The original Britpop boys swagger back to their roots
SUEDE: Autofiction (BMG)
Verdict: Britpop trailblazers rediscover the plot ★★★★☆
RINA SAWAYAMA: Hold The Girl (Dirty Hit)
Verdict: Pop with personality ★★★★☆
MARCUS MUMFORD: Self-Titled (Island)
Verdict: Haunting solo debut ★★★★☆
WHEN Suede re-formed after a seven- year break in 2010, they reintroduced themselves with the predictable lap of honour. They played a few ‘classic album’ shows in London and completed a greatest hits tour to remind the world that it was them — and not Blur or Oasis — who really started 1990s Britpop.
Since then, they have steadfastly refused to play the nostalgia card. They have made three adventurous new albums, Bloodsports, Night Thoughts and The Blue Hour, the last of which featured choirs, orchestral flourishes and bucolic instrumentals, prompting singer Brett Anderson to admit that it was ‘wilfully obscure’.
Those comments sold The Blue Hour short. It was a record that worked well as a complete piece of music. But it pays to give fans something familiar from time to time — and Suede do just that on Autofiction, a new album of aggressive rock’n’roll that recaptures the raw energy of their formative years. ‘It’s our punk record,’ jokes Anderson. ‘No whistles and bells, just the five of us in a room.’
There’s no shortage of energy. With Richard Oakes’ guitar driving the band on, That Boy On The Stage is an electrified stomp. What Am I Without You? is a windswept ballad that, like Suede’s early singles, looks to David Bowie, Roxy Music
THROWBACKS and 1970s glam for inspiration.
to the band’s heyday abound. But Suede are no longer callow 20- somethings. They are men in their 40s and 50s, with the bruises to prove it, and Anderson doesn’t shy away from grown-up realities. He overcame a drug problem in the 1990s, is now a husband and father, and has written two autobiographies. So he has a fair bit to sing about. He addresses fond memories of his mother, who died before Suede got their big break, on She Still Leads Me On. ‘When I look up at the sky, she leads me on,’ he sings.
Shadow Self is a song about turning 50. Drive Myself Home, illuminated by piano and woodwind, is a mature ballad. There’s exuberance amid the vulnerability, too. That Boy On The Stage is a boisterous celebration of live performance and 15 Again a bittersweet look back at ‘ afternoons in bedrooms with TV meals’. Now and then, the swagger tips over into melodrama — but Suede are otherwise regenerated. Bassist Mat Osman says they made this album to remind themselves of the joys of being in a band. As second comings go, it rolls back the years. n RINA SAWAYAMA showed her determination when she campaigned for a change to the eligibility rules for Uk music awards, such as the Brits and Mercury Prize, in 2021.
The singer — born in Japan, but a British resident for 27 years — kept her Japanese passport to maintain family ties, but found herself excluded from Uk music competitions as a result.
With support from Elton John, however, her lobbying led to an amendment (long-term Uk residents are now eligible for all the glittering prizes), and she was rewarded with a nomination for last year’s Rising Star award.
She’s showing the same drive on her second album, Hold The Girl, a tightly- crafted collection of catchy pop. Sawayama, 32, doesn’t hide her influences. On ballads like the title track, she’s indebted to musical theatre. This Hell, a plea for tolerance, is a Lady Gagastyle banger with a nod (‘Let’s go girls!’) to Shania Twain’s Man! I Feel Like A Woman!
But she imposes her own personality on some infectious pop tunes, singing about being raised by a single mother on catch Me In The Air, and recalling her student days at cambridge on Holy.
Rock ballad Phantom is a peptalk to her younger self: (‘If I could talk to you, I’d tell you not to rush’). A fondness for meteorological metaphors does start to wear thin: we have rainstorms and blue clouds on Forgiveness, ‘blue skies, always there behind the rain’ on To Be Alive, and ‘ April showers finally making way for warmer weather’ on Hurricanes. But even so, Hold The Girl is a breath of fresh air.
THERE are harrowing moments on Self-Titled, Marcus Mumford’s first solo album. The Mumford & Sons singer was sexually abused aged six, and he began untangling decades of denial to deal with the trauma last year. He’s now singing about his grim experiences on an album that, while often an uncomfortable listen, shows courage.
Putting the banjos and mandolins of his regular band aside, he swaps folk for surging rock and acoustic blues. His lyrics are fierce and direct. ‘I can still taste you and I hate it,’ he sings on cannibal. He tells of how difficult it was to tell his mother about the abuse on Grace.
Elsewhere, on Better Angels, he acknowledges the support of friends and, on final track How, wonders if forgiving his abuser would help.
He isn’t the first artist to sing about the healing process, but his powerful, personal songs ring truer than most.
Suede start a uK tour on March 3, 2023, at The Forum, Bath. Tickets go on sale at 9am today (gigsandtours.com). Rina Sawayama starts her tour at SWG3, Glasgow, on October 12 (ticketmaster.co.uk).