Suede – ‘Suede’
The debut self-titled album by Suede is considered one of the very first Britpop records. Released in 1993 on Nude Records, it cemented Suede’s place as one of the most exciting guitar bands to come out of England and first showed the world Brett Anderson, one of the most enigmatic frontmen of the 1990s.
The album opens with ‘So Young’, featuring guitar lines highly reminiscent of some of the heavier tracks on The Smiths’ final album Strangeways, Here We Come. However, the chorus is far more anthemic and even euphoric than Morrissey and Marr could ever imagine, perhaps in part simply because Anderson and Suede are indeed “so young”, with more time to “chase the dragon”.
The ferocity of ‘So Young’ continues with ‘Animal Nitrate’, as does the theme of drugs. The song’s title is a play on ‘Amyl Nitrate’, and its lyrics tell of the joys and worries of drug addiction. Evidently, there is a theme to the way Suede compose their tunes, a minor key verse with an uplifting, danceable chorus, and it’s on ‘Animal Nitrate’ that Bernard Butler’s guitar playing really comes to the fore.
Still, there are moments of bliss on Suede too. Take ‘She’s Not Dead’, for example, which evokes the shoegaze guitar work that would dominate the alternative rock sound of the 1990s in the UK. So too does ‘Pantomime Horse’ slow things down, showing that there are several strings to Suede’s undoubtedly talented bow.
Those moments of quiet are well placed, though, because just as soon as one has begun to drift off to Suede’s debut, they are jolted awake by songs like ‘Moving’ – which isn’t afraid of delivering its own moment of in-house bliss – and ‘The Drowners’, which again saw Anderson delve into the kind of underground drug-fuelled bisexuality that informed much of his youthful experience.
The effect that The Verve had on guitar music is evident in Suede’s debut, and the beautiful tones of Nick McCabe are undoubtedly present in Bernard Butler’s playing on the band’s debut. However, while it would take The Verve up until 1997 to make a pop impact, it’s undeniable that Suede were keen to hit the ground running from the off, and Suede is definite proof of them having one eye on the charts and one on the underground.
While Bernard Butler’s guitar is the key to the brilliance of Suede’s debut, it feels like the real star of the show is Brett Anderson, the hyper-sensitive androgynous hero who would provide the refreshing contrast to the likes of Oasis’ Gallagher brothers, who would make their arrival on the scene very shortly.
Anderson’s ability to explore the still-taboo subjects of drugs, illicit sex, underground clubs and all manner of unspoken subjects is what made Suede stand out from the crowd, and without their enigmatic frontman, it’s likely that their musical output would have been admired, but it would have distinctly lacked its unique and intoxicating charm.
It’s on Suede that the band provide the groundwork for the forthcoming Britpop movement whilst simultaneously distancing themselves from it forever with a sound highly influenced by the vocals of David Bowie and Marc Bolan and instrumentation that continues the lineage of British guitar music, filling the hole left by the Smiths dissolution.
