Good old Suede. The first two albums were brilliant (particularly 1994’s “Dog Man Star”), “Coming Up” was a perfect pop reinvention and then it all went tits up with the what-were-they-thinking “Head Music” followed by “A New Morning”. The latter was so bad the band broke up then disappeared for seven years.
Because they skipped most of the ‘noughties’, when they came back Suede were shocked to see that while their audience still liked shaking their bits, there were no ‘hits’ to speak of anymore. ‘Woolies’ was out of business, Top of the Pops was finished and the UK singles chart was so disfigured Damn! Or maybe not damn, because Suede were suddenly no longer judged by their hit singles any more.
Ten years earlier, no hits meant you were dumper-bound, but now everyone else was not having hits too Also, you didn’t even need a record label anymore, you could engage with some kind of ‘label services’ company, own your own music and stick it to ‘the man’.
‘Flytipping’ was the new single from Suede’s eighth studio album ‘The Blue Hour’ which is released on 21st September 2018. Suede Ltd/Warner Music Group
If you believe the narrative, around 2012 Brett Anderson gathered the band together, furrowed his brow and said “let’s record a triptych of albums”. “Alright then…” came the response. “The Blue Hour” is the third in that ‘triptych’, after 2013’s “Bloodsports” and 2016’s “Night Thoughts”.
So the idea with the last three albums is to be conceptual, to embrace widescreen grandeur and to reach beyond the confines of the three-minute pop song, and with “Night Thoughts” – which came with a feature film and even the standard pop promo. So with that in mind, “The Blue Hour” opener ‘As One’ is all ominous Ave Santani-style chanting mixed with John Barry guitar lines and the anthemic “Wastelands” ends with a spoken word linking section. This is a good thing, obviously. During the atmospheric “Roadkill” a conversation ensues about a ‘dead bird’ then lo and behold there is a song called “Dead Bird” later on.
The five band members sat down to talk about how everything came together for ‘The Blue Hour’. Here’s part 2: ‘Wastelands’ but I do really like this album, even if it’s VERY ‘Suede’ in places. During “Beyond The Outskirts” Brett sings of ‘small town dreaming’ (a recurring Suede theme), but it’s still quite moving and the payoff line at the end about having the “same blank feeling… I wonder where you are tonight” is quite moving. This song also benefits from a great and satisfyingly rocky middle eight section. ‘Flytipping’ gets very close to parody in places, with lines like “I’ll take you to the verges” and “careful as you go”. For a while, I was wondering if there was any metaphor here at all and perhaps this was Brett genuinely singing about a baggy-jeaned white van man with no sense of social responsibility but I think he just about gets there in the end because he sings of ‘shiny things that turn into rust’, so it’s probably about relationships decaying on the hard shoulder of life. Or something.
‘Cold Hands’ is a great rocker, ‘Chalk Circles’ has some more of that chanting and ‘Life Is Golden’ is a mid-paced song with some sunny positivity. Arguably, “The Blue Hour” lacks a really massive standout track (and probably isn’t home to anything quite as good as Night Thoughts‘ ‘Outsiders’ and ‘No Tomorrow’) but with these thematic concept albums that can easily be flipped into a positive. It’s the sum of the whole and not about individual songs grabbing the spotlight.
Brett sings beautifully throughout and “The Blue Hour” is largely a triumph. It really suits them. Suede seem to have found their calling with these kinds of albums, 2018’s “The Blue Hour” feels like a sonic cousin to “Dog Man Star” and approaches the majesty of that record; sort of Suede 2.0’s version of that style and sound. “The Blue Hour” is great.
The Fat Angel Sings 