Re: bloodsports promo and reviews
Posted: 17 Mar 2013, 07:10
16 March 2013
The Times
Suede - Bloodsports
Joe Clay
4/5
New records rule, but reunions for gigs are shit," Noel Gallagher said, when discussing David Bowie's sudden re-emergence. They're not always, Noel. Take Suede, the band who kickstarted Britpop in 1993: Brett Anderson and Co got back together in 2010 for a one-off concert at the Albert Hall for the Teenage Cancer Trust and enjoyed themselves so much that they re-formed and recorded Bloodsports, their sixth album and first for more than ten years.
It seems strange to talk about Suede as having unfinished business — five albums in a ten-year career is more than most manage. But they went out on a downer (2002's A New Morning was a pale imitation of past glories), so the fact that Bloodsports recalls their mid-Nineties pomp is worth celebrating. It's certainly a more fitting footnote to their career, should it prove to be the band's swansong.
Bloodsports is not a reinvention. It could be a lost Suede album from their golden period, full of huge choruses, spiky, glam riffs and moments of wistful, romantic introspection. It sounds fresh and vital.
Barriers is widescreen guitar pop with a jubilant outro that recalls the stadium rock of Simple Minds. Anderson's voice, once scrawny, is resonant and powerful throughout. Trademark tales of urban decay permeate the dark, jagged riffs of It Starts and Ends With You and Hit Me, and Always is a lavish, windswept ballad.
You might not have noticed they'd gone, but there's no denying that it's great to have them back in such fine fettle.
The Times
Suede - Bloodsports
Joe Clay
4/5
New records rule, but reunions for gigs are shit," Noel Gallagher said, when discussing David Bowie's sudden re-emergence. They're not always, Noel. Take Suede, the band who kickstarted Britpop in 1993: Brett Anderson and Co got back together in 2010 for a one-off concert at the Albert Hall for the Teenage Cancer Trust and enjoyed themselves so much that they re-formed and recorded Bloodsports, their sixth album and first for more than ten years.
It seems strange to talk about Suede as having unfinished business — five albums in a ten-year career is more than most manage. But they went out on a downer (2002's A New Morning was a pale imitation of past glories), so the fact that Bloodsports recalls their mid-Nineties pomp is worth celebrating. It's certainly a more fitting footnote to their career, should it prove to be the band's swansong.
Bloodsports is not a reinvention. It could be a lost Suede album from their golden period, full of huge choruses, spiky, glam riffs and moments of wistful, romantic introspection. It sounds fresh and vital.
Barriers is widescreen guitar pop with a jubilant outro that recalls the stadium rock of Simple Minds. Anderson's voice, once scrawny, is resonant and powerful throughout. Trademark tales of urban decay permeate the dark, jagged riffs of It Starts and Ends With You and Hit Me, and Always is a lavish, windswept ballad.
You might not have noticed they'd gone, but there's no denying that it's great to have them back in such fine fettle.