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coming up
suede are looking to regain former glories as they record thier first new album in a decade.
Lisa wright visit them in the studio and finds a band exciting about releasing their third "debut".
Of all the returning heroes hoping to make the giant leap from the land of fuzzy nostalgia into the realm of a current, working band, suede have plenty to prove.
Arguably the inventors of britpop (it was frontman brett anderson who adorned the cover of the now-defunct SELECT magazine with the phrase of 'Yanks Go Home'), suede's career has been one of ups and downs - or uppers and downers : they were the decadant Soho hipsters of 1993's 'Suede', the drug-addled depressives of 1994's 'DogManStar' and the chart-friendly Britpop heroes of 1996's 'Coming up'.
A shame, then, that 1999's 'Head Music'and 2002's ' A new morning' ended their recording career on a limp note.
Tellingly, when Suede reunited two years ago for a series of greatest hits sets and three glorious album gigs at London's O2 Academy Brixton, it was the first three LPs that Suede choose to play in their entirety - the final two were swept under the carpet. "There was always, in a sense, an idea that we'd taken a wrong turn after 'Coming up', says bassist Mat Osman today in the slick control room of west London's Sarm studios.
He and other members of Suede - mostly dressed in black, naturally - are here, in the very same room where Band Aid's ' Do They Know It's Christmas?' was recorded, to complete their as yet untitled sixth record.
"This isn't an attempt to rewrite the first three albums", says Mat Osman. But we're thinking: if we'd been more clued up and less flaky, if we had't fucked up, where would we have gone?.
" I think on the last two records we're trying to reinvent ourselves and it didn't work." says Brett Anderson, slipping water and stiil cutting a remarkably svelte figure.
" with this one we've been a bit more instinctive about it, just written some songs and played them and gone with it abit more. It's not so much oa back-to-basics approach as trying not to overthink it."
The resulting record, of which half is previewed today, fully embraces these sentiments. From potential album opener 'Barriers' - reminiscent of the 'Coming Up' era and which, the band note, "sounds like a bit 'Blondie"- to 'Faultlines', the LPs final track and, perhaps, their most sweeping moment since 'DogManStar' highlight ' The asphalt world', the quintet seem to have tapped back into the core of what Suede were always really about.
Notably, they were working with producer Ed Buller again - the man behind the desk on those first three LPs.
The tracks played through the studio PA veer from immediate, singalong stomps (" Hit Me", "Starts And Ends With You") to melancholic echoes of Suede's darker underbelly('Snowblind'). Rather than tapping into scenarios of old (namely, ingestion of a shit load of drugs), Anderson is now " finding inspiration in the life that [he lives]".
It's more reflective, sure, but it's still brilliantly, unmistakably Suede.
After all those years away, Suede think they have some tough competition : their younger selves. " the back catalogue casts a very big shadow,' says Brett Anderson. that's why a lot of bands don't come back and make records. "It's been hard, there's been a lot of soul-searching, but I feel genuinely confident that this album can be appraised for it's merits."
Four days later, We're back at Sarm, lending handclapping services to two of the LP's tracks - the previously mentioned "Starts And Ends With You" and "For The Strangers", which the band debuted (to positive reception) during this summer's festival season.
The small gaggle assembled might be the only non-band members (albeit in a very minor way) feature on the LP, but in stripping back, suede seems brighter fuller and more energised than they have in a long time.
" we've always said we've made two debut albums - the actual debut, and 'Coming Up' when Richard (Oakes,guitarist) joined", said Mat Osman. " This kind of feels like a third one..."
"브렛앤더슨이 향후 음악을 어떻게 만들어 갈것인가" 가 Anderson is now " finding inspiration in the life that [he lives]". 이 대답에 잘 나타났네요^^