I opened with possibly their longest song because I think it's the one that most captures the joy of listening to them. The lyrics are great in that Brett Anderson sort of way, slightly aggitated but still managing to put a smile on your face. In particular the chorus, Oh class A, Class B| Is that the only Chemistry| Between Us? as it hits into Richard Oakes riff. It's just a great track that makes me smile. How could I not when I hear the guitar echo around as the song fades into a string section, it's sonic bliss.
Bit of an odd one here as it's the single that follow the disasterously panned album A New Morning and ended up being the last song they would release before calling it quits in 2003. The synth stabs and odd effect that sounds like someone has muted parts of the backing track early give it a jittery feel that mirrors the slightly threatened tone of the main character who is suffering at the hands of this young woman's aforementioned Attitude
My introduction to this band was finding this song on YouTube in 2009 before they reunited. I had read a few things and had taken a dislike to them without listening to them and the way in which Suede were viewed at the time as weird outsiders who didn't really fit in with the current mainstream, a joke almost, made me avoid them all the more. But after giving them a go, I realised what I was missing out on. I went out walking from Chatham to Rochester the day after and managed to find the CD single in Oxfam for 99p. Bargain. This, and the b-sides that I have selected below are the whole reason I even thought to make this playlist at all.
The first of many b-sides that I have put on the list so far, this one stands out to me as a sort of call to arms and I can hear the voice of positive masculinity in it that I hadn't experienced before discovering Suede. It's sonically different too, it is played in a more wistful way but keeps the quirkyness of that early Bernard Butler era.
A depressing shift in tone, but also a warm hug from someone who knows you're in pain and wants to help ease your sadness. From an era when they had shifted away from the more elaborate arpeggiated guitar sound towards a more melodic, electronic landscape. It needed to be on the list as much because of it's display of their versatility as the beautiful way that it approaches sadness.
I can't begin to write about this one without mentioning the wonderful guitar work on this track and the way that Brett Anderson managed to find lyrics that so brilliantly wraps around that sound. I'll shut up, just listen.
One of the very first tracks that the second guitarist, Richard Oakes, wrote and one of his very best of this era in my opinion. Similar to The Power it feels like this was a track that could have clearly demonstrated the direction that the band would go in, only to be abandoned. Just goes to show that Suede is a band that is happy to almost throwaway fantastic tracks as b-sides that many bands would snatch to release as singles. Lyrically a favourite of mine too, I just adore that it's almost a love song with shoplifters!
Another b-side, this time from Animal Nitrate. Hearing this changed a lot of things for me, I really think this is one of their best songs and it has an energy to it that none of their other songs quite capture. The rapidly buiding intro with Bernard Butler's guitar almost revving like an engine to drive this song through to the wailing overdriven squeals of his guitar as it reaches its conclusion. Just so much bloody fun.
Speaking of fun, here's the lead single from Head Music that they still tend to crank out live, and I think it's obvious why. It fuses their previous guitar-centric sound with a more electronica infused twist that posits it well as this shift from one era to another. That and it's just fun, you want to chant along with it, you want to jump to it, it's the right kind of anthemic song to put in the middle of a live set to get people off their arses.
Whereas this is the opposite. A piano infused song of loss that sounds like running away, far away, so far away| and flog ice creams| 'til the companys on its knees. Off of their first album, it's the first time you really get to hear the internal life of Brett Anderson in such a tender and somewhat lonely way and beautiful note to his mum who had passed away a few years earlier. The lyrics just make me think of a tragic, alternate, fantasy universe where they are able to still be together, it's heartbreaking to think about.
The follow up to The Next Life came almost thirty years later. Rather than the meloncholy of that more immediate feeling of loss, there is a more motivated and inspiring note to this one. It's the reminder, the indelible ink that cannot fade, the way he was cared for as a child, the love and deep strength that he draws from her mark on his life. I really adore this song, it's the best thing they have written since Dog Man Star in my humble opinion.
Probably the emotional low point for me, it captures a very English hopelessness to me. It has all the sounds of something that threatens joy and sunlight but never bursts into the happiness it threatens, instead, the lyrics detail the poverty and abuse at the heart of so many lives that seem like they are built on love, but end up destroyed selfishness and violence. This ain't the high life.
"I've written this really beautiful piece of music and it's a squalid song about junkies" said Bernard Butler of this b-side for the standalone Valentine's Day single Stay Together but we'll have to agree to disagree. It's the story of the loss of true love due to the misery brought about by addiction. Less squalid, more heartwrenching. It truly captures its place and time too, the era of heroin chic.
Bloody hell, not another song about being sad, lonely and depressed! Well yes, but also no. It's a song about overcoming, seeing the beige mundanity of daily life, watching it all get away from you and deciding to fight for yourself. It has saved me before, brought me from some dark places and there's always room on any list of songs I make for something that can do that for you. Even the urgency of the guitar riff gets across how important the message is, "save yourself, it's not too late."
I really enjoy the lyrics but it's Bernard Butler's guitar work that really takes this one over the edge for me. He manages to get sounds from a guitar that I don't think I've heard before and in such a short space of time he manages to get it to some really interesting places. I've listened to it hundreds of times and the musical work on this still blows me away. Inspiring. And yet again, they threw this away as a fucking b-side! Honestly, I would recommend Sci-Fi Lullabies over most of their mainline albums, two CDs/three LPs of brilliant songs that would have passed most people by.
They keep trying to throw away brilliant songs, this one was left at the end of the aforementioned "disaster" A New Morning but wasn't listed as a track and would start thirteen and a half minutes into the last track on the CD. A few bands have used the hidden track device in the past but I can't think of one that put the best track on the album in a hidden final track. This acoustic melody is a story of two people who have been together for some time and aren't enjoying each other's company anymore, to the point that they have a vast distance between them emotionally. A song that seemed to mimic the (then) demise of the band itself.
From the same album, a track that really hits right. It's not the strongest song on the list but it is a definite shift from what they had done previously and have done since. Lyrically, the chorus has a gravity that I tend to fall towards.
The longest track on the first album and for a long time, my least favourite. Too much like a ballad, I enjoyed it but not as much as the rest. Now I can appreciate the lyrics more than I ever used to and the cacophony towards the end as it builds to the cresendo I really enjoy. Almost as much as my pet theory that it was at least partly inspired by former guitarist and then Elastica band member, oh and of course Brett Anderson's ex and Damon Albarn's then girlfriend, Justine Frischmann. Go listen to Car Song by Elastica for more context.
One of my favourite singles from the Dog Man Star era. It really starts off well with a fairly simplistic series of arpeggi at the beginning of the track and builds with the help of some horns to a chorus that swells while the guitar goes full bore with the eccentricity that Bernard Butler was known for. Brett's vocals and lyrics are also strong on this one and it really gives me that motivated feeling I need on those days where I have little direction. It's the kind of track that pushes me on.
The track where the musicality and lyricism reach a near perfect synergy. The vocal delivery is desperate, the lyrics are ridden with angst, the guitar is jerky, twitchy and delivers a sense of claustrophobia without losing the style that Suede are known for. Although I haven't mentioned them yet, this is also the track that really captures the way that Mat Osman and Simon Gilbert keep everything on the straight and narrow, no matter how out there Bernard or Richard; along with Brett, would go.
One of those tracks that I wouldn't usually think about listening to because, although it is probably Suede's most popular era, it's really not my favourite and this track in particular lacks the positivity that much of Coming Up manages to bring. What makes this song so special though is the pathos drawn from the situation: having a caring conversation with a friend who has fallen on hard times in a layby. Doesn't really sound that interesting but the way that the sound and lyrics are so undeniably Suede in their glimpses at English life through the curtains just makes it captivating.
Well this is a weird one for me. Fantastic song as it is, I felt like this needed to be included as much for what it represents as the quality of the song itself. I really enjoy this album and this song is no exception but this is a direction shift during Butler-era Suede that fascinates me. I wish that this had been the blueprint for the third album in many ways because it has such an odd sound that really wouldn't have meshed with the poppier elements that had crept into focus around that time. Instead, Bernard left the band under a cloud and the direction of travel shifted significantly. We got Together as a b-side on New Generation but ultimately, a pop infused sound would win the day.
Unfortunately, I cannot find the version of this that I want to show you as there are very few live recordings that have made it on to Spotify. Instead, here's the album version. A ballad with oddly jumbled lyrics that match the odd directions that the song takes, it's sweet without being syrupy. The gambit that I wanted to show you was the long pause between the first chorus and second verse that Brett used to have during live performances of this song, it just worked so well with the crowd and the following lyric that I sort of wish they'd release that version someday.
The other b-side from Animal Nitrate, this is a more complex affair than Painted People. Firstly, gone is the heavy reliance on the guitar to get the song to interesting places, replaced by low-key arpeggi that jangle in and out of focus, instead it is Brett's voice that takes up the mantle and it works really well for the lonely vibe that the song tries to convey. Any track that finishes with a saxophone solo of this quality is bound to be strong too. Another gem they decided to hide on a single that many didn't notice.
There was only one place I could finish really, the closer for Dog Man Star is a thing of real beauty. A soft, opening guitar part that builds with strings fading in and out of focus. The romantic sacrifice suggested by the lyrics. The swelling strings over the chorus towards the end that fall and rise again into a majestic close. There are so few songs like it that I couldn't allow any list that didn't show this song off.
Enjoy!