Brett Anderson’s favourite album from the indie boom: “Mechanical and dark”
Even though most would acknowledge that Blur and Oasis were the two titans of Britpop, it’s hard to argue against Suede having been the band that kick-started the entire trend and fascination with British alternative music in the 1990s.
With the androgynous appearance of vocalist Brett Anderson, Suede were the antidote to the ‘lads down the pub’ image of the two leading acts, and while some thought that the glam sensibilities were far too similar to the styles pre-established by David Bowie a few decades prior, there was still a sense of grit and originality in what the band offered.
However, while Blur and Oasis were prolific throughout the 1990s in spite of the inner turmoil in both bands, Suede were plagued by personal troubles and lineup changes that rocked them a considerable amount more, and by the turn of the century, the band had slowed down the rate of their releases to the point where they were on the verge of separating completely.
Anderson’s increased addiction to heroin and crack cocaine towards the end of the 1990s drove him to a period of rehabilitation, and he began to treat the creative process of their 2002 album, A New Morning, as a fresh creative start where he would approach things from a different angle than how he had previously done. While the record didn’t completely transform their sound, with it still operating in a glam and alternative rock vein, there was one album that Anderson remembers hearing from this time that changed his perspective on creativity.
Speaking to NME in 2011, the singer claimed that his favourite album of the past 15 years was Interpol’s debut album, Turn On The Bright Lights, and said that it reignited his love for a specific kind of music that he’d grown detached from.
“A friend of mine said, ‘You’ve gotta listen to this band, they sound a bit like Suede,’” he told the publication. “I was curious and a bit flattered, but then I checked them out and thought they don’t sound anything like Suede, actually. But, I remember listening to them on the underground and just thinking, ‘God, this music sounds like it’s made to be the soundtrack to get a tube train to’.”
While Interpol frontman Paul Banks may have been born in the UK, the album and the rest of the band’s material have always sounded distinctly rooted within New York and its suffocating sprawl.
Despite this, the “mechanical and dark” feel of the record was something that enchanted Anderson, and he found himself able to draw comparisons with its atmosphere to his own experiences in London. “I listen to it a lot, and ‘NYC’ is one of those records that I think I’d be happy to be buried to,” he added.
There’s an overwhelming sense of isolation and despair in Turn On The Bright Lights, which has helped it gain a devoted following, but at the same time, the fragments of romanticism and hope that were scattered throughout were ultimately something that helped Anderson through one of the toughest periods of his life and career.
