Suede - The Blue Hour

When I was growing up, I obsessed over Suede (aka The London Suede) like there was no tomorrow.  This band with their self-titled debut remains one of the most visceral and incredible debuts of the 90's.   It's lovely at times, with tracks like "So Young" and "She's Not Dead", but it's got a vicious underbelly in the way or "Animal Nitrate"'s drug bars and the upbeat "Moving".  Simply put, this album is a masterpiece, and just hits so many emotions with me.  Suede returned shortly after with the just as artsy but slightly darker "Dog Man Star".  This album had tons of great singles, my favorite being "Heroine".  But as an album, just sort of drove home the fact that Suede was miles ahead of every other British band in the early 90's.   Suede got even artsier and heavier with the release of "Coming Up".  By this point, they had their sound down to a science, they just had to bring it together.  And tracks like "By The Sea" and the incredible "Beautiful Ones" were some of their most elegant tracks yet.  But tracks like "Trash" and "Filmstar" showed they could also rock with the best of their contemporaries.  But with 1999's "Head Music", my love of Suede started to falter.  This album was dripping in sex and funky synths, which on paper sounds pretty awesome.  But the production on this album was a little too glistening for my liking, and I really just wasn't into the band's less glamorous approach.  Suede's next album "A New Morning" was a slight improvement, stepping away from the Electronic aspect.  But in it's place, honestly Suede sounded absolutely exhausted, and in desperate need of a break.  2013's "Bloodsports" was an improvement, with tracks like "Barriers" and "Snowblind" being much more concrete tracks then what they had been putting out recently.  Not to mention, it was much more energetic.   But by the halfway point this album was quickly running out of steam.  2016's "Night Thoughts" continued to breathe some new life into Suede.  This album was their most dramatic and cinematic since the mid-90's, and the huge production and instrumentals made this album pretty damn big.  It didn't seem to be coming to the band as easily.  But still, I was happy.  So we're sort of getting to the point where Suede has given us so much, and I really never know what to expect from them.  But call me pleasantly surprised, I actually really dig some of these tracks they've been putting out.  Let's chat amigos!

(one of my all-time favorites!)

This album starts off with “As One”, and instantly this is not what I was expecting to hear at all.  This track is so bulky and immense, and honestly seriously dark and twisted.  There are moments here that would have sounded right at home on any blood-soaked teen Horror movie of the early 2000’s.  And outside of that, the band actually sounds freakin’ great.  The ominous chanting, the tight guitar playing, it’s all just so grimy and dreary.  And honestly, it sounds awesome.  Vocalist Brett Anderson sounds so commanding and intense.  Overall, I can’t remember the last time I heard Suede dealing with this much drama in their music.  It’s not the flamboyant, Glam-inspired material that I was expecting this album to get rolling with.  But holy hell, this is undeniably effective at grabbing your ear.  It’s just so pensive, so slow paced, so intense, I’m impressed, man.  On the other hand, “Wastelands” is the polar opposite.  As far as atmosphere goes it’s just as dreary and heavy.  But it also has that Suede sound that they’ve built up so much over the year.  That over the top approach to Art Rock and Brit Pop that’s just so heavy and emotional, it’s all still here.  But this is easily the most youthful Suede have sounded in years, and they make this track come off so proud and anthemic.  To put it bluntly, they sound awesome.  Not to mention, that last spoken interlude is dramatic as hell and ends up adding so much.  With “Mistress”, I continue to really feel like this is a youthful sound for Suede.  It’s dark and full of passion and debauchery, but it’s also fueled by drama.  I love just how over-the-top Brett sounds after all these years, and some of these instrumentals are just so passionate (especially the strings).  It’s not the heaviest track of the bunch, but it’s just so dense and cinematic.  I would say it’s overly sleazy and dives into some risqué topics, but Suede have been like that going on 30 years.  I also love how ethereal this album continues to be.  Like, it’s just so dreary and dreamy, which is far from things we’ve never dealt with from Suede.  But with tracks like “Beyond the Outskirts”, it just seems so much bigger and darker this time around.  But these larger than life choruses bring everything together wonderfully.  Now, I do like some of the earlier, heavier and more hulking tunes.  But this is still an overly decent, dramatic Suede track.  And that funky, pulsing breakdown towards the end is brilliant.  The wildly dark edge to this album continues with “Chalk Circles”.  I love these commanding synths and just how dreary and synthetic this is.  This is almost dystopian, even though I’m not too sure where this fits into the narrative.  But I love just how campy this is, as it reaches entirely new levels of drama.  It’s a wonderful transition for the album. 

“Cold Hands” on the other hand, is easily one of the more upfront and direct tracks here.  I love just how menacing this one is, as Brett really goes into some pretty dark themes here.   But I love just how flamboyant and artsy this track is, and there are some seriously fantastic guitar licks here.  Between this and the last album, Suede haven’t sounded this determined and focused in a long time, which is great.  Plus I love some of this imagery as well.   And as far as a lead single goes from this album, “Life Is Golden” is pretty beautiful and charming.  I do have to say though, this is where some things start to falter in the track list.  This to me, just doesn’t come off as a Suede tune.  It’s obviously beautiful and cinematic.  But to say this is the same back who brought us classic albums diving deep into London’s seedy underbelly would be a lie.  And honestly, I know it sounds terrible but the genuinely positive vibes here just don’t speak to me as Suede moments for me.   I’ll give “Roadkill” this though, this absolutely brings back some of the very tense vibes of the earlier tracks.  But man, I’m not really that into the spoken word portion though.  It’s creepy and twisted, to say the least.  But this track would have been more effective as an instrumental.  “Tides’ may be the most somber and stripped down track of the bunch yet.  But oh man, I’m just not into some of these verses still.  This is easily some of Brett’s least animated and down to earth vocals yet, outside of a few bars here and there.  And yes, it’s depressing and honestly not much of a Suede track at all.  There are some gigantic and epic instrumentals which I do really love.  But this isn’t where I’m used to hearing Suede and I can’t get over that.  But Suede does reel me back in a little with “Don’t Be Afraid If Nobody Loves You”.   Tracks like this continue to be so dark and menacing and have some pretty heavy instrumentals.  That youthful sound may have flown sound for a bit.  But it’s back with a vengeance, and Brett is right back to sounding absolutely incredible.  It’s a simple track, easily one of the more straightforward ones here.  But holy hell does it ever sound good.  

I can’t really bash “Dead Bird”, it’s not exactly pleasant and it’s certainly depressing.  But it sets the atmosphere up to be just as effective, and it certainly brings back that feeling of everything not being what it seems.  But I have absolutely nothing bad to say at all about “All the Wild Places”.  I love the carefree strings that are all over this one and constantly moving, and Brett here sounds like this ringleader of it all.  It’s easily one of his most charismatic performances of the bunch, even heartfelt at times.  It’s times like this that give Suede albums such a human touch.  This one is just so graceful that it reminds me of everything I loved about Suede, to begin with.  Suede may have dropped the ball for a while on this album, but with tracks like “The Invisibles”, they prove they really are still on their A-Game.  They’ve literally saved some of their most dramatic, elegant tracks for last.  I feel like with all of the good material here, they really did come through with a decent album.  But some of those tracks towards the middle were just unnecessary.  Hell, if they trimmed this album down it could have been even better.  Because this track just so sounds so intense and dramatic, and once again incredibly human.  The pacing is great, the backing instrumentals are solid, this track is beautiful.  Sadly though, I’m really not crazy about this album’s finale “Flytipping”.  I do think the opening guitar licks are pretty cool, and this comes off so vast and gigantic.  But why the hell do I feel like Suede is just trying way too hard?  Suede is looking for this anthem of a tune, but the reality is that the last few tracks have been so much more memorable.  This has all of that same fantastic atmosphere, and eventually, things do pick up a bit.  But Suede here are just trying so hard with something that used to come so easily to them.  Plus, the production here is just so off compared to the rest of the tracks here. 

Rating: 7.9/10

Give A Listen To: “As One”, “All The Wild Places”, “Cold Hands”, “Don’t Be Afraid If Nobody Loves You”

Least Favorite Track: “Tides”


Genre: Glam Rock / Alternative Rock / Art Rock 

Overall Thoughts:  Suede on “The Blue Hour” come through with their most dramatic, cinematic and darkest album in years.  If you’re a fan of Suede and know their material, then you should know what to expect from them.  But they just sound so full of energy here, easily more so than their last few albums, which is fantastic.  The drama is here, and tons of gigantic strings and emotional performances.  Now, truth be told some of these tracks don’t come as easy to Suede as they once did, and sometimes it sounds like they’re reaching too much.  But still, if this is what we’re getting in 2018 from Suede, count me in.