New Suede album? Any opinions?

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Well, I wasn't going to buy it. I honestly wasn't. BUT they were once my fave band and I still rate 'Dog Man Star' as the finest LP ever released. Then again, I also rate 'Head Music' as one of the worst CDs I've ever suffered through...

And 'Positivity' was so utterly, utterly pish it almost made me cry...

But I went out and bought 'A New Morning' today in part because I saw them live 3 weeks ago and they played some stuff from it and I thought it sounded, well, quite good actually. I'm listening to it as we speak and my opinions are still being formed but I'm quite mixed about it. Some of it is really pants ('Positivity', 'Lonely Girls') and some of it seems to really stand out ('Lost in TV' and 'Untitled... Morning'). The rest I'm not too sure about as of now, with 'Obsessions' having quite a catchy pop tune but some really dodgy lyrics and 'Streetlife' being much the same. I think they should have binned anything co-written or even involving the unwelcome spectre of Neil 'I'm a knob' Codling a long time ago though seeing as he's responsible for a lot of what made Suede crap.

Anyone else gone out and indulged in any Anderson-related hi jinks today?

― Calum Robert, Monday, 30 September 2002 14:49 (twenty-three years ago)

Neil Codling's not so bad. He wrote "The Chemistry Between Us". I don't think Suede have gotten that bad, but I couldn't really be bothered getting the new record. i haven't listened to Dog Man Star in a while, I must give it a spin...

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Monday, 30 September 2002 21:10 (twenty-three years ago)

Bought it today. Listened to it a couple of times on my walkman. Like how Brett's voice is throatier, but still wonder why he swapped his low, reverby Dog Man Star voice for the one he's had since. A lot of the album seems tired and mediocre. I don't understand why Suede have got so bad. Early on, Butler had loads of talent and losing him was a big loss, but what helped Suede be great was the way in which Brett TRIED so hard. He wasn't a terrific singer, lyricist or looker, but he seemed to put everything he had into attempting to be these things. Sometimes his desperation to be a star was embarrassing (in lyrics and interviews) but thrilling also, and he was a very watchable performer (Suede's early performance on the Brit awards was one of the highlights of my childhood). Now, perhaps understandably, he doesn't appear to care about his own band so much. They're pretty good at the slow songs still though. I was listening to 'Lost in TV' at a table outside a cafe in Victoria Station, waiting on a train, and felt perfectly melancholy in a stupid Suede way. 'Positivity' is a joke. 'Lonely Girls' I quite liked.

― Eyeball Kicks (Eyeball Kicks), Monday, 30 September 2002 21:11 (twenty-three years ago)

i dreamt about them more than any other famous people.
still my 3rd favourite 'peak period' of any band is theirs
from autumn 92 thru 2 bernard's bolt.
the new album's utterly atrocious. the last true classic song
('the chemistry between us') was 6 years ago.

if u want/need, like i still do, 2 indulge in
'what if' fantasies re: the original line-up's reformation
check this sunday's 'ndependent on sunday'interview.

― piscesboy, Monday, 30 September 2002 22:28 (twenty-three years ago)

Hmm, I'd actually argue that Anderson IS a terrific singer and lyricist (yes I am thinking of 'Dog Man Star' especially such utter classics as 'The Wild Ones', 'The 2 of Us', 'The Asphalt World', 'Still Life' - the latter can still make me all shivery as it's just beautiful beyond belief). I just feel that since Butler left so did most the ambition...

In saying that I really liked 'Coming Up' and they were still capable of producing heart rendering loveliness ('By the Sea', 'The Chemistry Between Us' and flip sides such as 'Another No One' and 'This Time').

'Head Music' was pathetic, and the new album is decidedly so-so, though 'Lost in TV' and 'Oceans' are really mind blowing.

Maybe the problem is that Suede never really had the chance to evolve as a band as almost every album the line up changes (i.e. Anderson/ Butler to Anderson/Oakes to Anderson/Codling to Anderson/Lee to Anderson/One man and his dog).

Please tell me more about the 'Independent on Sunday' interview. Pleeeease! I still live in hope that they'll go back to being that awesome 4 piece...

― Calum Robert, Monday, 30 September 2002 23:16 (twenty-three years ago)

this one? http://www.independent.co.uk/story.jsp?story=336382 - terribly written innit?

― Charlie (Charlie), Monday, 30 September 2002 23:23 (twenty-three years ago)

They're gone gone gone gone . . . . . . start looking for something new rather than pining for lost idols . . . . .

― lynskey, Monday, 30 September 2002 23:30 (twenty-three years ago)

start looking for something new rather than pining for lost idols . . . . .

If the choice is the Music as 'something new,' say, I'll stick with old. ;-)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 1 October 2002 00:41 (twenty-three years ago)

The last great Suede album was The Sound of McAlmont & Butler: imagine Dog Man Star with better songs, a better singer & produced by Nigel Goodrich