The Fat Angel Sings

These days, so long as the artist doesn’t despise their record label, it’s close to a contractual obligation to celebrate an album’s 30th anniversary and Edsel have done exactly that with Suede‘s 1996 long-player “Coming Up2, a record that, on the face of it, doesn’t need reissuing.

Suede initially distanced themselves from the Britpop pack before appearing to realize, “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.” Indeed, the group ditched the romanticized squalor and gothic intensity of their first two records and instead aimed straight for the jugular with the kind of super-sized pop hooks that had made their fiercest rivals superstars.

“Coming Up” spawned five consecutive Top 10 hits in the UK, including the David Bowie-esque stompers “Trash,” “Beautiful Ones,” and the beautifully melancholic ballad “Saturday Night,” suggesting the acrimonious departure of founding guitarist Bernard Butler had been a commercial blessing in disguise. 

The great value 2CD+DVD deluxe edition from 2011 seemed definitive, with its collection of demos, B-sides and video content, although the so-so packaging let it down a bit and there was the odd omission, such as the Neil Codling-penned flip-side, ‘Digging A Hole’.

The 30th anniversary 5CD+DVD set offered a better presentation, filled the odd gap, found more demos, but didn’t entirely supersede its predecessor. For example, the band decided to amicably separate “Coming Up” from a few songs that originally bridged the second and third albums and that had been included on the earlier reissue. These include ‘Together’ – the first fruit of the Brett Anderson/Richard Oakes writing partnership –  and B-sides ‘Asda Town’ and ‘Bentswood Boys’.

Despite having been written a few years earlier and being paired with “Dog Man Star” singles, these songs, in theory, have more in common with the 1996 album, since Bernard Butler was not involved in the creation of any of them. But it seems they aren’t considered close enough to “Coming Up“, and therefore reside in a Suede ‘No Man’s Land’ lying betwixt and between the two albums. No recent Suede deluxe edition has been willing to offer them refuge!.

Perhaps wisely, for this new, 30th anniversary treatment of “Coming Up”, Edsel have gone back to basics. Those B-sides are ludicrously strong. In many ways, they tell the full story of the beginnings of the post-Bernard Butler era, in a way that the album, alone, can not.

“Coming Up” was a big commercial success, a self-designed “fizzy, brash, pop record”, in the words of Brett Anderson. It certainly delivered success, with five UK top ten hit singles, but while later singles such as ‘Lazy’ and ‘Filmstar’ did the business , they were arguably a tad one-dimensional and lacked some depth evident in the best of Suede. This is where the B-sides widen the scope and offer a broader picture.

Consider the first single, ‘Trash’. The ‘extra tracks’ for that release across the two UK CD singles were ‘Europe Is Our Playground’, ‘Have You Ever Been This Low?’, ‘Another No One’ and ‘Every Monday Morning Comes’. All superb – I would take any of those above ‘Lazy’. ‘Beautiful Ones’ offered more of the same – four great songs, including ‘Young Men’ with its memorable opening line: “Tony only reads Asian Babes”. Perhaps I’d allow that by the fourth of fifth single the quality was starting to dip somewhat, but nevertheless, delivering this quantity and quality of extra material was a remarkable achievement.

Putting all the studio recordings together and just forgetting about everything else is an astute move on the part of the record company and is a true and concise representation of what Suede were up to at the height of Britpop.

None of this means that any self-respecting Suedehead needs this new edition, but for the more casual fan you might call it the ‘Goldilocks’ edition. Not too big, not too small –  just right.

“Coming Up” is reissued as a 30th anniversary Suede’s era-defining third album celebrates its 30th anniversary this year with a series of special anniversary editions. Released on 25th September.

Originally released in 1996, Coming Up debuted at No. 1 in the UK and spent almost a year in the album charts. It introduced Richard Oakes and Neil Codling to the band and featured five Top 10 singles: Available formats include:

• Deluxe 5CD Edition featuring the remastered original album, Steven Wilson’s new 2026 mix, B-sides, Coming Up At The BBC and new sleeve notes.

•Digital Edition featuring remastered original album, Steven Wilson’s new 2026 mix, B-sides, Coming Up At The BBC, plus Steven Wilson instrumental mixes of the original album. Steven Wilson Atmos mixes will also be available via Apple’s Spatial Audio.

• Limited Edition Blu-ray Super Deluxe Edition featuring the remastered album, Steven Wilson’s 2026 mix, Dolby Atmos and 5.1 mixes, instrumentals, restored music videos and bonus tracks.

• Super Deluxe Edition Vinyl featuring Steven Wilson’s new 2026 mix with exclusive artwork by Paul Khera. 5CD edition, in deluxe 7”X 7” packaging with new master, a Steven Wilson alternate mix, bonus tracks and B-sides and a cover of the Robert Wyatt / Elvis Costello classic ‘Shipbuilding’, plus ‘Coming Up At The BBC’, which recreates the original running order of the album in the form of the corporation’s Radio 1 Sessions and Reading Festival broadcasts from 1996 and 1997.

• Half-Speed Master Vinyl, mastered from the original tapes and cut at half speed.

• Limited Edition Blended Colour Vinyl, mastered from the original tapes.

Original “Coming Up” designer Howard Wakefield has returned to restore Nick Knight and Peter Saville’s iconic artwork across the anniversary editions.

Also available is the 30th Anniversary Edition of “Trash”, a strictly limited 45rpm 12″ EP on lilac vinyl, bringing together the original CD1 and CD2 releases for the first time. Featuring fan favourites including Europe Is Our Playground, Another No One and Every Monday Morning Comes, it is the first in a series of anniversary 12″ EPs, with “Beautiful Ones”, “Saturday Night, Lazy” and “Filmstar” to follow. Released on 14 August.