Britpop’s bohemians mature into golden oldies
SUEDE were the Britpop trailblazers who didn’t really run with the pack. They topped the charts a year before Blur’s Parklife and the first oasis album, but Brett Anderson’s dandyish style and fondness for louche art-rock left him at odds with his laddish peers.
That approach distanced them from Britpop’s most lucrative windfalls, and they were a fading force by the time they split in 2003. However, sticking their necks out served Suede well creatively, and they’ve displayed a familiar single- mindedness since reforming six years ago.
Like most reunions, Suede’s began with a victory lap. They took the hits on the road, playing venues such as the Royal Albert Hall to Britpoppers nearing middle age. But their comeback record, Bloodsports, bristled with romantic drama, and Night Thoughts is a dark yet compelling sequel.
A loose concept album dealing with life and death, love and loss, it uses lavish strings to enhance its impact, and offers a refreshingly mature take on the guitar-fuelled heroics that took the band from Sussex suburbia to the pop summit 20 years ago.
with no gaps between its 12 tracks, Night Thoughts was conceived as a continuous piece of music, an unusual move in a digital age where many songs are written to be downloaded in bite-sized chunks. But it works best when played in full.
Some songs were inspired by the birth of Anderson’s young son. Never given to sentimentality, the singer, 48, examines not only the joys of fatherhood, but anxieties that can keep any new parent awake at night.
other tracks are fictional, based on the thoughts of a man drifting in the water beside a deserted beach at night, a concept explored by Kate Bush on her song cycle The Ninth wave. If this dark-night-of-the-soul stuff sounds too self-consciously pale and interesting, Suede dispel any fears with the verve of their musicianship. Anderson’s voice has grown richer with age, and Suede are robust, capable of moulding something fresh and vibrant from traditional rock and roll.
The album opens with the orchestral prelude when You Are Young, later reprised with the downbeat title when You were Young, but it is a record dominated by brooding ballads and classy rock numbers, the latter of which find the swagger of old intact. Powered by Mat osman’s rugged bass, melodramatic outsiders tells of lovers ‘ thrown like two winter roses into a broken vase’. No Tomorrow is a reminder that Suede usually adopted a funkier strut than their Nineties contemporaries, while I Don’t Know How To Reach You doffs a cap poignantly to glam- era Bowie, a long-term influence.
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slow songs are more reflective, with band and orchestra in perfect harmony on Tightrope, and Like Kids taking inspiration from Pink Floyd in its use of a children’s choir.
only on closing ballad The Fur And The Feathers does the overall mood become over-wrought.
Suede deserve credit for not playing safe (they plan to perform Night Thoughts in full on next month’s UK tour, too). They once celebrated simple, youthful pleasures with songs such as Saturday Night. Now, they are growing older with the same elegance.