Suede – The Next Life

Hunting around for something to listen to this morning I alighted on the eponymous début album by Suede and was rather taken aback as I’d forgotten quite how good it is.

I remember that at the time that Suede burst onto the music scene I was rather cynical of the hype: proclaimed as the best band in Britain before they’d even released a single, they seemed like a massive case of style over substance. But repeated listens to the album after it came out, along with seeing them headline at Glastonbury changed my opinion of the band.

The band basically imploded after the first album, in a somewhat similar scenario to the Stone Roses: incredibly talented guitarist walking out amidst tales of excessive drug intake having failed to crack the States. They then lost their Britpop crown to blur & Oasis, with lead singer Brett Anderson also losing his girlfriend, Justine Frischman of Elastica to blur’s Damon Albarn. Ouch.

I have to say that I haven’t gone back to Suede’s work all that much, but every time I do I make a resolution to listen to the album more. Tracks like The Next Life & She’s Not Dead are almost heartbreakingly beautiful and have some amazing lyrics to boot:

See you in your next life when we’ll fly away for good,
Stars in our own car we can drive away from here

Far away, so far away, down to Worthing and work there
Far away, we’ll go far away and flog ice creams til the company’s on its knees

Genius. Enjoy.

Suede boots by starmist1 on flickr

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