The Suede thread for Suede things

Redacted

Perfectly Satisfied

Suede - Full Show @ Vilar de Mouros, Portugal (2022, August 25th)

 
They were my absolute favorite band in the 90s but I just don't get the same feeling from the reunion version.

But, Brett looks and sounds great and this looks like a hell of a show.
 
Dog Man Star is fantastic, I think, and so is most of Sci-fi Lullabies and some of the songs on the debut album and Coming Up. The rest I just can’t take seriously. It’s as if they’re trying so hard to recreate whatever it is they were in the 90s, and to me it just comes off as contrived. They haven’t evolved. To make matters worse, the songs aren’t there anymore, and that makes all the difference.

I know they are a very popular band among the patrons of Solo, so I expect a whipping for saying what I just said, but that’s okay.
 
The thread isn't just for people who love Suede, I am just trying to make a centralized place for Suede posts since there are a few different threads around, and they are on tour, so if anyone goes and wants to post, this is a place to do that
 
The conversations around sexuality and gender were indeed very different then. In some ways, you were a pioneer in, for lack of a better term, “gender fluidity”.

“The phrase didn’t exist then, but it was what I was aiming for with some aspects of my image and statements I made. I famously described myself as a bisexual man who had never had a homosexual experience. It was very clunky – I was trying not to position myself anywhere sexually, but ended up being put into this entire “bisexual” camp. The whole point of it was to avoid these categories altogether. I had misunderstood the way the media works – there are no subtleties, and you can’t speak with nuance.

A sense of sexual fluidity was definitely something I was trying to capture and, retrospectively, it does feel like our message then is incredibly current. I’m quite proud of that, especially if you look at the context: the ’90s were very misogynistic, with lad magazines like Loaded. Yet we were in the middle of it all talking about gender fluidity. It’s like what I said earlier about deliberately avoiding the zeitgeist. We were determined not to join in, and I’m so proud that we didn’t.” -
Brett Anderson







WE ARE A BOY
WE ARE A GIRL

 
The conversations around sexuality and gender were indeed very different then. In some ways, you were a pioneer in, for lack of a better term, “gender fluidity”.

“The phrase didn’t exist then, but it was what I was aiming for with some aspects of my image and statements I made. I famously described myself as a bisexual man who had never had a homosexual experience. It was very clunky – I was trying not to position myself anywhere sexually, but ended up being put into this entire “bisexual” camp. The whole point of it was to avoid these categories altogether. I had misunderstood the way the media works – there are no subtleties, and you can’t speak with nuance.

A sense of sexual fluidity was definitely something I was trying to capture and, retrospectively, it does feel like our message then is incredibly current. I’m quite proud of that, especially if you look at the context: the ’90s were very misogynistic, with lad magazines like Loaded. Yet we were in the middle of it all talking about gender fluidity. It’s like what I said earlier about deliberately avoiding the zeitgeist. We were determined not to join in, and I’m so proud that we didn’t.” -
Brett Anderson







WE ARE A BOY
WE ARE A GIRL


gender fluidity used to be so much more interesting and :fire: when all the most uninteresting and unappealing people in the world werent doing it it. when it was actually the domain of the interesting, the outre, and the outrageously sexy, when it represented a transgression against the norm. becoming mainstream ruined it.
 
gender fluidity used to be so much more interesting and :fire: when all the most uninteresting and unappealing people in the world werent doing it it. when it was actually the domain of the interesting, the outre, and the outrageously sexy, when it represented a transgression against the norm. becoming mainstream ruined it.

I don’t know about ruining it, but I agree about your point on the transgression against the norm. But I think Brett still would see it’s importance in society today.
 
Just ordered the cd, t-shirt (with free 12") directly from the Suede store. I was really tempted to get the boxset but couldn't justify the cost especially as I have promised my wife I would stop buying vinyl, I will never play (Morrissey and The Smiths excluded).

Really looking forward to hear a punk sounding Suede album :)
 
gender fluidity used to be so much more interesting and :fire: when all the most uninteresting and unappealing people in the world werent doing it it. when it was actually the domain of the interesting, the outre, and the outrageously sexy, when it represented a transgression against the norm. becoming mainstream ruined it.

This reminds me of that Whit Stillman movie, Damsels in Distress. I tend not to like his movies, but he does write some good dialogue.

VIOLET. Have you chosen a topic for your paper?

FRED. "The Decline of Decadence."

VIOLET. You think decadence has declined?

FRED. Definitely. Big time. Major, major decline.

VIOLET. How?

FRED. "How" or "in what ways"?

VIOLET. Either.

FRED. Okay, take the flit movement in literature, or homosexuality—

VIOLET. What?

FRED. Homosexuality. It's gone completely downhill. Right down the tubes. Before, homosexuality was something refined, hidden, sublimated, aspiring to the highest forms of expression and often achieving them. Now it just seems to be a lot of muscle-bound morons running around in T-shirts. It's pretty disillusioning.

VIOLET. Are you gay?

FRED. Not especially, but in another era it would have had more appeal. Now, I just don't see the point.
 
So, what do you guys think about the three songs released from the new album??

I'm extremely disappointed! The songs are fairly basic Suede-by-numbers and they re-use all the familiar (woohoo) clichés,...but the worst thing is the attempt to go back to basics with a more direct rock approach that just makes them sound like old men trying too hard...

Night Thoughts and The Blue Hour were both fantastic late career masterpieces... which makes this even more disappointing...

D
 
So, what do you guys think about the three songs released from the new album??

I'm extremely disappointed! The songs are fairly basic Suede-by-numbers and they re-use all the familiar (woohoo) clichés,...but the worst thing is the attempt to go back to basics with a more direct rock approach that just makes them sound like old men trying too hard...

Night Thoughts and The Blue Hour were both fantastic late career masterpieces... which makes this even more disappointing...

D
I only listened to two songs, the one about Brett's mother and can't remember the other. I do not have an opinion yet, except I don't like the song about his mother. The entire album was on youtube earlier, can't find it now, I was going to listen over the weekend. I agree it's Suede by numbers, they seem to be formulaic in their writing. My husband is the major Suede fan here and he doesn't really like anything after the first 2 albums, did not like the new songs.
I think Suede's real strength is in their live performances, Brett is an incredible front man.
 
Do anyone of you Suede nerds/connoisseurs know why the stunning and outright brilliant “This World Needs a Father” was excluded from Sci-fi Lullabies? It would probably have been the best song on the album. Top 3 at least.
 
Back
Top Bottom