suede - bloodsports

After a chance encounter with "For The Strangers" from Suede's 2013 album Bloodsports, I was reminded that I'd not played this record all that much, as it was unfortunately issued around the same time as Bowie's The Next Day and then somehow got a bit overlooked last year.  

Bloodsports (and the 8 extra tracks that were issued as b-sides or whatever they are called in these digital times) basically give us enough songs for a double album. And generally it's darned fine stuff.

 

It's Suede, sounding just like Suede. Nothing terribly new, or experimental, just big riffs, big choruses, lotsa swagger and fire and pouting and whooo-hooooing. The intention for the album was to create a record chock full of potential Suede singles. This is achieved admirably, but perhaps this is also the only real downside to the album too - as it ends up being perhaps a little bit much. After side one (and it's definitely an album with two sides) I can't help wishing that they'd dialled it back just a touch - the songs are terrific, the passion is there, everyone's having a great time but it's perhaps a little too frantic, too busy. Some of the tracks might have worked better if they'd left off that extra guitar overdub, if they'd calmed down the drumming, if Brett had reigned himself in a tad.

This may seem a little odd, as the last thing you'd want is Suede phoning in their performances, but in trying to recreate the power of the debut album or the pop/rock sensibility of Coming Up, it seems that Suede are trying a little too hard. This would be a better album with everything turned up to just 9, not 11 - same songs, same performances even, but just a little more restraint. 

Interestingly the b-sides are generally calmer, more reflective and more varied in their approach - with less pressure on the band to recreate that Suede sound after ten years away, they've come up with, arguably, better songs than those that were chosen for the album.  

A new album is being worked on at the moment and early indications are that, with Bloodsports having re-established Suede as ongoing band, this time the songs are more experimental, longer, and more far-reaching. This, in my mind anyway, has got to be a good thing.  

I love Suede, always have, and probably always will, and regardless of my comments above, Bloodsports is a very worthy addition to their catalogue. Arguably their best album since Bernard Butler left. Really.