bloodsports promo and reviews

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Re: bloodsports promo and reviews

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http://www.sputnikmusic.com/review/5580 ... oodsports/
Suede
Bloodsports
3.7
Review by Joseph Viney STAFF
March 18th, 2013
Release Date: 03/18/2013 | Tracklist
Review Summary: Maybe you can polish suede after all
Suede’s initial commercial and creative decline is fairly well documented in the British music press. Not long before bowing out in the early to mid-2000s, the five piece booked a five-night farewell residency in London, playing each of their five albums one night after another in full.
The second hand ticket market for those gigs read like a digital tarot deck. For the run through of their last record, the forgetful and disappointing A New Morning ended up being hawked for less than their original asking price. On the other hand, tickets for the recital of Dog Man Star, a particular benchmark of British guitar music and most well-received record, saw the resale market go into overdrive, kicking prices up to ten times their original amount.
Although a fine way to bow out overall, it was something of a sad indictment of a group whose tales of urban decay, sleaze, hedonism and graphic sexual mores reached out and grabbed their audience by both their lapels and between their legs. Alas, ennui, consumer apathy and vocalist Brett Anderson’s crippling addictions combined and contrived to ensure that their final two records (including the patchy Head Music) passed by sans adulation and sales.
Upon the first few listens to Bloodsports, the easiest thing to do would be to call it a ‘return to form’ (as many have already done) and then pick up from where the bookmark lay in a copy of ‘Cliched Writing For Lazy Bastards’. Bloodsports is something more simple than a ‘return to form’; in effect, it is Suede, for the most part, doing what they have always been capable of.
Bloodsports is the sound of a band who have rested, recouped and clawed back some of that old time vitality. The album’s opening triple salvo picks up where we left off with 1996’s Coming Up. “Barriers”, “Snowblind” and “It Starts and Ends With You” are replete with uplifting choruses, call and answer refrains, classic Anderson “la-la-la” bridging, an arrogant stomp and that needling, sci-fi guitar that makes them so easily identifiable.
The real change with Bloodsports is its lyrics. Gone is the leather clad, hyper sexual aggression that slathered across their early releases. In its place is a more measured approach that explores the ins and outs of the emotional spectrum. “Sabotage” sees Anderson opining that he and an unnamed beau’s ‘love is sabotaged’ while “What Are You Not Telling Me?” carries with it the weight of a long, drawn out relationship that can no longer be patched together by the forgetfulness of youth.
Much has been made of the album’s sequencing; drawing to a close with four consecutive ballads. One review likened it to the many false endings in Return Of The King, but it’s nothing so profound and unnecessary as that. The excellent “Sometimes I Feel I’ll Float Away” is a song that could slide very gracefully into Suede’s classics canon. Closer “Faultlines” could very well neatly sum up the past of a band with one of the more cracked histories in modern music.
You get the sense that Suede are playing it by ear, gauging reaction before making another strike. After the dust settles on Bloodsports it will be interesting to see what their next move is. For the time being though, let’s bask in the return of one of the more curious groups to have existed, and hope that these consummate professionals make this return a long-term affair.
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Re: bloodsports promo and reviews

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http://www.independent.ie/entertainment ... 31946.html
Suede are back to their '90s peak with smart, sexy album
Album Review: Bloodsports (Suede Ltd) ****
John Meagher– 15 March 2013
One would be forgiven for not being too excited by the prospect of a new Suede album.
Their final offerings before splitting were poor facsimiles of their early 1990s work, while subsequent solo albums from frontman Brett Anderson were decidedly patchy.
Even a reunion album from Anderson and Suede's original guitarist, Bernard Butler, failed to live up to the sum of its parts.
Listen to this first Suede album in 11 years, however, and it soon becomes apparent that Anderson and friends have rediscovered some of the form that made them – for a few fleeting years – the most exciting British band of their generation.
Right from the off, the quintet displays a sense of urgency and vigour that had been so sorely missed in the latter stages of their first coming. Opener Barriers is all purposeful guitars and fore-grounded bass, while 45-year-old Anderson sounds utterly invigorated – his vocals at once distinct and arresting.
There's a leanness to the material that is redolent of their self-titled debut album, released 20 years ago to the month, and at 10 tracks and 39-odd minutes, the band has wisely curbed the extraneous bells and whistles that has tarnished even some of their better songs.
Richard Oakes's guitar is at the centre of everything. There are Butleresque riffs here and there but there's a virtuosity present that reminds the listener that this quietly spoken Londoner is a figure to be reckoned with.
It's worth remembering that he was just 19 when first drafted into Suede on Butler's departure.
But it's Anderson and his carnal obsessions that stay with you longest: truly, few of his peers have written as candidly about sex as he has and these songs find him documenting sex that's good, bad, dangerous and dirty – and you'll hang on to his every word.
KEY TRACKS Barriers; It Starts and Ends With You
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Re: bloodsports promo and reviews

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http://www.allmusic.com/album/mw0002479073
Suede – 'Bloodsports'
by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Suede didn't so much disband as unravel. Racked by too many indulgences and addictions, the group faded away in the early years of the new millennium, leaving behind a somewhat tarnished conclusion to what was a glorious career. Brett Anderson slowly got himself back on track, first reuniting with original Suede guitarist Bernard Butler for the rather excellent one-shot band the Tears, then carving out a contemplative solo identity where much of the squalor, sex, and grime of Suede was stripped away,leaving behind contemplative pop and broken-hearted ruminations. Eventually, as it came time to repackage and reissue the Brit-pop glory years and the prospect of high-dollar live reunions lurked, there seemed to be one logical next move: to reunite Suede as a going concern. After all, Anderson had quietly honed his craft on those solo albums, but few noticed; Suede gives him the platform he deserves. He seizes that opportunity on Bloodsports, a reunion of the Coming Up lineup lacking any of that record's gleeful, hedonistic trash. Instead, this incarnation of Suede favors the darkly majestic, romantic bent of the Butler era, with a major difference: they've replaced Butler's operatic sweep by proudly sporting the scars of time. Anderson is no longer romanticizing doomed love, he's soldiering on and his fight against the dying light gives Bloodsports an air of optimism underneath its elegant melancholy. Also, it helps that he, guitarist Richard Oakes, and Neil Codling -- a keyboardist who began his stint in the band serving almost as decoration, and has now developed into a valued collaborator, contributing songwriting credits to over half the album -- have constructed an elegantly lean, quietly forceful collection of songs that emphasize how Suede play ballads as if they're anthems and vice-versa. Where Head Music and A New Morning felt fractured and confused, Bloodsports is precise and purposeful. By excising the neon-colored glam that came to define the band in the years after Coming Up, Suede wear their middle age with style. Never once do they sound desperate on Bloodsports; they sound confident, and comfortable in the knowledge that this is where they all should be.
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Re: bloodsports promo and reviews

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http://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/music/2 ... story.html

The London Suede, ‘Bloodsports’
By Marc Hirsh
March 19, 2013
Timberlake, Bowie, Marr, My Bloody Valentine: Barely three months in, 2013 has thus far proven to be a watershed year for musicians who’ve suddenly remembered that they make music. Now comes the London Suede, regrouping and resurfacing almost 11 years after its last album, and the new “Bloodsports” is fired up with something awfully close to the inspiration that drove the band way back when. Combining the fervid romantic fatalism of Morrissey, the moody throb of Echo & the Bunnymen and the glam rocket crunch of T. Rex, Suede sets expectations high with “Barriers” and, astonishingly, keeps meeting them. Like the best Suede songs, “Sometimes I Feel I’ll Float Away” and “For the Strangers” capture the sensation of being pulled under by a cresting tide of emotion, something that tips into unhealthy obsession in “Always,” where singer Brett Anderson’s idea of devotion is waiting “like a sniper in the wings.” Decade-long hiatus or no decade-long hiatus, “Bloodsports” finds Suede in exactly its element. (Out Tuesday)
ESSENTIAL “Sometimes I Feel I’ll Float Away”
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Re: bloodsports promo and reviews

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http://filtermagazine.com/index.php/rev ... try/suede/
Suede
Bloodsports - INGROOVES/FONTANA
FILTER Grade: 80%
By Nevin Martell
March 18, 2013
The enfants terribles of the Britpop era are back—a little softer around the edges and a little older around the eyes. Their first album in a decade is a stately, more considered effort. Nonetheless, Bloodsports still thrums with the darkness and danger that made the fivesome’s early records so worthy of your absolute allegiance. “Snowblind” and “Hit Me” are a continuation of Coming Up’s gritty, glitzy, glammy pop, while the soaring “For the Strangers” aims to supplant “Saturday Night” as the band’s sing-along set closer. Some moments feel too safe, most notably the mid-tempo first single “It Starts and Ends With You.” For the most part, though, Suede’s newfound maturity suits them well.
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Re: bloodsports promo and reviews

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http://www.spin.com/#articles/suede-blo ... -interview
Suede's Brett Anderson Learns to Be Human Again
March 19 2013, 10:50 AM ET
by David Marchese
The frontman for the reunited Britpop legends shares the secrets of his band's rollercoaster career
There's an argument to be made that, as far as American audiences go, Suede were the best-kept secret of the '90s Britpop explosion. That's partly their own doing — the band, led by dueling androgynes Brett Anderson (on vocals) and Bernard Butler (on guitar), made decadent glam grandiosities that had little to do with the then-prevailing grunge aesthetic — and partly due to bad luck. A lawsuit brought forth by another musician meant that the band had to be billed as the London Suede in the States.
Across the ocean though, Anderson and Co. (Butler left the band in 1994) ran the gamut of rock experiences, from hugely hyped upstarts to drug-addicted stars to, now, clear-eyed and clear-headed reunited vets. Bloodsports (Ingrooves/Fontana), out March 19, is Suede's first new album in 11 years, and it's full of the dramatic guitars and romantically anguished melodies that helped kickstart the British rock renaissance.
Anderson, 45, spoke with us on the phone from London to share his notions about how to navigate a career in constant flux.
There's a cliche that artists have to be damaged to make interesting music.
I refute that. There's so much tension and conflict and friction within everyday life — you just have to look for the interesting pockets of life. I don't have the same out of control lifestyle that I used to have but I'm able to find these pockets of interest within everyday life. Bloodsports is a really interesting, well-observed album because of that. It's not a safe, middle-aged album. It's about co-dependency, infatuation, jealousy, and all these things. Those tensions are in everyone's life; they're omnipresent. It's a matter of finding and identifying them and writing about them. You can do that without drugs.
People become frozen when they become famous.
What happens is you get successful and, all of a sudden, life is arranged for you. Your manager and others lead you on a rope and you don't really engage with life as you should. That happens to anyone in a successful band. When we broke up in 2003, I needed to personally break away from the machinery. I made solo records, and that was hugely important to me, but it was probably just as important to gain back a sense of independence about myself. I needed to do it. I felt as if I'd lost my hunger. I had a huge learning experience over the last decade just by learning to be a human again and living my own life.
You don't want your performance to be too balanced.
You want it to feel like it could fall apart at any moment. And often it feels that way because the performers are not fully-rounded human beings. It's absolutely true: You do need to get pampered and have this machinery around you in order that you can be out of control on stage. You can't be busy thinking about doing the washing and shopping, have all these mundane things and then have this rock'n'roll creative spirit. They're two different capacities. You need someone else taking care of that side of your life. That kind of attitude, it's charming when you're young, but if you're still like that when you're 40, it gets a bit sad and dark.
You never have to feel motivated to play a good song. That's because a good song has its own built-in motivation. I never have a sense of nostalgia when we play the old Suede songs live; I never have a sense they were written 20 years ago. It always feels very current to me, and that's because a good song is magical. It's the same sort of thing as when you have a chord book of a band and you play it yourself, sitting with an acoustic guitar. You don't start playing a Kinks song and wonder what your motivation is. You get inspired by the magic of the song — the way the chords and melody work. It's the same with playing any great older stuff. And that magic is something I certainly feel with the new material.
You can't take your eye off the ball. I did at exactly the wrong moment and we had to be called the London Suede in America. I've always hated that name. [The forced name change] really did sour the whole thing. It was all going quite well: the debut album sold quite well and the media were with us, and then as soon as we had the name change, it all absolutely soured. It soured our whole outlook on touring in the States. I don't know how we let that one go, but we did, and we woke up the next day and couldn't take ourselves seriously over there.
As you get older, it gets harder to know what's good.
It's all about the feel, it's all about instinct, and as you get older it gets harder to do tap into those things — it's as simple as that. Look, there are very, very few artists that are doing good work 20 years after they started. It's a matter of being honest about whether the music is good enough. A lot of people aren't. Getting back together, there's a slight illusion that happens when you jump onstage and play your old songs and they sound great. It's easy to convince yourself that the magic is still there. There's a big difference between doing that and writing new songs. It's hard not to be complacent. The songwriting for Bloodsports was a very hard process. We had to approach it like we were a new band, with the same hunger. But the album feels raw and exciting to me. I think we got it.
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Re: bloodsports promo and reviews

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http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sh ... ieber.html
Brett Anderson: ‘Cr*p’ artists like Bieber have always been around
By TOM EDWARDS
SUEDE frontman Brett Anderson says 'cr*p' acts like Justin Bieber and One Direction are nothing new.
The singer — whose band’s new album Bloodsports was released yesterday — was quick to criticise labels for failing to invest in genuine talent instead of manufacturing acts.
He said: “There has always been cr*p pop music. “I remember when we had all the crap boybands in the 90s — stuff like that has always been around. “The lack of money in the music industry created a crisis. “Record companies don't have the resources to take a gamble, so these pop stars are created by committee.
“They are just a series of bland ticks on a check list, which creates a generic style of artist. I prefer artists with something slightly wrong about them.” Suede’s first album shot straight to the top of the charts when it was released back in 1993, as did their third and fourth records. But, despite positive reviews, Brett isn’t too concerned about their latest offering charting well. He said: “The charts do still have some relevance, but it’s kind of different.
“Getting in the charts always seems to matter at the time, but then there are plenty of records that didn’t do amazingly when they were first released, but then went on to do really well later. And vice-versa. “But you cant worry about that sort of stuff — you just have to get your head down and focus on what you’re doing.”
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Re: bloodsports promo and reviews

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http://diffuser.fm/suede-bloodsports-album-review/
Suede, ‘Bloodsports’ – Album Review
by Stephanie Myers
March 19, 2013 9:20 AM
8/10
Since their inception in 1989, Suede have seen more than their share of changes. They’ve watched as Britpop and band members have come and gone and musical identifiers have been foisted upon them that weren’t entirely correct. They even weathered a lawsuit that forced an official name change to the London Suede. But one thing Suede can be counted on is putting out fantastically flashy albums, regardless of their outside circumstances, and fortunately for us, ‘Bloodsports,’ an album that drives home the band’s resilience, continues this trend.
True to its name, ‘Bloodsports’ is a no-holds-barred record that retains its might all the way through. The second track, ‘Snowblind,’ is a radio-ready nugget that features traces of early Police, while ‘It Starts and Ends with You’ is a gorgeous, blustery yet vulnerable anthem that has enough swagger to take on an arena. (The lyric “too much is not enough” encapsulates the band’s overall philosophy nicely.) And when you’re a band that’s earned your swagger like Suede have, really, you might as well strut.
On ‘Bloodsports,’ they strut for all its worth, and the boastful ‘Hit Me,’ a peacocking challenge to “hit me with your majesty,” is arguably the disc’s finest track. Suede are at their best when the manage to go over the top without resorting to full-on bombast, and they know it.
Momentum builds on ‘Sometimes I Feel I’ll Float Away,’ a track that begins with deceptively soft strains and eventually reaches a tumultuous yet controlled crescendo. The band excels at channeling energy, and they’re hardly amateurs in teasing out what they want listeners to feel. Never let it be said that Suede don’t know what they’re doing; they’re more than proficient at manipulating listeners’ heartstrings without actually being manipulative.
Indeed, the building (and falling) of momentum appears to be a theme of ‘Bloodsports.’ For this reason, it’s surprising when things lag ever so slightly toward the end, as ‘Always’ and ‘Faultlines’ don’t quite have the drive that characterizes the rest of the album. That’s no major knock, though; this ain’t Suede’s first rodeo, and as a whole, they deliver the kind of energy they’re famous for.
Suede have always tended to carve their own path and leave behind a gilded wake, and that they do so without sounding dated is no easy feat. Luckily, by the time ‘Bloodsports’ has run its course, there’s nothing ephemeral about what’s left gleaming.
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Re: bloodsports promo and reviews

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http://www.timeout.com/london/music/sue ... bum-review
Suede – 'Bloodsports' album review
Brett Anderson and company return with a mainline fix of sleazy and ruinous London glamour
By Oliver Keens Fri Mar 15 2013
Suede – 'Bloodsports'
4/5
While most hailed Suede as the sordid saviours of British indie after emerging in 1992, some just wrote them off as glam hams with a Bowie fixation. True, they’re back only weeks after ‘the guvnor’, but even the bitterest cynic would admit they’ve defined themselves rather well. ‘Bloodsports’ is a great album and a defiant reminder of their consistency. Unblemished by pointless excursions into stadium rock or pop, Brett Anderson’s band remain what they always were: a mainline fix of sleazy and ruinous London glamour. While the album progresses from the bombastic guitar crunch of opening songs like ‘Snowblind’, to the deeper melancholia of ‘Faultlines’, Suede only briefly show their age on the slightly drivetime decadence of ‘Barriers’. Thankfully, they’re still able to sound as good in an indie club as they are in a Mazda on the North Circular.
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Re: bloodsports promo and reviews

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http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/169 ... oodsports/
Suede: Bloodsports
By AJ Ramirez 19 March 2013
Sound Affects Editor
The first thing you might think to yourself once Bloodsports starts is “Why does Suede sound like British Sea Power now?” Brett Anderson’s distinctive squeal aside, opening cut “Barriers” evidences the shimmering, modernist post-punk inclinations that generously informed the singer’s 2011 solo outing Black Rainbows. At least we know what the group’s been listening to recently.
On a less jocular note, a listen to Suede’s first album in over a decade will probably elicit immediate thoughts more along the lines of “boy, this record is really damn good”. It really is, almost refreshingly so: for a good portion of its runtime Bloodsports glides from high point to high point with admirable ease and poise, as if that rocky road post-Coming Up never existed. Regardless of its blatant influences, “Barriers” is a very effective wide-scale opener, giving way to the snaky, sexy “Snowblind” and then lead single “It Starts and Ends with You”, a fantastically executed A-side that builds upon each idea introduced, treating each new hook as if it is a chorus in its own right. That single is the album’s peak, truth be told, but there are plenty later on in the LP’s trim tracklist (only 10 cuts total) to keep you fixated, like when Suede gamely indulges its eternal glam fixation with the glittery stomp of “Hit Me”.
For a band that’s swung from over-obsessed critical darling to terribly out of fashion more than once since it first gained noticed 20 years ago, Bloodsports is the kind of comeback one wishes hardest for. People can quibble for an eternity over whether or not Suede was truly deserving of the megahype the British music press whipped up during the dawn of Britpop, but at the (very) least the act has put out some rather good singles with a touch of thrilling excitement about them. It’s a tall order for any outfit to hit similar marks again after prolonged creative inactivity, so Suede gets a decent grade from the outset for not turning in an atrocity for its reformation record.
As I said before, it’s far from being a dud. Time will tell how it is received critically and commercially, but I’ll say this: at this point I think I enjoy Bloodsports as a singular entity more than group’s mega-lauded debut LP. Part of that favoritism, I admit, is due to Bloodsports’ relative dearth of ponderous ballads. Though Suede is partial to them (you can see the appeal, given the band’s artier inclinations), the format has rarely been becoming to the group. Continuing in that tradition, Bloodsports gives listeners “What You Are Not Telling Me”, the album’s dullest number. It’s followed by close kin “Always” and “Faultlines” to end the album, but the band avoid turning those offerings into rudderless snoozefests by delivering them with soul-stirring bombast.
But Bloodsports appeals to me also because it rolls by so easily. In between the genuine stunners, in the past Suede had the propensity to come off as stiff and overfussed—traits the band seems to have shorn itself of. Suede doesn’t feel like it’s forcing itself into attempting to make an LP the equal of its earlier efforts—it just does it, radiating charm without breaking a sweat. Part of me wonders if the explanation for this victorious outcome is merely the ruthless editing that’s evidenced by the short runtime, a sleight of hand intended to show the world only the absolute best the reunited unit could muster. Yet listening to Bloodsports, I can’t complain with the results. Even if there are only ten tracks to feast upon, it’s clear that Suede is back in force, and Brett and the boys sound cooler than ever.
Rating:8/10
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http://www.superdeluxeedition.com/news/ ... ment-28922
Suede “Bloodsports” deluxe box set fails to deliver promised content
March 19, 2013 by Paul Sinclairtags: Suede
The £100 deluxe bundle does not have the content advertised
Suede fans are taking to the band’s own forum to complain about the £100 deluxe box set bundle of Bloodsports.
The expensive – now sold-out – set consists of the new album on CD and vinyl; a hardback book; a seven-inch single; a T-shirt; a signed lithograph and a USB stick.
The problem is that the USB stick – unique to this bundle – was advertised as containing “exclusive video content”, and was also supposed to contain the two bonus tracks from the seven-inch single in addition to the standard album in digital form. Fans who have already received their boxes report that it fact doesn’t contain any video at all (just a couple of folders of random images) and the audio – in WAV and MP3 format – is just the basic 10 album tracks with no sign of Dawn Chorus and No Holding Back, the bonus tracks in question.
Some purchasers of this deluxe bundle were already rather aggrieved that Japan and European iTunes customers were getting bonus tracks not found in this pricey deluxe bundle, so this missing USB content rather pours salt on that wound.
We contacted Warner Music Artist & Label Services who are handling the release, and they have promised to update buyers of this super deluxe bundle today about this situation.
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http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/mu ... -1.4821800
Suede's 'Bloodsports' review: Return to '90s Britpop
March 15, 2013 2:48 PM
By GLENN GAMBOA
It's been 11 years since Brett Anderson and friends released a Suede album and nearly 20 years -- yes, "Dog Man Star" came out in 1994 -- since the band was a major rock force. "Bloodsports" (Fontana) is a return to those heady days in the mid-'90s, when Suede's huge stadium-rock choruses and Anderson's New Romantic-influenced vocals took them to the top of the British charts, though, sadly, there's no reunion with original guitarist Bernard Butler.
"Snowblind" sounds like it could have come from the band's debut album, like Gene Loves Jezebel crossed with U2, angular, experimental rock verses welded to a sing-along chorus. "It Starts and Ends With You" is straightforward Britpop, catchy rock that's perfect for hopping up and down in huge crowds at a football match and waving the Union Jack.
"For the Strangers" will also have you waxing nostalgic for the "Cool Britannia" days, with Anderson approximating Morrissey-esque drama in his vocals over chiming Edge-like guitars.
With all that energy in the front half of "Bloodsports," the album does get bogged down toward the end in a series of similar ballads, though the massiveness of "Sometimes I Feel I'll Float Away" does show us where early Muse may have come from and why it is so good to have Suede back.
Suede "Bloodsports" - THE GRADE B+

Suede: Bloodsports is hardest album
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Re: bloodsports promo and reviews

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http://www.smellslikeinfinitesadness.co ... oodsports/
Album Review: Suede ‘Bloodsports’
By SLIS on March 18, 2013 in Album, music, Review
Album Review: With ‘Bloodsports’, Suede return after 13 years with their best album since 1996's ‘Coming Up’.
5/6
Brit-pop pioneers Suede (aka The London Suede, for those of us in the states) imploded in 2002. Their album ‘A New Morning‘ showed a palpable sense of burn-out.
But it seems the long rest in-between albums was needed, because ‘Bloodsports‘ has the youthful vigor of a band in their 20's, belaying their middle-aged years.
Never a group known for subtlety, each track is an anthem in the best sense of the word.
The single ‘Barriers‘ is the opening salvo, all crystalline guitars, oceanic synths and glam-rock hooks.
Frontman Brett Anderson’s grandiose love-lorn lyrics still pack a punch, soaring with his patented wail:
“And our world it was wrapped in tinsel
invitations and fountain pens
but the heart is a lonely hunter
it trapped you once and it’ ll trap you again”
“Snowblind” evokes The Smith’s; starting off with moody arpeggiated guitar before kicking into a crunchy glam-rock riff. The chorus is stratospheric. I imagine this will be a live staple.
'It starts And Ends With You’ evokes their début album, and ‘Sabotage‘ is glam grandeur in the best sense, starting off with Neil Coding’s burbling synths and leading into a guitar solo from Richard Oakes which evokes The Edge. This style bleeds into the follow-up track ‘Follow The Strangers.’
Things get even better in the latter half of the album. ’Hit Me‘ is one of their best songs to date. It evokes past classics ‘Animal Nitrate‘ and ‘Trash‘, with vibrato guitars buoying Anderson’s sailing vocals; “C’mon and hit me with your majesty, c’mon and hit me with all your mystery.”
The chorus is chill inducing and may just be the biggest rock hook of 2013.
‘What Are You Not Telling Me‘, is a lovely ballad, anchored by synths and lounge piano. The multi-tracked chorus repeating the song title is chilling. Anderson channels heartbreak like few others : “the mysteries of love are not for us, it’s the little things that are tearing us up.”
Many Suede fans still bemoan the fact that founding guitarist Bernard Butler remains absent, but given his saccharine sweet side project with Anderson (The Tears), perhaps it’s for the best. This has more bite, and is the richer for it.
Richard Oakes remains a capable guitarist perfectly suiting their epic sound, and meshing well with the rhythm section of Mat Osman and Simon Gilbert. While, they may never match the heights of their 90's epic ‘Dog Man Star‘, this is a pretty faultless collection.
‘Bloodsports‘, sticks out like a sore thumb in this era of indie-rock fragility. With the exception of Muse, many new artists are scared shitless to aim for the grand pageantry a band like Suede has to offer. Lucky for us then, that they’ve returned.
Want to own Suede’s ’Bloodsports‘ on iTunes or Amazon? I have links for both below.
And you can stream the album in full via The Guardian until the album’s release on March 18th.
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Re: bloodsports promo and reviews

Post by sunshine »

http://www.hotpress.com/Suede/music/rev ... comments=1
Suede: Bloodsports
Terrific Return from Britpop Luminaries...
Paul Nolan, 19 Mar 2013
Suede’s artistic decline was always somewhat mysterious. It would be easy to pin it on the departure of guitarist and co-songwriter Bernard Butler following the band’s magisterial first two albums. However, the glam-tinged Coming Up, released after Butler’s exit and the addition of guitarist Richard Oakes and keyboardist Neil Codling, was actually quite brilliant.
On the seriously uneven Head Music (1999) and A New Morning (2002), Suede lacked the vitality that made them so essential in the first place, lending a flavour of unfinished business to the group. All the more reason, then, to celebrate the arrival of Bloodsports, on the back of Suede’s well-received live reunion.
Many of the classic Suede hallmarks are in place, from the inspired ambiguity of the sleeve, to the sense of dark romance that permeates the songs. Opening track and lead single ‘Barriers’ kicks the album off in exceptionally strong fashion, with the surging, anthemic feel immediately earning it a place in the canon of Suede classics. Anderson has said that the overarching story of Bloodsports tracks the progression (and it would appear, eventual disintegration) of a relationship, and the opening aims to capture the intoxicating feel of the early stages of love. ‘It Starts And Ends With You’ is an upbeat rocker with an infectious chorus, and features lines like, “I shout but it just spins faster / I crawl up but knees are water.”
Gradually, darker hues become apparent. ‘Sabotage’, one of strongest tracks, is a moody ballad with echoes of ‘Europe Is Our Playground’ and Dog Man Star’s unforgettable ‘The Asphalt World’, and finds Anderson ominously noting: “Her touch is like a raven’s shadow.” The swooning ‘For The Strangers’ has a dramatic, foreboding atmosphere, offset by an infectious “la la la” coda.
Elsewhere, ‘Snowblind’ bursts with kinetic energy, ‘Hit Me’ provides an adrenalised rush of glam-pop thrills and ‘What Are You Not Telling Me?’ finds the band getting into an ambient, experimental groove, as the album nears its murky conclusion.
On this evidence, Suede are still capable of providing dark thrills that put disciples like Interpol and Bloc Party into the shade.
sunshine
Flight attendant
Posts: 7937
Joined: 14 Feb 2002, 01:00

Re: bloodsports promo and reviews

Post by sunshine »

http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liv ... -32974471/
JAMIE BOWMAN: The return of Suede has made me forget about my broken boiler
Jamie Bowman, Liverpool Daily Post
Mar 15 2013
a FRIEND of mine recently told me I was the kind of bloke who gets nostalgic about what he eat for breakfast that morning.
Naturally I was shocked at such an accusation, having always considered myself something of a hipster, attuned to the zeitgeist and hungry for the new sounds.
However, a quick look back through my columns for this paper confirmed that my friend was right. Apart from last week’s mid life crisis influenced dissection of One Direction’s career, a read through my words shows I am on far more solid ground when discussing the music I loved as a teenager or listened to as a student.
I never thought it would happen but perhaps it’s time to finally admit defeat when it comes to keeping up with what the kids (or even the 25-year-olds) are listening to and despite my mate’s criticism I’m done with apologising.
The more I think about it the more this desire to look back seems unsurprising to me. When I was first going to gigs and buying records there was an obsessive intensity about my music fandom. It was all that matters whereas these days going to a concert seems to be all about booking fees and babysitting.
Thankfully, in-between the dirty nappies and the sleepless nights, there’s still the odd opportunity to wallow in some of this youthful nostalgia and recall a time when I wasn’t worrying about how to get my boiler fixed.
This week’s chance to recall the good old days came with the news that Suede had released a new album. Reformations are 10 a penny at the moment, but I have to say there was something a bit special about the news that Brett Anderson and co had decided to have another crack at leading me down a path full of sexually ambiguous drug abusers living sordid lives on council estates.
Suede burst on to the scene in 1992 and made a hell of an impact on a 15-year-old lad still mourning the fact he was born too late to see The Smiths.
I’d loved the Stone Roses and Happy Mondays but as baggy gave way to grunge and its attendant (Nirvana-aside) hairy dullness, there didn’t seem a lot that spoke to us bored suburbanites searching for songs to save our lives.
Suede filled the gap admirably, mixing up classic English songwriters like Morrissey, Bowie and the Pet Shop Boys, with a glorious glam racket that sounded thrillingly glamorous when compared with the Stone Temple Pilots.
There was also something enticingly tribal about Suede. They were a Marmite band who could still shock with their foppish demeanour, drug-drenched lyrics and Anderson’s tendency to slap his behind with his microphone. The band were good looking and appealed to all the bookish and interesting girls that I wanted to appeal to so naturally I was rather drawn in.
Like all good bands, Suede created their own little self-made world that those on the inside defended to the hilt and those on the outside simply didn’t get.
Anderson’s vision of Britain was dark and depressed full of concrete car parks, dark underpasses and glue sniffing truants. Again, like all good bands, they expanded my world to take in literature and films: I’m sure my first taste of director Mike Leigh’s films or JG Ballard’s novels was through an Anderson recommendation.
Live, Suede were a force and the early reviews on the album have been positive which leaves me thinking: If Suede can relive past glories why shouldn’t I be able to? Now, about that breakfast.
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