Customer Reviews

Head Music

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(27)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(14)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

Head Music has problems, which could have easily been fixed. First, the album takes a dive after seven songs when the title track and Elephant man rear their sillyness/ugliness and after Hi-Fi are followed by two darker tunes and an out of place throwaway. As the album is on the long side anyway, just cutting three of these last six weaker songs (maybe Elephant Man, He's Gone and Crack in the Union Jack) would have helped. Also, the first three songs are upbeat and edgy, followed by probably the best three songs on the album. These should have been mixed up better with the second half of the album.

In spite of all this, there's a lot to like. Everything Will Flow, Down and She's in Fashion are great songs, Electricity is a great album opener and Savoir Faire and Can't Get Enough capture the fresh, electronic feel of the album nicely. Also, the production is much improved over Coming Up. There are times when listening to the first half of the album when I think they've never sounded better, and with some adjustments Head Music could have been a five star disc.

Head Music has often been regarded is Suede's weakest album; I won't go into that discussion, but simple note that the album contains some of my favourite songs by the band.

I was fortunate to see them last summer in Denmark shortly before their split was announced. They played several songs from Head Music, and I particularly enjoyed "She's in Fashion", "Asbestos" and "Down".

Other great tracks are "Everything Will Flow" and "He's Gone"

Suede's 1999 album "Head Music", I feel is Suede's all around best album. It is full of "monster stomper" rock songs if I can borrow that line from another review that I have read, glammy sleazy songs, and some really beautiful ballads.

Brett's vocals are super top notch. He has even more range than on the previous album from 1996 "Coming Up". Brett is a master of describing people and locations and allowing the listeners to see all the sleaze, grit, glam, and beauty of his world.

I have to point out my favorite songs. First of all is the ultra sleazy, ultra groovy "hi-fi". I love Brett's vocals, lyrics, and the cool keyboards or bassline that is on that song.

I also think "indian strings" is a really great, beautiful song. A cool bassline, really cool clean acoustic or electric guitar, and heart felt lyrics and vocals by Brett.

"electricity" the opening track is really cool too. Brett's has cool echoing vocals, a strong chorus, cool lyrics, and cool guitar throughout.

"savoir faire" is a song that I really liked after repeat listening. At first I was not that big on it. However, the chorus is really catchy. Actually there are like 2 choruses. Then about half way through Richard Oakes's guitar really kicks in and makes the song really rock.

"can't get enough", was really good and had a cool chorus, catchy woo hoo lyrics, and cool guitar throughout.

"everything will flow" is a really beautiful song with clean acoustic or electric guitar and upbeat lyrics at least to me.

"asbestos" was another sleazy, groovy song that I liked a lot.

"head music" was a cool song with the lyrics, "give me head, give me head, give me head music instead." Pretty cool lyrics! The guitar is also good.

"elephant man" is a good monster stomper and a real rock song that sounds like Brett is singing muffled and this is the first song where the music seems to be louder and more prevalent than Brett's voice.

Brett's voice is incredible throughout this album. In "Coming Up" it was very good, sort of Bowie-ish with much more high ranges. However, I feel in "Head Music" that Brett has really reached perfection with his vocal abilities. It is still Bowie-ish but with so much range. Check out the latest album "A New Morning" where Brett has actually developed his own signing style not reminiscent to me of anyone else.

Richard Oakes's guitars are very good. He is an excellent guitarist and seems to be able to play perfectly with the mood and vocals that Brett has created for each song.

Mat Osman's bass and Simon Gilbert's drums are very good also. They add a lot of the glammy, sleazy, funky, and rock moods to the songs.

Neil Coding's keyboards are much more prevalent in this album than "Coming Up", and I love synth mixed with guitar and it works very well on the songs in this album.

It's about 4 yrs later and I am listening to this cd daily. I think Suede produces music that is edgy and a breakthrough way before its time. Therefore, listening to this album 10 years later it will still sound current. I highly recommend this album along with "Coming Up", "A New Morning", and "SCI-FI Lullabies".

I have to recommend "Head Music" the most because it seems to encompass the most genres of music into a single cd out of all of the Suede albums.

The release following 'Head Music' is 'A New Morning,' which is fun in its own way, but it doesn't feel like the old sleazy Suede. 'Head Music' can now be seen as the last album that encapsulates the sleazy, street-walking, petrol-ridden pomp that is 'Suede.' Appreciate 'Head Music.' It feels like a glorious drug dance party that you stayed at too long. It is total excess, like getting drunk when you have a job interview the next morning. It's a mainline of something special, and you will never see the likes of it again. Besides, 'Head Music' is one of the few albums with a real 'feel,' and if you can't identify the feel and appreciate it, then you aren't even a Suede fan and your basis for judging the album is compromised.

Beside Oasis and Blur, The London Suede is one of the most popular britband.In this album,fill up with soft but modern lyrics & melodies.More electronica and cool.Recommended songs: Electricity,Everything will flow,She's in fashion ,Hi-fi and He's gone.

Though this album lacks the emotional staying power of "Coming Up" (or even "Dog Man Star"), it has more than its share of great moments. "Electricity" was a great first single, "Everything Will Flow" features a gorgeous melody, and "Asbestos" is, by far, the coolest song you're likely to hear in this, the year of "Mambo No. 5". The melancholy "Crack in the Union Jack" provides a welcome acoustic touch in all the electronic effects and is the perfect album closer. Brett & Co. continue to do most everything right. I look forward to where Suede goes with their next one.

What do you do if your previous CD had 5 top ten UK hits? Well how about change producers, simplify your lyrics and music, and limit the output of the song-writing team that wrote 4 of those 5 top ten UK hits. No one would do that, right? Suede is the exception. "Head Music" has, like always, the strong yet effeminate vocal delivery of Brett Anderson. However, he alone has written the majority of tunes on this release. The album's consistency suffers because of that. Anderson is a very good writer, especially lyrics, but musically he is not as consistent. Richard Oakes, the very talented young guitarist/writer, is seemingly held back by contributing to only co-writing three of the 13 cuts on the album. Now, I can understand if the band wants to do something a bit different but to lessen the quality of the work is disapointing.

It is understandable that people want a band to keep putting out the same sounding album because they loved the previous releases so much. Suede broke out and went in a direction that is dance meets Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On." The band went in a direction of fabulous catchy riffs and memorable hooks with a dance feel. Most unhappy reviews complain the band did not put out Dog Man Star II. They already took that album a step further with Richard Oakes and the amazing Coming Up. I am in the minority that feels Suede improved with the departure of Butler. And there is even more reason to cherish this release as Suede returned to a rock sound on their next release making this their only foray onto the dance floor.

This album is embarassing.

In the early 90's, Suede made two perfect recordings : "Suede" and "dog man star". Back then, they were... different.
Brett Anderson was a dark character and a wonderful singer, Bernard Butler sounded like a mix between Johnny Marr and Mick Ronson. And the songs were strong, very strong. Music + lyrics (love + poison).
What's more they were a great live band and were musically ambitious (listen to "Still life" or "Stay together"). In fact Suede were full of great promises.

But Bernard left.
After this much publicized departure, things went sour : the following album, "Coming up", was rather catchy but also very common. Gone were the long trips à la "Asphalt world" or the etheral quality of "the next life". The new songs sounded very upbeat (an interesting change) but lacked a real intensity.
Even more surprinsingly, Brett Anderson's lyrics seemed to have lost all their interest. No more introspection. No more tortured insights (hmmm no more drugs ? no more sincerity ?).
But that was okay. Without being a fabulous recording, "Coming up" had its charms. Maybe the band just needed some kind of adjustment with their new musicians Richard Oakes and Neil Codling.

Unfortunately "Head music" is a huge let down. All the flaws of "Coming up" are there, except they're even worse.
The production is fresh but the songs are horribly empty. And Brett's lyrics are a joke (man, where is the guy who wrote a gem such as "Pantomime horse" ??? Where is he ???).
In fact "Head music" sounds lifeless. A few songs ("Everything will flow", "Can't get enough") save the cake, but let's be honest : sadly Suede are not different anymore.
Believe me I would really want to like this album... but I just can't do so.

Brett, please, do something before it's too late !

I had great expectantions for this cd, but what a dissapointment it was. Only 2 decent traks on it (electriclty and shes in fashion) and a whole clollection of other tripe. not very impressed