Suede B-Sides/Non-Album POLL (Anderson/Butler/Gilbert/Osman line-up)

Even if you like Suede, I guess it's easy to write them off as an especially 90s way of urban trash. But try walking home through town at 5 in the morning after an evening of (insert chosen form of debauchery) with these tunes on your ear, and they still sound like there written for it..

have you ever really tried it that way?

"...sound like they were written", even.

I have actually. Suede's pretty much my chosen soundtrack for those kinds of walks.

Though not 'A New Morning', I suppose?

Ha, no. I guess this thing pretty much ended after Coming Up, one or two songs off Head Music notwithstanding.

Talking about Head Music and A New Morning... what's everyone's thoughts on the B-sides to those albums?

better than the C-listers on those albums

Have to admit I've never checked them out. Head Music is decent, but tired. New Morning pretty much ppassed me by. Would be surprised if the b-sides was much to cheer about.

Any who'll rep for them?

Xpost

I read their forum sometimes and Cheap gets a good rep from them, which I don't understand.

Their fans there, that is

'To The Birds' and 'My Insatiable One' were both great. If 'High Rising' is the one I think, then that's pretty good too (was it something like "with the high rise, still in his eyes....and we'll go there..."?). Painted People ditto (if it's the "the pills have taken everything" one). Don't think I've heard any of them after that.

they were huge fans themselves of Dolly, it was mooted as a single for a while early on and they did it live loads, then suddenly it vanished from the UK live sets rarely to be heard again and wasn't even included on Sci Fi Lullabies! saw them a good 10 or 12 times live 92-94 and never heard it played once.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXF0kP2PMJ0

'High Rising' is fantastic, it points the way to what they'd do on portions of Dog Man Star, but does so without being weighed down by the production excesses of that record.

i so adore the dark dank reverbed out gotham city production of Dog Man Star, it is so fucking sweet.

Excesses schmexcesses -- I love the damn thing.

I'm not saying that the production excess on Dog Man Star is a bad thing - in fact, it suits the record, and I couldn't imagine it without the type of sound that it has. However, I do side with Butler a little - the mixing on that record definitely has plenty of flaws.

I would definitely trade the cavernous production of DMS for the uninterrupted presence of Butler, though Coming Up (and the bsides) are very fun.

I do think they could have eased off the reverb a little bit on the drums, for one. I'm not saying they should have stripped the reverb off completely, just toned it down slightly. Sometimes there's so much reverb on there that the snares feel lumpen. Also, the way some things are placed in the stereo field strike me as a little bit weird.

I sort of like how everything has so much everything on it it feels like swimming in someone's soup.

this is a brutal fight between He's Dead and High Rising, both of which are spectacular achievements

IMO the production on the debut is bloody awful in places. take Moving; it isn't meant to sound like it was recorded down a well,
it was meant to sound like a slicker version of this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHiQbp93rzg

I agree. The debut sounds shrill.

+1, i heard dms first and was pretty disappointed by the flatness of the s/t.

Anyway, does anyone else find it strange they went with 'The Power' on Dog Man Star (which doesn't feature Butler, although he wrote the music), when they had 'Killing Of A Flashboy' and 'Whipsnade' around at the time?

And yeah, there are moments on the debut which aren't served well by the production. 'Moving' definitely being one of them, and even Brett Anderson himself admitted this when the album was reissued.

yea, i always told myself "well they chose the most effective ~sequence~ of songs" wrt Dog Man Star. could've been a been a double disc by including the dazzling bsdies and the stay together ep.

There's a great interview with Ed Buller on making the Suede records here

Ah, it's He's Dead. A quick listen has confirmed this.

Never understood the universal dislike of Ed Buller's production on the early Suede albums

I think it's just a case of it suiting some songs but not others. Like the studio version of 'Moving' definitely doesn't come alive in the same way that the live incarnation does, but I couldn't imagine 'Pantomime Horse' or 'She's Not Dead' sounding any other way - the production is dead on the nail on those tracks, I think. Having said all this, we're still talking about how good these records are 20 years later, so I guess whatever technical flaws these records have can be easily overlooked. Unlike, say, Pop by U2, which has flaws which are far more difficult to overlook.

Talking about Head Music and A New Morning... what's everyone's thoughts on the B-sides to those albums?

― I wanna live like C'MOWN! people (Turrican)

Not that keen on the Head Music B-sides apart from Let Go which lyrically is pretty throwaway but is a great tune.

A New Morning had some B-sides that really should have been on the album. Simon is probably their best song after Coming Up. I really like Cheap too. They really screwed that album up on so many levels. The two best songs on the actual album were put as bonus tracks (You Belong to me and Oceans) On the New Morning reissue they asked Brett why they put Oceans as a hidden track, he said "I have no idea" Great song.

It was really interesting seeing Brett's revised track listings for the reissues. I agree with most of his decisions apart from getting rid of The Chemistry Between Us on Coming Up.

I'd just like to add I played Bloodsports this morning and still sounded fantastic. Not a single song I wanted to skip.

Yeah, Bloodsports is definitely going to get a vote from me in the end of year poll!

Listening to Sci-Fi Lullabies again thanks to this thread. I always associate Suede with a distinct time in my life and assume that they're going to sound dated or not age well, but then I listen to them and remember why I liked them so much.

My final decision came down to The Living Dead vs My Dark Star.

I listened to Sci-Fi Lullabies myself last night, and left with the impression that the first CD might actually be my favourite Suede album of them all, even if it's not a "proper" album.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

SHE WILL CUM FROM INDIA

Great to see 'My Dark Star' up there... really surprised 'High Rising' didn't get a single vote, though!

Whipsnade deserved a vote too, actually everything apart from Eno's Introducing the Band and maybe Dolly deserved at least one vote.

I thought you'd get more than 28 votes, this stuff should be canon

Yeah I did think that but had to remind myself that sadly a lot of people just don't seem to love Suede B-sides as much as I do. If I'm totally honest I think I'd include them in my five favourite bands ever.

I love Suede B-sides but didn't notice this poll till it was over.

i don't remember if i voted
but it's "whipsnade"

COAST TO COAST
SIDE TO SIDE

I listened to Sci-Fi Lullabies myself last night, and left with the impression that the first CD might actually be my favourite Suede album of them all, even if it's not a "proper" album.

― I wanna live like C'MOWN! people (Turrican), Saturday, August 3, 2013 8:22 PM (2 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Of course, I'm listening to the first CD of Sci-Fi Lullabies again tonight, and my god this feels like the best album they ever made.

i pretty much agree. and the 2nd disc is the best album the post-Butler album ever made, imo.

the outro to "whipsnade" is so grand, i love the soaring descending lead that gradually gets more and more echoed out as the song fades

I was listening to these tracks again following this thread and was thinking about the reasons why Brett dislikes "Stay Together" while it was such an important track for Bernard.
Beside the context, I think it might be because the lyrics might be his worse and laziest of that time and same thing for his singing/performance.
I like that song but always thought it lacked something to be really great.

I've heard that Brett hates the track partly because of the atmosphere in the band at the time and allegedly because he wrote the song about a person he no longer cares about.

Personally, I quite like the track a hell of a lot, but only in its full length version... the edit sounds quite butchered to me.

STYYYYY TOGETHER

'This World Needs a Father' is so fucking underrated.

heh, had not heard that one before - sounds like Suede doing a Roy Orbison song

Stay Together was the first CD single or 'EP' (if not exactly in name) I bought by any 'indie' band after growing up on Queen/Erasure/Dire Straits/Genesis etc, so I guess I was spoiled rotten for value. Can't remember how unaware I was of what a perfect set of songs to obtain on one single was, or if I just assumed it was normal

that Ed Buller interview linked upthread is great! can't believe i'd not read it before.

Yeah, it's a great read - I wish there were more things around like that, it's always great to get some insight into what the sessions were like.

For me one of the most underrated of their b-sides is "Whipsnade".
Such a fantastic song. It could have been on a follow-up album to DMS, in a parallel dimension in which Butler would have stayed in the band and they would have made a lighter album than DMS but not as poppy as Coming Up.
"Whipsnade" is very sophisticated, catchy and lighter than their DMS stuff, the melodies are wonderful, the arrangements and production quite different from their output up to that point. Less gravitas overall.

Totally agree about Whipsnade. It's constantly creeping up my favourite Suede songs list. It's probably in the top three with Killing Of A Flashboy and We Are The Pigs at the moment.

I'm a big fan of This World Needs A Father too. Asda Town from the same single is also brilliant.

Is "Asda Town" an Anderson/Butler song ? I always thought it wasn't.

Oh, I just noticed it's been discussed already upthread !

Totally agree about Whipsnade. It's constantly creeping up my favourite Suede songs list. It's probably in the top three with Killing Of A Flashboy and We Are The Pigs at the moment.

i.e. exactly the three songs that made up the 12"/CD single We Are The Pigs. It was unbelievable buying and listening to that record, playing those tracks over and over. So exciting!

Asda Town was their first released song credited to Anderson alone

yep, whipsnade is perfect

god that chiming arpeggio that comes in during the end.... so good