Customer Reviews

Suede

5 star:		(38)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Picking a favourite Suede album is very difficult. Each album of theirs has, at one time, been my personal favourite.

I pick their debut, "Suede", for its longevity and consistency. This was the first album I had bought of the band, and I bought it blind, having never heard them before. Or is the correct team deaf?

When the guitars on the opening track "So young" kicked in, I thought "this sounds nice". Five seconds later, I was in shock. The vocals started. You have to appreciate that I had never heard Brett Anderson sing before, and its quite a shock when you hear his unique voice for the first time. I'll admit his voice is a very acquired taste. To avoid an album review cliche, I won't say it's the kind of voice you either love of hate. Instead I'll say that it's the kind of voice that it's possibly to simultaneously love and hate. Like many great performers (including Bob Dylan and Morrissey), Brett Anderson doesn't have what you would call a conventially good singing voice. However, when you combine his singing voice with the music and unique lyrics, it sounds nothing less than brilliant. Nobody else could sing these bizarre lyrics with such emotion.

So why do I choose that album as my favourite? The most common fan favourite is "Dog Man Star", but I sometimes find this album too ambitious for its own good. Sure it contains some classics like "We are the pigs", "The wild ones", "The power" and "The asphalt world", but it also contains "Black or blue" arguably the worst Suede song ever released, and easily the most pretentious. "Coming up" sounds like a greatest hits compilation, but lacks the longevity. "Head music" sounds great, but it has a few duds.

"Suede" is a fantastic, consistent collection of songs. From the catchy campness of opener "So young", to the superb glam rock of "Animal nitrate" and "Metal Mickey", to the powerful epics "Pantomime horse" and "Breakdown" - this is a music with blood pumping through its veins. And who can forget "The drowners", the first Suede single, and an instant classic.

Not only do Suede rock musically, but Brett Anderson is one of the most unique lyricists to come out of the 90's. Obviously influenced a lot by Morrissey, his lyrics range from obscure sexual imagery ("...ever tried it that way, have you ever tried it that way?"), to more obvious sexual imagery ("does your love only come, does your love only come, does he only come in a Volvo?"), to utter disgust ("I know you've been inside but what were you in for? animal lover, animal, animal lover?").

Suede are one of the best bands of the 90's. Listen to this album to hear where it all began.

Suede were a major band in the 90 (though you wouldn't know it from the lukewarm reception afforded to the mediocre Head Music). Their first album is a testament to the raw, disillusioned arrogance of a band that took the English music scene by storm back in 1993, and breathed some life (and some controversy) into a pretty stale period. Brett Anderson, with his cropped tops, floppy fringe and penchant for whipping his backside with the microphone when performing live, was every inch the glamorous, outrageously outspoken popstar that we had been waiting for, worshipped and reviled in equal measure. Bernard Butler was the guitar virtuoso with the talent and vision to back up Suede's grand statements of musical revolution. Though they wore their influences like badges of honour - Bowie, The Smiths, T-Rex are usually mentioned - they were no 70s throwbacks, with their distinctly 90s take on urban decay, disillusioned youth and drug-fuelled decadence, every day tragedies in the satellite towns of England.

So Young lights the blue touch paper in splendid fashion, the album's opening track ushering in a superb cocktail of frenzied Butler guitar playing and Brett's desperate falsetto in full flow. Animal Nitrate is another stomper, fulfilling Brett's ambition to see a song about dubious sexual practices reach the top ten. The real pearls on this album, though, are the slow ones: Sleeping Pills, Breakdown and She's Not Dead are gorgeously majestic tales of wasted youth and spiritual desolation.

While Dog Man Star can count some Suede classics among its number (The Wild Ones, The Asphalt World), it is the soundtrack of a band in crisis, and Bernard Butler departed before its release. Coming Up was a solid effort but not inspiring enough to really thrill. Head Music was disappointing, and could well mark the end of one of the great bands of the last decade. However, Suede, the debut album, is a powerful reminder of how great Suede the band once were and how great British music can still be.

Nearly fifteen years after its release, Suede's eponymous first album remains as lushly gorgeous as ever, perhaps because even at the time of its release it seemed to be looking back to the glam rock of the seventies and the best of the Smiths in the eighties. Today the music seems hardly to have aged at all. Although Suede made several albums, they were at their best only in their first two albums, during which singer/lyricist Brett Anderson teamed with guitarist/writer Bernard Butler teamed to write some of the most spectacularly theatrical songs to emerge from the decade. After SUEDE and the almost equally superb second album DOG STAR MAN (named after a series of avant-garde short films by experimental filmmaker Stan Brakhage) Butler left the band.

It is tragic that Anderson and Butler couldn't have remained collegial longer. As a team they perfectly complimented one another. Anderson sold the songs with such passion and sensuality that could perhaps be matched only by Jarvis Cocker during the same period. Though they recorded in the wake of punk, Anderson sounded as if he could have fronted any of the great glam bands of the seventies. As for Butler, did Great Britain produce a greater guitarist in the entire decade? Or even in the decade that followed? Stylistically he always reminded me of someone who listened to a lot of Dave Gilmour before discovering Johnny Marr. The heart of his playing owes a lot to Marr, but the edges are softer and darker, like Gilmour. Though SUEDE and DOG STAR MAN are not often thought of as great guitar albums, they in fact contain some of the most brilliant playing of the last twenty years.

Though the Anderson-Butler version of Suede stayed together only a while, they left us with a string of utterly stunning singles. "So Young," "Animal Nitrate," "The Drowners" (which was a massive hit), "Sleeping Pills," and "Metal Mickey" are all songs that are simply perfect. Though not the most celebrated cut on the album, my favorite Suede song might be "Pantomime Horse," which combines some of Anderson's most passionate singing with some of Butler's most astonishing playing to produce an epic masterpiece.

Anyone who loves music needs this album. I recently was talking to a huge Radiohead fan who incredibly had never heard this album. It is hard to realize if you have been following music for more than a couple of decades how quickly albums move from being "contemporary" to being "classics." But regardless of the label, this is an album anyone not knowing it really needs to own. It is one of the essentials.

Suede were the Britpop pioneers since their first singles"Be my God","The Drowners"and"Metal Mickey" hit the steets long before anyone had thought of reviving T-Rex's basic Rock'n Roll dumbness and festooning it with some Bowie-styled glam/alien/sexual glazing.

1993 was Suede's year since in addition to their colossal sales in the UK(they never did seem to appeal too much to the average american)they picked up a prestigious Mercury Award for Best Album with this,their debut.

This album is then the embodiment of the 90's Britpop movement, which after all tried to encapsulate in 3 minute songs 3 decades of music.Suede brought back the 70's Bowie as Oasis would do to the Beatles,Blur to the Kinks or Ocean Colour Scene to Paul Weller.
Using an old formula doesn't mean that you can't create good(or even great)music as Suede clearly prove.

"So Young" is the ideal opener for it is a perfect example of their sound and possibly their best song ever.

"Animal Nitrate" is sexy and raunchy and "She's not Dead" is an acoustic number that oozes the kind of feeling that would make,well,everyone swap a kidney for.

"Moving"is a ride from garage to pop in less than 3 minutes.

"Pantomime Horse" was the proof that Bernard Butler was the best english guitarist since John Squire or even Johnny Marr.

"The Drowners"was their breakthrough single.

"Sleeping Pills"is a gorgeous and is followed by the poignant ballad"Breakdown"("if you were the one would I even notice it at all").

"Metal Mickey"is a stellar rocker and shows Suede at the absolute top of their game.

""Animal Lover"is another fast one in the mould of the previous.

"The Next Life"closes the album in an unabashedly sentimental manner.

If you have any interest in Britain's 90's Britpop movement this album should be in the top of your list.
A modern classic.

The sheer brilliance of Bernard Butlers' guitar parts mixed with Brett Andersons' voice, from glass-breaking highs to ground rummbling lows, make 10 genius songs, and with "The Next Life" (the 11th song), a vocal and piano song, to bring you down at the end, it is safe to say that Suede by Suede is the best album of the 90s. The opening song (So Young) shows you both Butlers' talent on guitar, with the breakdown at the end, and his skill as a pianist. This song is followed by "Animal Nitrate", Suedes' best song to date. This is Bernard Butler at his best, never has a song made me feel so alive every time I listen to it. The album is a constant display of how good music can be. At no point will you find your self skipping over a track. At no point will you go on a long time without listening to it. If you only have Head Music you will be surprised at how good Suede used to be.

This is undoubtedly one of the greatest debut albums of the 90's. It came with the beginning of the brit-pop wave, together with such acts as Pulp, Blur, Saint Etienne and of course, Oasis. But Suede had something none of the other bands had. They had soul. The same kind of white soul that David Bowie had as the Thin White Duke. And they combined their soul with elegance, decadence and a great portion of plain ol' rock 'n' roll. The result is a grand album. Bernard Butler's guitars combined with Brett Anderson's haunting voice is all you need to express the kind of urban decay that young people always will feel eventually. At least those who posses feelings.

This is what Suede's really about. With Anderson's psychotic lyrics and Butler's wonderful guitar melodies in parallel, Suede's debut album created a whole universe of androgynous lads, violent romances and killer queens. That's what press call "britpop" and that's what I call pop music. It may seem Wildean, but in fact it's "Suedean".

By the time you hit song five "Pantomime Horse" you will be starting to wonder how this band did not go on to be a major international act. With the impossible styling of the lead singer and the wailing lead breaks of the guitar broken by sudden fragile piano runs it is not possible to listen unemotionally to this album.

That is until song six. Just as you are settling down for a good listen - no, a great listen - the band ease off the unpredictable breaks and you get a murky, sodden wall of noise with few highlights.

Buy it for the opening set of five. They've got more punch than most albums collectively. But forget the rest.

Suede's first album is a mix of hyperactivity and drug-fried melancholy. It flows along beautifully, in the same sort of spirit as Pink Floyd's "The Wall" and Radiohead's "OK Computer" although this time, you aren't quite sure if the ending is a happy one or a miserable one.

Suede have said in interviews that they love The Smiths and Bowie, but fortunately, they do not try to copy them. Rather, they have a more grounded, definable way to describe emotions than Bowie, and their angst is a lot calmer, and a LOT blacker than the work of Morrissey. Nonetheless, they showed an enormous amount of talent for a first album. Since that period, they've become a lot more love-focused and upbeat. Maybe I'm being harsh. This is an album that you'll hum along to when you're feeling on top of the world, but if you're feeling miserable, it certainly won't cheer you up.

Although all but a couple of the tracks (Moving, Animal Nitrate and Animal Lover) aren't radio-friendly, it's a beautiful composition to be appreciated. If you love it, you'll remember Brett Anderson's almost pained voice singing, "Let's chase the dragon... home..." for life, as you will with the haunting guitar riffs from Butler and Anderson crying, "Have you ever tried it that way...?" in "Pantomime Horse." Just some advice. Not calm-down listening after a break up, a breakdown, or anythingin between that requires a lot of Gin and Tonic...

I first heard this album when i was only 13,back then it had a huge impact on me-although in my eyes the follow up album dog man star overshadows this debut,its still a beautiful album,i think they would feel anoyed at the fact they are often harmlessley referred to as taking over where the smiths left, they are similar, but completely different at the same time. Buy this album is all i have to say-it keeps you dreaming,which is a good thing, but i must say i think without bernard butler the band are no more then average,which is a great shame.