Search - London Suede :: Suede

Easily one of the ten greatest albums of the nineties

Robert Moore | Chicago, IL USA | 03/31/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"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."

Remarkable beginning, forgettable finish

Gary | 10/06/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"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."

Won't someone give me a gun?!

Bojidar Dimitrov | Plovdiv, Bulgaria | 10/16/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"No,the gun is not for my brother.I'll need it personally, to shoot all the impeccably bred critics and alleged melomans,all the swine who never bothered to really listen to Suede.Yes,Bowie and the Smiths were the idols that Brett and Bernard worshipped,their perverse glamour had obviously poisoned those working class kids at a tender age and provided the impulse to revive guitar rock.However,I dont think that even Brett and Bernard have realised what they have actually done, because they remain blinded by the halos of their own teenage heroes.Apart from the homage and the obvious similarities, the early Suede stuff is way better than anything David and Moz have ever released.It'd be a hypocritical sacrilege to compare a shallow and trendy rock'n'roll record like Ziggy Stardust with the creativity and the energy of the Suede debut, not to mention the whiny and quite theatrical world of Morrissey's discreet homosexuality.Come on!The power,sincerity,the sensuality,the androgynous angst and the vulnerability of Anderson are much deeper and far more convincing,they haunt the triviality of daily life and create a new enchanting dimension out of it,a dimension in which the drugs,the sex,and even a thing like paracetamol have an almost esoteric meaning.

Next time you pop Suede in your cd player,just try to distance yourself of all the background, all the casual crap that you've been fed to by the press and the media.Try to feel it and forget those retarded pop dinosaurs.This is the delight of the chemical smile..."