bloodsports promo and reviews

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Re: bloodsports promo and reviews

Post by sunshine »

March 13, 2013
Review: Suede – Bloodsports (Album)
by Martin-john McDonnell
http://www.hitthefloor.co.uk/featured/r ... rts-album/


Band: Suede
Release: Bloodsports (Album)
Release Date: 18/03/2013
So with trepidation comes the first album in ten years from gloriously sleazy Britpop pioneers Suede. After leaving it so long there really is pressure – the sort of pressure that Brett Anderson and co have had at the front of their minds since the idea of an album came about. The band scrapped an album worth of songs last spring in favour of the ones that are on this album. Whether it was a panicked call of a band trying to recapture past glories or a expertly executed protection of their legacy can only be decided with the album, and the fans needn’t have worried.
Kickstarting with ‘Barriers’ with it’s tribalistic drums and cavernous, bouncing guitar riff it’s apparent that Suede aren’t going to be singing about sex in council estates like in the heyday. But the band are all the better for it. Welcome to the leaner and meaner Suede, channeling romantic urges and windswept relationships as opposed to half the cocaine in Columbia.
‘Barriers‘ shows strong signs that the band have avoided the traps of reformation; nothing is worse than hearing a band rehashing a sound that was big ten years ago. Suede have actually moved their sound forward sounding more mature, yet they’ve kept that energy and passion that drove them to such heights in the early 90′s and created an album for the fans.
Common criticisms that are levelled at Suede are their “High on Diesel” broken home cliched lyrics and their potential for self parody, both of which have been largely avoided. Brett is obviously rejuvenated as a songwriter after starting his new life as a family man (he’s recently married with an 8 month old son) and what is quite obvious now is his penchant for that commonest of human emotions, that of love. He sings “Aniseed kisses and lipstick traces” on ‘Barriers‘ with such a push behind each lyric that even when he does slide into cliched lyrics (which isn’t often) they seem like they are being delivered with a wink and a nudge to the bands seedy past.
The other criticism of the lack of former guitarist Bernard Butler is quickly addressed too. ‘Snowblind’ with it’s verse riff that sounds like ‘Message In A Bottle’ meets Television should be enough to quickly push aside the majority of the naysayers. In fact Richard Oakes plays a blinder across this album with some of the most inventive playing on a mainstream album this year.
‘It Starts And Ends With You’ is quite rightly the lead single from the album, channeling that butterfly feeling of new love with a song that just pushes up and up as Brett sings “I shout out but it just spins faster, I crawl up but my knees are water,” until it hits it’s euphoric peak with perhaps the most glorious of codas in a pop song.
‘Sabotage’ meanwhile handles the other side of that beast that is love; primal lust and jealousy. A dramatic and spacious song in the vein of ‘Pantomime Horse’ or ‘Daddy’s Speeding’ this is the song on the album that broods and pulsates in ways a forty year old (plus) band really shouldn’t. It’s apparent also with this album that the band have taken lessons from Interpol (who were always kind of Suede-ish anyway) and made the bass and drums more prominent. Matt Osmon’s basslines and his skillfully complimentary playing stand out properly for the first time on possibly any Suede album.
‘For The Strangers’ is the albums ‘The Wild Ones’ moment. Lighters in the air melody laced over some of Brett’s most affecting lyrics “It’s like semaphore, between my eyes, we slither and slide and sink, feels like aerosol in in my eyes, and nothing compares to this,” with a riff that slows down the sleazy glam riffs of the likes of ‘Beautiful Ones’ to create Suede (and Brett’s) best ballad since the aforementioned pair of songs.
‘Hit Me’ is glorious and hopefully a contender for single number two. A sleazy glam riff that David Bowie would be proud of (did someone say he’s back?) powering a pining Brett pleading for his lover, to “Come on and hit me, with your majesty“. The song oozes double meaning and the lyrics are cleverly held back. The song could be about the physical feeling of love, animal urge or domestic violence. All that’s apparent is that it’s going to need a few more listens and a lyric book to even start to decipher.
‘Sometimes I Feel I’ll Float Away’ gives Brett a chance to wrap his impressive vocals, refreshed after ten years of sobriety, around a squealing guitar chorus backed with a twisted church piano in the verse. This is very reminiscant of the more complex songs on Bowie’s lastest album ‘The Next Day’.
‘What Are You Not Telling Me’ is the comedown moment, the counterpart to ‘It Starts And Ends With You‘ as Brett bemoans his unfaithful lover and his broken heart and asks “Will a miracle reveal itself?” The song is so right in the context of the album, although so heartbreakingly icy that it’s likely it’ll only make sense in the context of the album’s suite of songs about the twists and bends of love.
My main nark with the album is the sequencing, it’s just so unfaithful to the concept. While the idea that the album was originally meant to chart the beginning butterflies to the final bitter words of a roller coaster romance is evident, the songs cut from the album don’t make that as apparent and therefore there is no need to stuff the upbeat and more downbeat songs on separate ends of the albums. For that reason the otherwise gloriously cold stalagmites of songs that are ‘Always’ and ‘Faultlines’ suffer from the resulting downer feeling. But even that disappears on repeated listens as the listener delves into the guitar workouts on the album, especially on ‘Always‘.
This is one of the albums of the year already; proving to the doubters that they have the energy even when they are not high on diesel and gasoline. The band have pulled off a mature but vital album that, just like love, will grab hold of you for repeated ventures down its emotional journey. Suede are back and the only shame is that they couldn’t have released this instead of the bland ‘A New Morning’ album of ten years ago.
9/10
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Re: bloodsports promo and reviews

Post by sunshine »

13 March 2013
The London Suede - Bloodsports
(Ingrooves/Fontana)
By Benjamin Boles
NOW RATING: NNNN
http://www.nowtoronto.com/music/story.c ... ent=191615
Suede’s comeback album is far better than it should be. Those who argue that this is just a retread of their early glory years are not being completely unfair. However, the band’s grandiose glam pop was never particularly modern back then, so why would they suddenly become futuristic visionaries at this late point in their career? It makes more sense to evaluate Bloodsports on how well it fulfills the role of a Suede album, which it does quite well.
There’s impressively little filler. The band supposedly wrote a ton of songs so they’d have the luxury of throwing away all but the best, and the results reflect that. And they simply sound great. No longer does it feel like we’re missing original guitarist Bernard Butler, nor does Brett Anderson’s flamboyant crooning show any signs of being dulled by the years.
Bloodsports is exactly what a Suede fan wants, and it also sounds remarkably less dated than anything their old rivals Oasis are up to these days.
Top track: Snowblind
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Re: bloodsports promo and reviews

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http://www.thisisfakediy.co.uk/articles ... oodsports/
14/03/2013
Suede - Bloodsports
the self-proclaimed creators of Britpop deserve credit for risking their reputation by recording a new album.
Label: Suede Ltd.
Released: 18th March 2013
Reviewer: Richard Skilbeck
If not quite the unluckiest band in history, the story of Suede suggests that they've smashed a few mirrors during their twenty odd year career. In singer Brett Anderson's own words they “kicked the fucking door in” to herald the beginning of Britpop, only for Blur and Oasis to take up the baton whilst they were sidelined by monumental drug abuse and the departure of guitarist and songwriter Bernard Butler. Even with the release of 'Bloodsports', Suede's first album since the band's reformation in 2010, their luck doesn't appear to have changed - lead singles 'Barriers' and 'It Starts And Ends With You' were both overshadowed somewhat by surprise releases from David Bowie and My Bloody Valentine respectively.
For those who missed it on its initial release, 'Barriers' opens the album and is fairly indicative of the first half of the record. Unmistakably Suede, the first six tracks all sound like a more muscular version of the glam racket the band explored on their most commercially successful album, 1996's 'Coming up'. 'Snowblind' may share its title with a Black Sabbath song, but it's basically a recycled version of their own single 'Trash'. Inevitably a 45-year-old Anderson is no longer singing about "shaking his bits to the hits" - instead we get more prosaic lyrics about "lips like semaphore" ('For the Strangers') or "a touch like a raven's shadow" ('Sabotage'), but for the most part it's disappointingly familiar.
The second half of the record is more downbeat, and yet demonstrates far more imagination than the first. 'What Are You Not Telling Me?' is almost ambient house as Brett channels his inner Kate Bush over layers of keyboards and strings, whilst 'Always' is pure Pink Floyd, right down to the phased guitar solo. And the highest compliment you could pay the brilliantly overwrought ballad 'Sometimes I Feel I'll Float Away' is that it wouldn't sound out of place on Suede's opus magnum, 1994's 'Dog Man Star'.
Suede deserve some credit for being one of the few reunited bands to actually risk their reputation by recording a new album and whilst there is nothing on 'Bloodsports' as gloriously epic as 'Stay Together' or as bat-shit crazy as 'Introducing The Band', it should be viewed as a partial success. Although given their luck so far, we expect nothing less than the announcement of a full blown Smiths reunion on its release date.
Rating: 6/10
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Re: bloodsports promo and reviews

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http://drownedinsound.com/releases/1752 ... 165?ticker


Suede: Bloodsports
Type: Album Release date: 18/03/2013
by Andrzej Lukowski
Boomingly melodic, professionally polished and radiating rude health, Suede's sixth album consciously and successfully address the mistakes made in the band's post-Coming Up decline.
To cut to the chase, Bloodsports doesn't sound anybody involved in its creation was gomped out on crack. Beyond that - though not unconnected, one suspects - it's just a matter of common sense. So even with keyboardist Neil Codling is back on board, Richard Oakes' guitars are allowed a proper look in again. Singer Brett Anderson has stopped communicating solely in maddeningly banal rhyming couplets and started writing proper lyrics. There are hooks. Above all, after the band’s deliberate attempts to not sound like Suede on the stodgy Head Music and awful A New Morning, Bloodsports very much sounds like Suede.
At least, it almost does. Anderson has described Bloodsports as ‘a cross between bits of Dog Man Star and bits of Coming Up’. Perhaps uniquely for a musician attempting to persuade people that his comeback sounds like a cross between his most acclaimed album and his biggest selling one, he’s actually pretty on the money - Bloodsports shares a sense of grandeur with Dog Man Star, but channels it through the poppy concision of Coming Up. The result is a stately, mature and tuneful record which shares a fair amount of DNA with the more grandiose end of Eighties pop: the enormous, soul stirring chimes and widescreen lyrics of ‘Barriers’ have a definite Joshua Tree vibe, while the brooding ‘Sabotage’ vaguely echoes Talk Talk’s ‘Such a Shame’.
Considering the total disarray we last saw the band in, there is a staggering assurance to Bloodsports, a mastery of both economy and scale, and a seemingly effortless way with a melody that makes you wonder how they fucked things up so badly last time around (er, until you remember all the crack). Anderson’s voice is the strongest it’s ever been on record, a holler so forceful that there are moments – as on the supercharged ‘Snow Blind’ – where it’s so loud as to be almost indecipherable. It is, in many ways, exactly the sort of album that you’d expect a middle aged, arena-accustomed Suede to be making after years of success; coming from a group of people who’ve not had a hit since 1999, the sheer chutzpah is impressive.
But there is something missing. Suede made some very bad music on drugs, but they also made a lot of good music. Despite its forcefulness, Bloodsports has something of the hollowed out feel of the recovering addict. There’s no grit or grime or aggression or unpredictability to this record; it's ambitious, but in a professional rather than musical way.
Not that there's anything wrong with professionalism. These are good songs, but the real problem is the stadium scale production. For all the vigour and discipline, every note on Bloodsports feels polished to virtual sterility, steroided to sexlessness. That goes double for the vocals, despatched with great effort but so buffed and loud and layered in reverb that they almost feel emotionless. Which is a real problem when the lyrics are uniformly concerned with love and lust: throughout, Anderson sounds about vulnerable as a really big tank. In the poppy rush of the album’s first half that’s not such a problem - it might even be helpful. But in the slower, nominally more musically interesting second half, things go awry: ballads like 'For the Strangers' and 'What Are You Not Telling Me?' skim by frictionless and unmoving, and the wannabe epic track 'Always' glides forward glassily, listlessly hinting at a meltdown climax it never really attempts.
It’s easy enough to mutter something about Bernard Butler or point the finger at producer Ed Buller, but he’s proved a nothing if not versatile foil for the band over the last two decades. This is surely exactly the album Suede wanted to make. And probably they’re right - Bloodsports may be a bit bombastic for headphones, but it’s going to sound great on the festival circuit.
So swings and roundabouts, then, but for all Bloodsports’ faults, it’s still pretty good. If it had come out in 2005 you’d say the band had arrested the decline. In 2013 it’s a bit adrift from things, but not as much as you might expect. Whether Suede ever make another truly great album to match the first two is still doubtful. But it’s less doubtful than it was a decade ago, and you get the impression this refocussed band are going to give it their damndest.
Suede: 6 / 10
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Re: bloodsports promo and reviews

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March 14, 2013 15:10
Suede discuss their 'beautiful and complex' new album 'Bloodsports' –
Band dub their previous effort 'A New Morning' "boring"
http://www.nme.com/news/suede/69202
Suede's Brett Anderson and Mat Osman have explained the motivation behind forthcoming album 'Bloodsports', saying it was their chance to rewrite history.
Referring to the band's previous album, 2002's 'A New Morning', bassist Mat Osman said it wasn't the right note to finish on, and that the album and accompanying tour was "dull and competent", two things Suede had never been before.
"Throughout the life of Suede, we’d had our ups and downs and we'd been awful, but never boring. We finished boring. I look at that last record and listen to it and look at the sleeve and it's not right. It's not the place it can finish. With 'Bloodsports', I know that however it gets received, we’ve finished with something that's beautiful and complex and all of those things."
The band initially broke up in 2003 following the release of the poorly received fifth album the previous year. 'Bloodsports' is their first album since reconvening in 2010 for a series of live shows. Brett Anderson said: "This record, even though it's the same line-up as [1997's] 'Coming Up', because we'd been away for 10 years, it did feel like another debut. We wanted it to have that freshness. Writing the song 'Barriers' for the album was a tipping point. For some reason it just hit the real sweet spot between sounding like Suede without sounding like self-parody. It was fresh enough. That was quite an important track."
He also spoke of his love for NME, saying the magazine is one of the reasons the British music industry has always been so exciting. The band first appeared on the pages of the magazine very early on in their career, and graced the cover for the first time in September 1992.
"We went from being on the dole to being on the cover of the NME, and that was a really exciting experience because we went from one extreme in life to the other," says Anderson. "That's one of the beauties of what music can do, it can elevate you. It's an amazing thing we got those possibilities in life. It's lovely."
Osman added: "I can look back and see records in my collection I bought because someone in the NME said 'This is a really good record' and it sounded like something I would like. I spent my pocket money on what writers at the NME said was good."
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Re: bloodsports promo and reviews

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2013/ma ... rts-review
Thursday 14 March 2013
Suede: Bloodsports – review
The Guardian
Michael Hann
4/5

Rare is the comeback album that makes you want to return to the old records so you can carry on listening, rather than because you need a reminder of how good the group used to be. But Suede's sixth album, 11 years after their underwhelming fifth, is a bit of a treat. From the opening Barriers it bristles with confidence and certainty, even if it is oddly sequenced, finishing with four consecutive ballads, each of which are fine in their own right – especially the breathtaking Sometimes I Feel I'll Float Away – but create a Return of the King-style series of false endings. However, after the bravura opening half of the album, it's hard to complain: the rockers drip with those unexpected chord changes that always lifted Suede above the competition, and Hit Me has a chorus so uplifting it entirely justifies a refrain of "hit me with your majesty". If Brett Anderson's lyrics are a touch melodramatic at times – "her touch is like a raven's shadow" (is it?) – they suit the vivid music, and it's not as if one goes to Suede for understatement, anyway.
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Re: bloodsports promo and reviews

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http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sh ... years.html
15 march 2013
The Sun
'You’re not entitled to make an album just because you exist'
Suede are back with first album in 11 years

By JACQUI SWIFT
“THE one thing Suede never did was take anything for granted,” says singer Brett Anderson at the start of our chat. “And that includes success.”
Back with Bloodsports, their first album in 11 years, the band who started Britpop are telling SFTW why getting a second chance will never be taken lightly.
“We’ve never acted like we deserve it,” adds lanky bassist Mat Osman. “We were massive in the Nineties but that doesn’t guarantee any success now.
“And that’s why we’ve taken our time with this album. Who knows if anyone will care?”
Sitting in their west London management offices, Anderson, 45, adds: “We didn’t know what we were doing when we split the band.”
Osman chips in: “We hadn’t realised now how fragile and how special Suede were.”
The last time SFTW were with Suede — Anderson, Osman, drummer Simon Gilbert, keyboard player Neil Codling and guitarist Richard Oakes — it was 2011 and Suede were re-releasing their five studio albums, one a week.
They’d reformed — originally for one night only — for a Teenage Cancer Trust gig at London’s Royal Albert Hall in March 2010.
Then the one-off show turned into three gigs, a tour and festivals but they were still cautious about doing a new album.
Today, Osman, 45, says: “We were really careful about any comeback. We didn’t do shows until we were certain it was going to be something special.
“Then, when we talked about making a record, we wrote and wrote until we realised we had one. You’re not entitled to make a record, just because you exist.”
Anderson, dressed in a smart navy shirt and dark jeans, agrees: “It’s such a position of privilege and responsibility when you’re a successful band. The first time round, we stupidly got bored with it and threw it away.
“That was a brattish thing to do. To be in a great position and not to care about it and let it die like that. This time round, we wanted to make sure every second of this is so special.”
The Suede of today are a different band to the one in the Nineties, led by the cocky Anderson, who developed a crack and heroin addiction at the height of their success.
They were labelled “The Best New Band In Britain” and saw their debut, self-titled album top the charts, win the Mercury Music Prize and become the fastest-selling debut in nearly ten years.
Anderson is now married and a dad to an eight-month-old boy and has aged well. Still slim, with sharp cheekbones, he looks his healthiest in years, thanks to a new addiction to cycling.
He says: “You have to have that arrogance and blind self-belief when you start out but now? Well I’ve grown up. At last.
“And as you get older you look back at so much of your life and think, ‘God I wish I’d had the experience then to have realised how precious this is at the time’.”
Bloodsports is the album the band should have made instead of the poorly received fifth album, A New Morning in 2002.
“That album wasn’t very good,” admits Anderson. After such a dramatic first 15 years, we went out on a whimper. It was really frustrating.
“But we didn’t have the strength of character to admit it wasn’t good enough. We will never ever put out a bad record now, though.”
Sixth album ... Bloodsports: On the contrary, Bloodsports is, well, a bloody great album.
Anderson adds: “In a way, it is a concept album. I was writing and realised that every song was about a different stage within a relationship. Co-dependency, suspicion, obsession — it’s almost like a journey through the arc of a relationship.
“I wanted my lyrics to have that sexual tension and ambiguity that classic Suede had without it being self-referential. And the title Bloodsports summed up the carnal chase of love — the word carnal meaning meat.”
And the passion and yearning of classic Suede is all there. The single, the swirling It Starts And Ends With You is sophisticated Suede. For The Strangers is another high point. As is the slower Sometimes I Feel I’ll Float Away.
Both Anderson and Osman admit that, when they split up, Suede had become complacent.
“Life in Suede had become ordinary,” confesses Osman.
“You release an album, it sells lots of copies. Then you’re on the front cover of every magazine. You go on tour, come back and do it all again. We had to work really hard to get there and then we threw it all away.”
Anderson says: “I think Suede always works really well when we’re struggling against something. Being the underdog. A reaction against something.
“The first album was a reaction against American culture and imperialism, which started Britpop. Then the second album was almost like a reaction against ourselves and this image that people had forced upon us.
“The third reaction was almost against people’s expectations about the band being over. Then, on the albums towards the end, we’d become insiders, I think.
“With this one, it shows we’re hungry again and is written from an outsider’s point of view.”
Anderson and Osman admit they were relieved when Suede split up and never thought they’d ever reunite.
“The only time I thought about reuniting Suede was when people asked me in interviews,” says Anderson who went on to release four solo albums.
“We’d demeaned Suede. We weren’t communicating and so to carry on was pointless.”
Osman adds: “But then Suede completely disappeared from culture. I’d meet people and say I was in a band a few years ago. If they were young, they’d say, ‘Suede? Never heard of you.’”
Both agree a reunion would never have happened if it wasn’t for the Teenage Cancer Trust.
“If someone had offered us a ton of money to do a gig, we would’ve said no,” says Anderson.
Osman adds: “But it was a special night and such a special gig and we all had sleepless nights leading up to it.”
Writing Bloodsports, Suede wanted to “allude to some of the energy, feeling, vitality and hunger” they had on stage.
Anderson says: “When I started writing, I approached songs like we were a new band. We had to approach it with that attitude.
“And when we wrote Barriers (which was a free download) it made sense of everything. It was a turning point and suddenly we had six more songs. Then things just clicked.
“What’s magical about this album is that it’s Suede but not the same Suede. We can’t resonate with the times in the way we did in 1993. We couldn’t become a self-parody.”
Original guitarist Bernard Butler quit Suede in 1994 over tensions with Anderson. Although the pair have patched up their differences, forming The Tears together in 2005, Butler was never part of the reunion.
Anderson says: “We get on well now. He didn’t want to be part of this and doesn’t want to tour. I’m glad we made up, though. It should never have come to that.”
It was Richard Oakes — who replaced Butler as a 17-year-old fan — who was unsure about rejoining Suede.
Osman says: “Richard came in at 17 so he gave his youth to this band. But as we didn’t all fall out, we’d still see each other in west London, apart from Simon, who moved to Bangkok.”
“Mat and Simon came to my wedding,” says Anderson. “But I’d not spoken to Richard for a while.
“He joined the band when he was very young to play Bernard’s guitar parts. We went on to have our most successful album with Richard — Coming Up — but still it never slayed the ghosts of the past for him. He has a complicated relationship with the band and half of it he hates and half of it he loves.”
Teaming up with long-term producer Ed Buller was the only option for recording Bloodsports.
“Ed was such a key player,” says Anderson. “He’s not a guy who just sits at the desk. He inspires.
“And he could be brutal. We could come in, excited about a song and he would say, ‘This is awful’. It was hurtful but had to be done.”
Now Suede will not look any further than the current album and say they don’t know how long this rebirth will last.
“We’re just taking it all one day at a time,” says Anderson. “And whether there’s six more albums or none, we don’t know.
Bloodsports is a really good record, up there with our best stuff and I’m really proud of that.
“Suede have a new lease of life.”
Bloodsports is out on Monday.
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Re: bloodsports promo and reviews

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http://metro.co.uk/2013/03/15/suede-rep ... s-3542845/
Suede repackage their Britpop highs to sound classic and vital on Bloodsports
Friday 15 Mar 2013 6:00 am
4/5
Suede secure their heritage act status on Bloodsports (Picture: PR)
A couple of decades on from their debut album, Suede and frontman Brett Anderson have pretty much earned heritage act status.
The snake-hipped provocateurs on the fringes of Britpop have experienced chemical highs, comedowns and comebacks. In recent years, they’ve packed out live revivals of their solid albums catalogue. With Bloodsports, Suede exhibit a rare quality: the ability to transform a nostalgic streak into fresh possibilities.
Admittedly, there are a lot of familiar ingredients here – the carnal tone, writhing guitar rhythms, Brett Anderson’s unmistakeable howl and rather lofty lyrics – they even launched the record with an old-fashioned intimate Camden gig. Yet all these elements play to Suede’s strengths, and sound both classic and vital.
The tracks flow from brooding, electronic alt-rock to echoey piano ballads (What Are You Not Telling Me), all fuelled with a bracing romanticism (Sometimes I’ll Float Away; Hit Me). They play their hearts out and go for the kill.
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Re: bloodsports promo and reviews

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http://www.express.co.uk/entertainment/ ... bum-review

Suede: Bloodsports: Album review
IT'S 11 years since Suede's last album and Brett Anderson is still pouting and posturing like he used to, only now with added crow's feet.
By: Stephen Unwin
Fri, March 15, 2013
Bloodsports is a reminder that Suede's been kind of missed
Not only does the music not sound dated but Bloodsports is a reminder that it's also been kind of missed.
Remarkably with many a precocious young band stepping up to the mark set by Suede back in the early Nineties, Brett beats them at his own game of couldn't–care–less swagger and this album glams it up brilliantly with rugged choruses and sexy riffs. It's cool. Really, really cool.
Verdict: 4/5
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http://www.godisinthetvzine.co.uk/2013/ ... um=twitter

Suede – Bloodsports (Suede Ltd/EMI Label Services)
March 15, 2013
by Ben P Scott
When a legendary band reforms, it’s often a case of just touring the old hits. Coming back with new material can carry the risk of tainting a legacy, but in Suede‘s case the release of a brand new studio LP gives them the chance to redeem themselves after the damp squib of 2002′s disappointing ‘A New Morning’. From the opening headrush of ‘Barriers’, it’s clear that the fire is burning bright once again. Its epic melodrama and statements of undying love provide a superb start to a record that sounds like it could have been made at any point in the mid 90′s. And for Britpop nostalgists like myself it’s worth buying for that reason alone.
But what we don’t get is a group simply relying on a sound similar to that of their best work to try and win back what they once had. Sometimes a band can end up making a poor record and mistakenly believe that it’s good because it’s in the same style as their most celebrated work. The Oasis album ‘Heathen Chemistry’ is a prime example. But thankfully Suede haven’t fallen into that trap. These songs just remind the listener of the old stuff because it’s packed with just as much heart, guts and epic bursts of emotion. It’s the sound of a group who have somehow rediscovered the magic. Brett Anderson‘s vocals are positively awe-inspiring, and it’s a fine way to return.
It’s been a while since Suede came up with some real anthems, but from the third track, we get a four song run of classics that can all proudly stand alongside their best moments. ‘It Starts And Ends With You’ is an ecstatic Bowie-esque pop masterpiece bursting with thrilling hooks and a skyscraping chorus, while ‘Sabotage’ ventures into darker territory, evoking an almost Joy Division-like atmosphere and steeped in dark, romantic drama and lyrical melancholy: “I smile as the rain cuts through me, so cold in this London suburb”. The grinding bassline and tortured guitars build up an intensity, gradually rising into an spectacular climax that comes complete with a stunning stadium-sized solo.
‘For The Strangers’ produces one of many fine choruses, all underlined with magnificent soaring guitar lines. Upon hearing this particular track for the first time, I couldn’t help but smile. It was like the last 17 years never happened. The massively infectious ‘Hit Me’ delivers electrifying glam riffs, a simple and hugely addictive chorus and an epic “la la la la la” refrain will no doubt have audiences punching the air and singing at the top of their lungs.
Elsewhere, ‘Sometimes I Feel I Float Away’ is a nice piece of hazy psychedelia, while the powerfully haunting ‘Always Here’ and sombre closer ‘Faultlines’ are two growers, both characteristic of the LP’s slower, less instant second half.
The only gripes I have with this record is its lack of a dirty, strutting rock and roll moment that would have given ‘Bloodsports’ more variety, and certainly more of a kick, something that its downbeat second half could do with. And there are two tracks that might have sounded better if they weren’t in such strong company. The swaggering verse of ‘Snowblind’ promises huge things, but its chorus doesn’t quite hit the mark, while the ghostly ‘What Are You Not Telling Me’ is a slightly unconvincing stab at ‘Dog Man Star’-esque desolation. But neither are bad songs, and their flaws are only minor imperfections on an otherwise brilliant album.
Eight great tracks out of ten doesn’t leave much to complain about. They sound like they’ve reignited that spark and rediscovered what they once thought was lost forever. Overall it’s not quite up there with the truly perfect ‘Coming Up’, but its best moments provide us with something we thought we’d never hear again: Suede producing some new classics and proving that their glories aren’t all in the past.

Rating: 4/5
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Re: bloodsports promo and reviews

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http://www.undertheradarmag.com/reviews/bloodsports/
Friday, March 15th, 2013
Suede - Bloodsports
INGROOVES/FONTANA
Mar 15, 2013
By Austin Trunick
After an 11-year dearth of new material, Britpop’s pompous progenitors are back from what we’d long feared might be the musical hereafter. And thankfully, Suede aren’t re-uniting under false pretenses and with fresh faces: this is a full return of the band’s longest-lived lineup. Bloodsports is the sort of comeback record that any band returning after a decade-long hiatus can only hope for: Suede is back, without the least hint of dust or deterioration.
Right from the beginning, with the half-minute lead-in to “Barriers,” Bloodsports sounds like core Suede. They’ve brought back Ed Buller, their go-to producer from the debut through the third album, and he’s given it all a vintage gloss; Brett Anderson’s vocals are brazenly up-front in the mix, and the guitar tones are as gratifyingly dirty-sounding as they were during the band’s prime. Tonally, Bloodsports strikes a pose somewhere between the magnificently dark Dog Man Star and its more upbeat successor, Coming Up. Clamorous rockers such as the fuzzed-out “Hit Me” and hooky “It Starts and Ends With You” are threaded in with moodier numbers, such as the splendidly melodramatic “Sabotage” and “For the Strangers.” Anderson takes the pageantry even further in the pleading balladry of “What Are You Not Telling Me?” and the aching “Always.” This is far from a subtle record, but Suede’s propensity for emotional showboating is one of those endearing traits that always set them apart from their contemporaries.
You don’t need to be told how rare it is for a band to disappear for a decade and then bounce back without seeming to miss a beat. Their time away is instantly forgiven: Suede sounds rejuvenated here. Calling Bloodsports a comeback album almost seems to belittle just how strong a record it really is; it’s nearly as good as any they’ve put out before. (www.suede.co.uk)
Author rating: 8.5/10
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Re: bloodsports promo and reviews

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http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-enter ... 35159.html
Album review: Suede, Bloodsports (Warner Music Group)
Andy Gill
Friday 15 March 2013
Though no masterpiece, Suede's Bloodsports is a decent piece of work that stays true to the band's aesthetic while boosting its sound to arena size.
It's just a pity that, as comebacks go, it can't help but seem like a little rowing boat tossed around in the wake of the mighty SS Bowie. Timing, as ever, is everything. But Brett Anderson still has that fallen-angel cadence, dashing off lines like “I fall to the floor like my strings are cut” with insouciant charm; and Richard Oakes' guitar riffs hoist songs such as “Sabotage” to another level, his arpeggios like a street-punk swagger-stalking back alleys.

Producer Ed Buller has given the band a bigger sound that works well on the rolling U2-esque riff to “Barriers”, but parts of the album still sag under expectations
Download: Barriers; It Starts and Ends with You; For the Strangers
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Re: bloodsports promo and reviews

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http://www.virginmedia.com/music/review ... sports.php
15-03-13
Bloodsports
Suede
Released: 18 March 2013
Genre: Indie
It's a year for triumphant returns but few have managed it with Suede's panache.
Of course, it's sort of cute that Brett Anderson and the boys should put out their first album in 10 years just as their hero David Bowie pulls the same trick. They might not command the media yardage the Dame has at his disposal, but diehards won't be disappointed. Far from it.
Anderson claims his reformed band were in such sparkling shape scores of songs had to be rejected before they settled on Bloodsports' final line-up. Whatever the facts, there are gems here that bear comparison with the best of Suede's back catalogue, from the swaggering It Starts And Ends With You to the fresh, chiming Barriers, with its short sweet shock of a chorus and classic Anderson phrases – "City kisses, lipstick traces," they're all there.
From start to finish, Anderson's on rare form, evoking "lips like semaphore" on the bighearted For The Strangers and getting "struck like matches" on the spiky Snowblind. All around him his refocused colleagues lock back in like they never stopped, providing dazzling settings for Anderson's typically bold choruses.
It's a shame empty grandstanding blights closing pair Always and Faultlines – weren't there better substitutes in those discarded tracks? – but there's barely a bone to pick otherwise. Welcome back, Wild Ones.
Album review by Matthew Horton
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Re: bloodsports promo and reviews

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http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/l ... -1-5502724
Friday 15 March 2013
Album review: Bloodsports by Suede
By Duncan Seaman
15 March 2013 15:54
It’s hard to believe it’s 21 years since Brett Anderson and co arrived, courting controversy with their fascinations with the seedier side of suburbia.
The strong influence of glam rock, and in particular David Bowie, revived the British guitar scene, paving the way for the likes of Oasis, Blur and a slew of other Britpop bands.
After a period apart they have regrouped – without guitarist Bernard Butler – but with their most compelling album in years.
Opening at pace with the blistering Barriers followed by the Smiths-like Snowblind and the swooningly romantic It Starts and End With You, it’s clear that Anderson has very much rediscovered his voice as a writer as well as a singer.
The backing is robust throughout, with Richard Oakes’ guitar lines ringing through this 10-song collection.
For the Strangers is a classic Suede, all soaring riffs and urban alienation. Simon Gilbert’s thundering glam-rock beat powers on Hit Me; What Are you Not Telling Me is a swirling ballad with gorgeous layered harmonies in the chorus.
Potent stuff.
Rating: 4/5
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Re: bloodsports promo and reviews

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http://thesoundofconfusionblog.blogspot ... ports.html
Friday, 15 March 2013
Suede - Bloodsports
Album review by kev@thesoundofconfusion.co.uk
I was 13 when Suede's Mercury-winning, Britpop-starting debut album was released. I heard a short clip of 'So Young' on ITV's 'The Chart Show' and was blown away. I waited until the next birthday/Christmas and the obligatory tenner in a card from my Gran and went and bought the album on tape. It was a bit disappointing at first, but I played 'So Young' so many times that that section of the tape is worn out and no longer plays properly. It wasn't long before the rest of the album captured me. 'Breakdown', 'Metal Mickey'... they became my favourite band. Needless to say the excitement leading up to the release of second effort 'Dog Man Star' was palpable. I bought it, again on cassette and was disappointed at first. A month later I was stunned. To this day I regard that album as one of the finest made by any band, ever. Be it the upbeat guitar-pop of 'New Generation', the warped love and drugs epic 'The Asphalt World', or, frankly, any of it. And then there were the B-sides. Wow. No band released B-sides that were better than some album tracks.
At this point the news broke that Bernard Butler had left (different versions of events have been reported), but it was OK as they'd recruited a replacement. 17-year-old Richard Oakes. Would he be up to scratch? The first I saw of him was performing 'The Wild Ones' on Top Of The Pops; he looked the part, I was happy. I waited with more anticipation than ever for new material, and then it arrived in single 'Trash'. A decent track, one that was Suede at their more poppy, but it sounded like Suede. A sigh of relief was breathed. Its parent album arrived soon after. 'Coming Up' catapulted them to greater success and more top 10 hits, but something wasn't quite right. There were a few amazing songs; 'The Chemistry Between Us, 'By The Sea'... but it was a pop album as much as anything. The lyrics were ones we'd heard before and some of the songs were below par. Worse followed with next album 'Head Music'. I didn't bother buying an album by what were my favourite band. Sadly this is now how people remember them; for atrocious singles like 'Filmstar' and 'She's In Fashion'. The mighty had fallen. The band who took British guitar music to the top 10 for the first time in years were a parody. Back then songs rarely entered the chart at number one or even in the top ten. Certainly not an indie band. 'Stay Together' crash-landed straight into the top 5. This would soon become the norm but it was a mini-revelation at the time.
Even the public lost interest by the time they put out 'A New Morning'. I only heard the singles; they were good. Apparently the rest of the album was, to quote one of their singles, trash. I met the news of a reformation with some trepidation; there was no Bernard Butler - and this isn't to say Richard Oakes is a bad guitarist, he's an amazing player and a decent songwriter, but Bernard Butler is on a different level to most people. The shows went well. Could they hold it together and banish the overriding memories people have of their chart/cocaine period? Then came the comeback single, 'Barriers'. It sounded like a band refreshed, whatever had taken that magic away had returned. A month or so on and it's sounding like one of the truly great comeback singles; that spark that Brett had lost had been reignited, now we crossed our fingers and hoped for the best from new album 'Bloodsports'. It's make or break for their reputation; most people forget, or never knew, just how important they were pre-1995. I've spent over a decade trying to explain that the real Suede isn't that horrible band with those second-rate Britpop hits. They opened the door, they were vital to British music in the 1990s, if only for a few years. Without them things would have been different.
They promptly proved 'Barriers' was no one-off by giving the public another taste in the wonderful 'It Starts And Ends With You'. There's more to come: 'Snowblind' has that typical Suede guitar sound that both Butler and Oakes used, as well as a huge chorus. Brett's odd lyrics crop up from time to time which is good to hear ("her touch is like a raven's shadow..." " ...lips like semaphore"). Those tales of twisted love are still here, they're still lying in the gutter looking at the stars. 'The Strangers' exemplifies this like a mini-epic and captures the essence of the band at their peak. There's a future single in the gritty 'Hit Me', another mysterious tale of love with lyrics that could be (and are almost certainly supposed to be) ambiguous, even capturing a few of Brett's trademark "la la las". Pretty much every song here stands out in some way, even the initially routine sounding 'Sometimes I Feel I'll Float Away' ends up as a stately piece, and then it's followed by the haunting and broken-hearted 'What Are You Not Telling Me', a familiar feeling from their early albums returns, but with a whole new production technique. It's spine-tinglingly forlorn, as is 'Always' which captures that sense of loss almost as well as they did 20 years ago and the second half of the song bleeds desperation. They save some powerful emotion for the album's closing piece, 'Faultlines', is it a reflective contemplation of life as a whole? Or just an important yet hollow and desolate moment in time being captured?
Let's be clear, Suede were never going to repeat the first two albums, they're older. Singing about teenage life and council estates would just be plain wrong now, they're detached from that, and no one wants to see a middle aged man in a tatty charity shop blouse spanking his arse anymore. This was never going to be a seminal album and it isn't. They had to make an album of top quality guitar songs. Basically they needed to aim for the 'Coming Up'-era sound but not mention nuclear skies and getting high on diesel. They've done that on 'Bloodsports' and had this album been released in place of 'Head Music' the public's attitude to the band would be different, they'd be considered the greats that they were before it all went wrong. I can safely say that the band have made the album I'd hoped, their third best after 'Dog Man Star' and 'Suede' (in that order) and more importantly have shown that there's still fire in their bellies and desire pumping through their veins. 'Bloodsports' may be the last album they make, and that would be fine; a fitting epitaph and a correction made to music's history books. But can we also hope that this will give them the confidence to use as a springboard to something even better? Let's hope so. So many comeback albums are abominations (anyone still listening to 'Forth' by The Verve? Thought not), but not this one. 'Bloodsports' is one of the best comeback albums in recent memory.
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