So Old, So Gone...

[dotinthesky]

There are two types of Suede fans in my opinion. First, there's the kind who believe Dog Man Star to be their best album, who think everything went crap after Bernard Butler left, and who deep-down hoped for the band's return-to-form. Not everyone in this group necessarily expected the same things from Suede, or loved them for the same reasons. Nevertheless, just the idea of Brett Anderson and Bernard Butler playing together again was enough to make their bony legs quiver.

Then, there's the second type of Suede fans: a small minority who actually saw some sense when the band recruited a keyboard player, who enjoyed the faux-futuristic sound that the new band was trying to shape. They knew that Suede were on shaky ground but, despite some bad ideas like Positivity, they sensed that new blood and new ideas could push the band into unchartered territory. Although they enjoyed Suede's past, they had hopes for the future.

The reason why I fell in love with Suede in the first place was because of the hinted mystery, the tawdry glam scenarios, the surge of adrenaline that accompanied the guitar and Anderson's voice. Animal Nitrate, My Insatiable One, Introducing the Band, Killing of a Flash Boy were a few of the highlights of the Butler/Anderson collaboration. Critics compared Suede to The Smiths because both bands dwelt with the imagination and artistic cohesion. Suede's old incarnation ushered Britpop, while it's later album Head Music announced the arrival of the new electro pop, in much the same way that The Smiths created so many copies during the 80s up until now.

Last night, Type 1 Suede fans were in heaven. Butler and Anderson on stage, together again, performing brand new songs from their band The Tears. Songs that veered straight back into Suede's old pedestrian world, song titles that left no mistake about who had created them.

Type 2 Suede fans, like myself, were disappointed. Where were the new ideas? Where was the new sound? Where were the good songs? When Anderson introduced a song called Beautiful Pain, I wanted to thrown my Kronenberg can on his head. Hadn't we already had Beautiful Ones and Beautiful Losers in Suede? Aren't there other words in the dictionary? An unoriginal song title only served to highlight the lack of original songs. There was the expected piano ballad, the choruses with "la la la", the shake of a tambourine. Then Anderson flung his water bottle into the crowd and hit... me!

Things weren't all that bad. Because the songs were unfamiliar to me, I still hope that on hearing them on CD I might "get it". Also, Anderson and Butler were both visibly nervous and trying to impress - never a good combination. And maybe, in the studio, Butler's production values will override the tepidness of some of the songs and bring out something more interesting in them.

I went to see The Tears hoping to find artists engaged in new sounds, experimentation, or at least adventure. I wanted Butler to dazzle us with his guitar, for Anderson to show us he could move on from Suede's imagined world. What I found were two guys sharing the stage like middle-aged prima donnas, chasing the dragon from years ago. They left me unmoved, but maybe that's because in the last 13 years I have grown up too.

Comments

[thelma-viaduct.livejournal.com]

That'a an brilliant reveiew.

Me, I'm a type 2 fan :)