis' "Carpet Crawlers"... can I have both wishes at once?)

 

"Sam" is lovely, and I love it when they are slightly silly. Also, not sure if anyone mentioned "Sadie"... I love the chorus on that (and Sadie also pops up on the wonderful "The Sound of the Streets"...). But the other 3 b-sides that came with "Lazy" are a bit, ehm, lazy (alright, "Digging A Hole" has its charms, and "Sad Songs" could have been better if Brett had bothered to write some lyrics).

The "Filmstar" ones weren't much better. But those first 3 singles held a great alternative album.

That's it, I'm going to make an alternative Coming Up.

 

Out of synch but:

The Making Of… Suede’s The Drowners - Uncut »


"More bands should split up" - Brett Anderson opens up to DiS about the return of Suede / In Depth // Drowned In Sound »

 

Missed DMS....my thoughts - I adore the album, one of my favourite albums.

Its hugely ambitious and at times comes close to going too far, both lyrically and musically, but never goes over the edge.

Fantastic set of songs and Butler is completely on fire.

By far the greatest album they did and it towers above the rest of their catalogue. Still sounds pretty fresh today I think.

Britpop did produce some rubbish, the likes of IMO Sleeper, Menswear etc, but there were some wonderful albums released by young British bands (not just 'Britpop' bands) in a short period in the mid 90's (DMS, The Holy Bible, The Bends, OKC, This Is Hardcore, Parklife, a few other, Portishead and Massive Attack), a great time for music. Feel sorry for those boomer bores who gave up on new music decades before that seem to be common here. What I think this creative explosion showed is that of the importance of a 'scene' and bands reaching and trying higher/harder as they had competition, like previous high points in musical history. Something I think the very fractured modern music scene lacks.

 

[QUOTE="Jim B., post: 14407744, member: 24346"

Britpop did produce some rubbish, the likes of IMO Sleeper, Menswear etc,[/QUOTE]
Oh I love Sleeper. They traded a lot on Louise Wener's good looks, but beyond that the songwriting is tremendous; melodic and very good lyrics.

 

[QUOTE="Jim B., post: 14407744, member: 24346"

Britpop did produce some rubbish, the likes of IMO Sleeper, Menswear etc,[/QUOTE]
Oh I love Sleeper. They traded a lot on Louise Wener's good looks, but beyond that the songwriting is tremendous; melodic and very good lyrics.

 

[QUOTE="Jim B., post: 14407744, member: 24346"

Britpop did produce some rubbish, the likes of IMO Sleeper, Menswear etc,[/QUOTE]
Oh I love Sleeper. They traded a lot on Louise Wener's good looks, but beyond that the songwriting is tremendous.

 

I should add, Coming Up is probably the first CD I bought a second copy of when it was released with a bonus live CD in 1997. This terrible affliction started with Suede. It would get worse with Head Music, which I'd bought 3 (or even 4, if you count buying an extra copy for my girlfriend) times before '99 was through.

 

Oh I love Sleeper. They traded a lot on Louise Wener's good looks, but beyond that the songwriting is tremendous; melodic and very good lyrics.[/QUOTE]
Best triple post ever

 

Best triple post ever[/QUOTE]

Well, we all had a triple crush on Louise, didn't we?

 

There was also a limited edition with bonus track "Young Men". Stuff like that got me back into vinyl. Only to find that "Coming Up" was missing the photos from the cd booklet

 

Well, we all had a triple crush on Louise, didn't we? [/QUOTE]
Every day around noon cet

 

Sleeper were a decent little pop act, they didn't ever claim they were making great art or try to muscle in on "the big boys" of the scene - Blur, Oasis, et al. They were hamstrung though by Wener's wobbly live vocals and a decent nondescript guitarist. They are some highly enjoyable tracks with pretty clever lyrics in the catalogue though, and they had the good grace to vanish once the Britpop trend was on the wane.

Menswear by contract were a total record company product... and actually staggeringly bad for something so thought through.

 

In hindsight, it's fairly remarkable that Coming Up turned out so well. Against the backdrop of throwing out the only guy coming up with music, and a genius guitarist at that, and hiring a total unknown 17 year old who was a fanatical fan of the band and another unknown keyboardist.. that this line-up managed to conjure up an album as successful as Coming Up is quite something.

The album suffers in the long run for the "we need a fast song" mentality that only brought Suede by-numbers Starcrazy and She (Filmstar is borderline, but not that bad). I always loved Europe is our Playground since buying the Trash single when it came out (on cassette!.. Europe is our Playground being the only b-side included on the format), but I understand why didn't feel the album needed another slower track with the batch at the end. Aside from the 2-3 aforenamed songs I think the material is still uniformly excellent: By the Sea and Saturda Night remain two of the band's very finest songs imo.

It was the right move to not tunnel deeper into a DMS Part 2, like had the Manics - another band adapting to a new working line-up - attempted a Holy Bible II it would've been a dead-end and made the right choice too in turning to a more accessible sound. The sails kick helped steady the ship after the acrimony and relative commercial failure of DMS.. the shame is that they then repeated this formula on the next records almost piece for piece but with acceleratingly diminishing return.

 

The Suede LP sold unusually well on vinyl at the time in Ireland anyway. I remember an Irish Independent article of the time commenting on it.

 

While we're on the topic, how good is "Europe Is Our Playground"?? Especially in the Sci-Fi Lullabies version, it's my favorite Suede song by a huge margin.

 

The it girl is one of the best albums of the britpop era. IMHO.

 

Agreed on the live vocals, but their guitarist Jon Stewart was pretty great going by the records. I'd like to come up with parts like that! But...the guys in the band were rather anonymous-looking behind Louise, generating the term sleeperbloke .

 

Really can't wait to revisit "Head Music", at the moment I'm hoping it will be Suede's "Berlin Album". Too bad Brett didn't take the opportunity to rid himself from substances I really haven't heard it in AGES.

There are some great stories surrounding "HM" like all UK Virgin Megastars changing their name to "Head Music" on the 3rd of May 1999, the day the album was released. Still the only Suede record with a proper title track ("Untitled/ ... Morning" doesn't REALLY count) and a song without ANY Anderson credit at all. "Elephant Man" which always struck me as the exact opposite. Lightweight

After enjoying "Suede" and "DMS" so much, revisiting "Coming Up" was a bit of a letdown. Not an album that has aged especially well. And now I'm hoping that "HM" will reveal itself as the sleeper in Suede's catalogue!!!

 

The big/small question; does Head refer to the big head or the small head?

 

Sorry sorry to backtrack, but listening to Dog Man Star now, and what the heck was Ed Buller doing?? Like the debut, the bass is recessed, and there's this...veil over the music. If Butler left because of Buller, who's to blame him.

 

Actually, I love Graffiti Women.

 

He doesn't care as long as it is given to him But lyrics about oral practices are traditionally complicated, even the mighty Lou Reed stumbled over them in 1972: "But she never lost her head. Even when she was giving head." Kinda lame!

Bowie nailed it when he kicked out all metaphors for the sleazy " Cracked Actor" and went straight down to business:

"Suck, baby, suck,
give me your head"

Oh....and of course George Clinton took the cookie with Funkadelic, which remains my favourite head quote to this day: "No head, no backstage pass!" Yo, baby!

 

Nothing can better Prince's candor, I guess:

"But I just a virgin and I'm on my way to be wed
But you're such a hunk, so full of spunk, I'll give you Head"

 

What's interesting is that on release I liked each Suede album. Yes, I even bought into the promotional myth of a "mature" version given out for "A New Morning" It was only with the passing of time that the records started to reveal themselves.

The three albums we have already covered all did surprise me. Even though I knew them by heart. The first two were (even) better than I had thought while the third was a bit disappointing.