Suede: Good or Shit

I think their first album is a complete classic. Beyond that, it's been a bit patchy, but there have been some great tracks -- "Filmstar" and "She's in Fashion" tops among them.

(here's one we made earlier)

Did Momus/Puck really badmouth my cousin's band? That's rather unfortunate, but rather expected from a gent that makes cruddy sub- Casio tunes about genitals. Please do growup, Mr. Currie.

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Pantomime Horse

Killing of a FlashBoy

Asphalt World

Jumble Sale Mums

Europe is Our Playground

Waterloo

Weight of the World

Digging a Hole

The Big Time

Living Dead

Shipbuilding

Indian Strings

So Young

Animal Lover

Dog Man Star is a fucking great record. The best work either Bernard or Brett have ever done, with or without each other.

I'm prepared to revoke my animosity towards Mark S seeing as he pointed me in the right direction :)

I think the 3rd album is underrated although I still love Animal Nitrate and the Wild Ones, and their B-sides album is cool.

The Birds has to be the most overrated b-side of all time. I mean, it's alright but PLEASE! ... talk about hype. Stay Together is tuneful but bloated and I LOVE grandiose music. I LOVE "YES" and the other M&B single. Butler's voice lacks passion.

I remember Brett saying some time in the mid 90's that only Suede and Nirvana could write proper pop songs with a capital PS. I know it's not a popular viewpoint on this forum but I myself, both as an Oxonian and a guitar-pop fan generally, was profoundly and sonically gratified when Radiohead released The Bends, an album which clearly pissed on Anderson's, deluded, coked-up claim and the rest of that decade's indie pop/rock. You've gotta watch out for the quiet "ugly" ones Brett... I still love you though you mincing troubador!

Different Class is in, erm, a different class.

I do like Drum'n'Bass Simon R, honestly.

Milk'n'Kisses.

The Don.

Sadie,

Momus said the notorious "Suede are Best New Band in Britain" MM cover might as well have read "the most accomplished neo-70's retro band likely to appeal to students" or words to that effect which was a) pretty accurate and b) pretty funny. Music has moved on a notch or two since Ziggy, Roxy etc... even if some students haven't.

I do love your cousin's old band though, that's why I posted in the first place.

Excuse my drunken obsequiousness,

Chrys Sallys

it's very difficult to admit to liking Suede.... but High Rising! what a fantastic song!

If nobody else is gonna say "Holy fuck, 'Modern Boys' is a completely genius rock song,'" then I guess it's up to me. There, then.

Much better on its own than as a bonus track tacked onto the end of the American Dog Man Star, though.

"The Living Dead"/"My Dark Star" = the lost B-side one-two punch of the nineties?

If nobody else is gonna say "Holy fuck, 'Modern Boys' is a completely genius rock song,'" then I guess it's up to me. There, then. -- John Darnielle

I'll second that, though perhaps minues the 'f*ck' part... it's too late for profanity in the Eastern Time Zone at the moment. I'd also add "Holy feck, "To the Birds" is one of the best b-sides of all time." I think John (Darnielle) wrote that 'Sci-Fi Lullabies' was one of his favorite albums in some e-mail interview I did with him a couple years back, and I whole-heartedly agree. If there's a better b- side compilation out there, from another band, I'd sure as feck like to know what it is...

So, to answer the original question... yeah, Suede is DAMN good. Their debut album is a flawless classic! And 'Sci-Fi Lullabies' is equally stunning.

living dead is thier most brilliant and beutiful song evah!

Will agree that all three tracks on the 'Stay Together' single are in my top ten Suede tracks. A brilliant single in every way.

"STAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY TOGEVVAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Brilliant.

I think they are shite. Then again I never much fell for Bowie either. So why would I have fallen for Ziggy Lite. ;-) I guess it's whether you choose to fall for that image or not. And I choose not to. Actually my fave Bowie song is "I dig everything" (on Pye). But that's beside the point. Suede is KRAP. heh.

I didn't really badmouth them. They used to come round to my house!

I see them now as another 90s band who failed by scrabbling up onto the shoulders of the giants of previous decades rather than coming up with something new and timely . With historical perspective, we still see the giants (Bowie, in their case), but the little men standing on their shoulders look smaller all the time.

It's rather like those British artists who, smitten by Picasso, were still coming to terms with Cubism in the 1950s. Do we remember them, however good they were, or do we remember Picasso?

i like bowie a lot (more than suede probably), but bowie feels like an orator, an auteur, something separate, gap between star and populace, one of the things i like about suede is the ease of relation, the gap lessened, less about him/them, soundtrack you instead. you can be the bowie!

that would sound so good, if it actually made any kind of sense!

Proof of Suede's populism, Gareth: Brett Anderson is surely one of the pop stars easiest to do an impression of!

oh, and Coming Up is an ironed out cousin of Bummed.

"STAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY TOGEVVAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Brilliant.

You've got it all wrong! It's "STIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIY TOGEVVAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

My affection for them is totally irrational, I think they're fantastic despite all of their flaws. And their last album being pretty cringeworthy, etc.

Much better on its own than as a bonus track tacked onto the end of the American Dog Man Star, though.

Naturally Ned I do not own the American edition of DMS but the import. Also I have the promotional postcards that were issued with "Coming Up." And one of the "Beautiful Ones" CD singles but not the other. But I'll buy the other if I see it. Because there is no hope for me. Oh dear.

This is making me feel a bit better about having every single.*

*except off Coming Up, I lost interest a bit there.

Naturally Ned I do not own the American edition of DMS but the import.

Naturally. As my copy came for free, though, I'm not complaining.

Do I have *every last single ever issued* by the band, 2 parters and all, plus bootlegs and weird tracks and unreleased things and all? Oh, give a guess. Fun achievement -- making a Sci-Fi Lullabies II on my CD burner with everything they left off from that era. And the handy Head Music B-side disc I made I listen to more often than the actual album.

You should upload this Head Music b-sides, compo. And the Ludus comp too.

If you know what's good for you, anyway.

i hope it hasn't got that incredibly embarrasing live version of bohemian rhapsody on it

Head Music B-side disc! Ned, you're killin' me! But do you have the Pop Culture Press CD with the live version of "Trash" in Dublin? 'Cos I do. Yours if you want it, but first you have to get five people who slag off "Head Music" to admit that "Everything Will Flow" is a terrific song.

I will admit this. I think "Savoir Fair"(sp) is what kills it for me.

Are they still planning to reissue/remaster everything through Head Music with bonus discs? I'll probably stick to the first two and leave it at that.

Speak of the devil:

http://www.nme.com/news/101295.htm

Ned, please note the advert indicating the availability of Suede ringtones for your cellular.

I *wish* I had that version of "Bohemian Rhapsody"! :-)

Nicole has told me and I will obey. *snivels, hides*

Regarding the new album -- yus. Don't know if ya caught it on the other thread, John, but I run wild-ones, the oldest (possibly only!) Suede mailing list out there, so David Barnett feeds us the propaganda before the rest of the world gets it, hurrah. And I'm pretty sure I've got that version of "Trash" -- hell, I even have some of the cassette singles with the demo versions of songs. And then there's the fanclub only singles and...

oor old Swide were/are laughably, wretchedly bad. Throwing a series of tired secondhand cliches together makes for po-faced, mockney nonsense, not the glitzy glam-pop they aspired to. Worst of all - NOT ONE ORIGINAL IDEA! It was obviously easier to rip off Roxy/Bowie/Bolan again and again.

I'd rather hear someone try something and fail horribly than play it as safe as these tossers, record after record. Electricity! Pills! Shaking like an animal! Gasoline!

Fuck off greasy fop slobs!

Ned, we've got some fire-dishonouring going on over here.

But it's just Dr. C. Therefore, all I have to do is point that the Clash were equally derivative.

Respect to Dr. C. The McAlmont/Butler alb is the only decent rec any of these goons have ever been involved w/.

Dr. C nails it again.

**But it's just Dr. C.

And it's just you, Ned.

**Therefore, all I have to do is point that the Clash were equally derivative**

More in response later, when I have time.

Suede were...and are....still one of the better bands out there. Lost without a label, but still....

"Stay Together" is far from bloated....though I DO enjoy the longer version. (And tis probably just me round here, that does;>)

Better single that never was? "Europe is Our Playground". That track can still make me happy.

All this said, "Head Music" still makes me laugh, whenever I dare to put it on;>

;-) I'm funning ya, sir! Suede are obviously obsessed with their roots, but I think the main thing is that they have more of said roots than detractors give 'em credit for -- whether or not they actually do more with that range is another matter entirely.

Lost without a label, but still....

Not so -- they're now on Epic in the UK, which makes sense since they were on Sony anyway everywhere else.

dog man star is one of the most powerful albums i've ever heard in my life. a must have for everyone. and the b-side "whipsnade" is beautifullly perfect; the coda is probably my favorite piece of pop music ever.

hi there. the question with music always comes down to one thing.

"are they trying to be , and convinced they are , making the greatest forward step in music and integrity of the current level of evolution of music?"

the answer with suede is they have reached some incredible heights with songs from the first lp and early b sides but then went quickly sour as they became "just another indie band" making the complete slosh of their last two lps.

they should be measured against their blueprints such as the smiths who never lost their consistancy of constantly making something truly great.