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Re: Night Thoughts promotion/reviews

Posted: 26 Jan 2016, 21:09
by sunshine
25th January 2016
Suede - 'Night Thoughts' Review
Britpop survivors Suede are back - again = sounding bolder, braver and better than they have in 20 years
Ben Hewitt,
4 / 5
Suedes' 2013 comeback album 'Bloodsports' triumphed because it was essentially designed as an Idiot's Guide To Suede. Released 10 years after their initial split, it removed the dirt from their soiled legacy while introducing them to a new generation, taking their trademarks - giant choruses, trashy melodrama - and distilling them into 10 solid, Suede-as-Suede-can-be songs.
As a soft reboot, it worked perfectly - and while some bands come unstuck wondering where to go next, tricky follow-ups are a Suede speciality. In 1994, they followed their self-titled debut with the staggeringly ambitious 'Dog Man Star', which turned its back on Britpop's bonhomie and their own tried-and-tested formula in favour of something grander. 'Night Thoughts' repeats that same trick: it snubs consolidation and takes a daring, defiant leap into the unknown.
It's not a similar sound or lyrical sentiment that ties the two albums together, though - it's a shared adventurous spirit. 'Dog Man Star' was fuelled by frontman Brett Anderson imbibing oodles of hallucinogenic drugs, intent on grandiose self-destruction. Now he's terrified by things beyond his control, worried that everything might fall apart, panicked that life is being wasted. 'No Tomorrow' chronicles his father's struggle with depression, while the 'Coming Up'-like squall of 'I Don't Know How To Reach You' and taut, scuzzy guitar of 'What I', Trying To Tell You' are the first two tracks in a triptych obsessed with miscommunication and frayed relationships. 'I Can't Give Her What She Wants' completes the set by turning things darker still, Anderson tightening his "fingers round her perfumed throat" as delicate strings swell dangerously.
'Outsiders' and 'Like Kids' were the first two tracks to be released from the album, with crunching guitars and nods to outcasts finding solace among squalor. They're certainly the most typical Suede songs here but they turn out to be red herrings, outnumbered by stranger beasts - from the menacing thrum of 'When You Are Young' to the trembling terror of 'Tightrope'.
Most impressive is 'Pale Snow', built around twinkling piano and eerie electronics reminiscent of classic B-side 'Europe Is Our Playground'. "It never works out for me," Anderson sings softly over otherworldly drops of noise.
This time, however, it's worked out better than anyone could have hoped for. This time, Suede sound bolder, brave and better than they have in over 20 years.
http://www.nme.com/reviews/suede/16380

Re: Night Thoughts promotion/reviews

Posted: 26 Jan 2016, 21:09
by sunshine
January 25, 2016
Suede
★★★★
Night Thoughts
Warner Bros / Suede Ltd. | CD DL LP
By Victoria Segal
IT’S A VERY Suede title. Twenty years ago, when the band were in their nylon-shirted pomp, Night Thoughts would have immediately implied filthy assignations behind lock-ups or down stairwells, red lightbulbs flickering behind suburban nets, furtive pre-dawn phone calls to all the wrong people.
Now, however, five years into Suede’s admirably strong and graceful comeback, the title is more suggestive of 3am non-stop neurotic cabaret, or as singer Brett Anderson puts it, “those times when you are lying in bed wondering what the fuck you’re supposed to be doing, that waking nightmare of real life.”
After their 11-year recording break, 2013’s Bloodsports was hardly shy and tentative, but Anderson describes it as a “neat little rock record”, and compared with this follow-up, it is. Night Thoughts is the work of a band at full beam, once again stretching out and reminding themselves of what they can do. Suede always had ambitions beyond shaking their bits to the hits, despite their abundant talents in that area.
The febrile pop of Animal Nitrate or The Drowners might have issued their first irresistible demands for attention, but the mood and pacing of their 1993 debut album was warped by the theatrical balladry of Pantomime Horse and She’s Not Dead. Their hunt for a big, transcendent kind of beauty expanded with 1994’s Dog Man Star, complete with its closing suite of tympani-flashing ballads, and that’s the attitude reactivated here. “Too scared to look down through my fingers,” sings Anderson on the shuddering Tightrope, Richard Oakes’s guitar treacherously shiny beneath him, but this is a band carrying off a balancing act between their past and present in the grandest style.
Recorded with long-time associate Ed Buller and a full string section in Belgium and London, Suede’s seventh album was partly inspired by Frank Sinatra’s nocturnal sorrows on In The Wee Small Hours. The band wanted their new mood indigo to sound coherent, conceptual, complete – a “bloody-minded” reaction to the modern way of consuming music. Underlining this is the dark accompanying film by Roger Sargent, which tells a story, song by song, of love, loss and violence. There’s a man, a woman, a child, the sea, impending doom: it fits beautifully. Yet even without the unifying visuals, Night Thoughts stands its ground.
Think of all their wild ones, beautiful ones, barely over 21s, and it’s obvious that youth has always been important to Suede. The role of Bostik-hungry waifs, jeered at by the straight world for their pretty hair and charity-shop shirts, isn’t really open to them any longer. Anderson’s now a father. He’s probably attended a soft play centre recently.
No longer so young, nor so gone, Suede find themselves operating in a very grown-up present. If the adolescent dream of adulthood is unlimited freedom and crazed transgression – ideas to which the singer was particularly committed in the ’90s – these songs face the less glamorous realities of getting older: sharpened nostalgia, increased fear, heightened awareness of time, a new understanding of your place in the world, and the place of those around you.
And so family hangs heavy over Night Thoughts. What I’m Trying To Tell You, with its chilly late-Abba chug, sounds almost comically self-deprecating thanks to its snappy rhyming – but it’s a message for Anderson’s young son, the singer listing his own faults as a kind of preemptive plea for compassion. “I don’t know the meaning of much/I never make the best impressions/And I don’t have the means of expression/To explain my obsessions,” he sings. I Don’t Know How To Reach You, meanwhile, comes from the perspective of a father losing his grip on his growing son – Slipping Through My Fingers, Haywards Heath edition.
There’s a similar mirroring with the martial orchestrations and disturbing childhood terrors of When You Are Young, reprised as When You Were Young, the shift in tense emphasising different perspectives, flying time. Yet their real trick, and it’s a great one, is to apply the blazing commitment of their earlier work to these songs so they never feel drearily “mature”. It’s easiest on a track such as Like Kids, its euphoric, rabble-rousing chorus as romantic as New Generation, or the gothic guitars and us-them theatrics of Outsiders. No Tomorrow, though, starting out like Sylvia by Focus, deals with the heavy subject of the depression suffered by Anderson’s father with real fire. Anderson has a famously idiosyncratic lyrical lexicon, which, for all its brilliant flashes, can let him down. Here, though, he’s at his best: “Too long have I sat outside and smoked/I know all the neighbours’ cars.”
There are undoubted, unmistakable resonances with Dog Man Star. A kids’ choir na-na-naing on No Tomorrow recalls the urchin chorus at the end of We Are The Pigs. Closing track The Fur And The Feathers is a full-hearted, bouquet-strewn ballad about “the thrill of the chase” that echoes the over-the-top emotion-spill of Still Life. Yet Night Thoughts never feels like the work of a band chasing past glories.
In fact, Anderson tells MOJO that Suede Mark II’s impetus comes from their “Stalinesque” desire to erase their shaky final years, and say “the last two Suede records weren’t as good as they should have been… these were the kind of records we should have been making.” They might not be able to change the past, but Night Thoughts is the work of a band very much at home in the here and now, all the while looking forward. Still something else, still something wonderful.
http://www.mojo4music.com/22962/suede-night-thoughts/

Re: Night Thoughts promotion/reviews

Posted: 27 Jan 2016, 20:50
by sunshine
27 January 2016
Suede: Night Thoughts
Chris Gerard
When veteran British rockers Suede released their fifth album A New Morning in September 2002, it should have been obvious to anybody paying attention that the end was in sight. A New Morning is a mess that was savaged by critics and largely derided by those fans who didn’t simply ignore it. Even frontman Brett Anderson has disparaged the album. Perhaps it was fate. A New Morning might have been salvaged had the band made better choices about what material made the album—some of the best tracks were relegated to b-side status. They also chose the wrong lead single. “Positivity” is a strong but mellowish track that might have worked as a third or fourth single, but by far the most commercial option to give the album its much-needed initial boost is the melodic rocker “Obsessions”, a song much more in line with Suede’s prior hits. Alas, the album was a catastrophic failure, and the band fractured shortly thereafter. They may have done so anyway, given internal conflicts, a long history of drug abuse, and the changing landscape of the music industry, but it was the failure of A New Morning that slammed the stake through Suede’s melancholy heart. Brett Anderson posted on the Suede website, “There has been speculation about record sales and chart positions, but the bottom line is I need to do whatever it takes to get my demon back.”
That demon was evidently tricky to ensnare, as it took Anderson seven years to finally chase it down. In 2010 Suede returned to the stage, supposedly for a one-time charity gig at the Royal Albert Hall in London. There was cause for excitement, yet trepidation. Years had passed, and Suede seemed inescapably linked to the ‘90s. Would this be a tired reunion where they dutifully trot out the old hits with half the firepower of their heyday like so many other bands have done? No, not Suede. The enthusiastically received show prompted the band to perform a long string of dates throughout 2010 and 2011, until they finally hit the studio and emerged in 2013 with their first album in a decade, Bloodsports. The album was (mostly) showered with praise by fans and critics alike, and it launched another successful tour. Two decades since their brilliant debut, Suede was once again relevant.
Any lingering doubts about the band’s continued viability should be erased by their second post-hiatus effort, Night Thoughts. Suede has always brought a sense of dark theatricality to their work, but with Night Thoughts they amp those impulses to a new level of grandeur. With a full string section bolstering their brooding, cinematic rock, Suede has never sounded so epic and massive. Night Thoughts is easily the band’s finest album since 1996’s Coming Up, and one could make a strong argument it comes close to their 1994 masterpiece Dog Man Star. Very close.
This is, indeed, music for night thoughts. The album begins with a shadowy swirl of strings, like a midnight wind shearing over black waters. The orchestral flourishes billow skyward until a sudden descending shriek like a razor wire slide flares with electric guitar, followed by a pounding drumbeat and Brett Anderson’s carefully mannered and theatrical voice, as potent as ever. “When You Are Young” alternates between the stately guitar-rock of the verses, somewhat reminiscent of “We Are the Pigs”, and sighing suspensions during which Anderson effortlessly ascends to his agile falsetto. A few seconds of strings exhale, and we’re suddenly hurled into the ominous guitar intro for the raucous anthem “Outsiders”. It’s one of those Suede essentials with a sweeping chorus and inherent drama and tension. Anderson’s voice soars above Richard Oakes’ portentous layers of guitar. “Outsiders” churns along quickly and before you know it, we’re right into “No Tomorrow”, another searing rocker with a glam strut reminiscent of the band’s classic debut mixed adroitly with the melodic sensibilities of the post-punk/new wave era.
“Pale Snow” begins with icy strings and a haunting piano straight from a horror film score, before an echoey guitar pattern emerges and Anderson follows with his feverishly intense vocals. A massive layer of synthesizers merges with the strings as the song approaches its climactic ending, and Anderson once again proves he has the gravitas and emotional depth to pull off a vocal strong enough to stand up to the majestic sonic universe his bandmates assemble around him. The songs all fade into one another like one long complete work, and this approach works wonderfully with the strings acting as gauzy connective tissue. “I Don’t Know How to Reach You” begins as a mid-tempo rocker until the chorus kicks in a savage rock ‘n’ roll fury with one of those instantly memorable melodic hooks we are so used to hearing from Suede. It rambles on for over six minutes but it rocks so hard it never outstays its welcome. “I Don’t Know How to Reach You” is destined to be a behemoth in concert.
“Tightrope” is a swooning rock ballad with a deftly woven ribbon of strings coursing through its midst. Anderson delivers a wrenchingly dramatic vocal on a song that will go down in history as one of Suede’s most powerful. The atmosphere remains tense on the long string and synth prelude to the lovelorn “Learn to Be”—when Anderson leaps into his falsetto near the end, it’s chill-inducingly beautiful.
“Little Kids” is Suede back in familiar hard-rocking territory, big riffs, bigger choruses and sinuous melodies. This is Suede in arena-rock mode, with drummer Simon Gilbert propelling the band like a powerhouse. “I Can’t Give Her What She Wants” is a somber emotional ballad, starkly arranged, with acoustic guitar over glimmering synthesizer and the sound of wind drifting in and out. The song ends with a heated finalé worthy of the most extravagant Broadway psycho-dramas.
After a short reprise of the song’s opening track, in which the evocative strings glaze over ragged electric guitars like ocean waves lapping on a beach of stones, comes “The Fur & The Feathers”, Night Thought’s epic closer. It begins with Anderson reminiscing over terse piano and gliding strings. Then at the 1:04 mark, a bombastic blast of molten rock shatters the solemnity. Then another quiet verse follows the earlier pattern, before the hammering drums and guitars burst forward again and from that point forward the track is the musical equivalent of a mighty battle scene to close an epic film, with the hero at his most earnest and his mystical would-be bride at her most lovelorn. The piece closes with slightly over a minute of full-throttle cinematic rock, Anderson’s wordlessly wailing like a specter until it fades to black. “The Fur & The Feathers” is a final act worthy of the tensely personal romantic turmoil that provides Night Thoughts with its emotional engine.
Produced by Ed Buller, who’s worked with the band on all but their two most uneven offerings (1999’s Head Music and A New Morning), Night Thoughts has all the elements that make Suede one of the most important bands of the last 25 years—ambitious cinematic grandeur, Brett Anderson’s uniquely expressive vocals, and a superb group of musicians who create jagged and melancholy rock on which the lofty string arrangements rest. Sometimes it takes years to fully appreciate an album or understand where it stands in context of the artist’s catalog. Night Thoughts grabs hold immediately and only tightens its grip with each listen. Suede doesn’t get enough credit. They released three of the most vital rock albums of the ‘90s, and then returned after a long absence with a compelling comeback. Now they’re off into another level entirely. Suede’s second act is proving to be very nearly as electrifying as its first.
Night Thoughts

Rating: 8/10

http://www.popmatters.com/review/suede-night-thoughts/

Re: Night Thoughts promotion/reviews

Posted: 27 Jan 2016, 20:53
by sunshine
Jan 27, 2016
Growing up with class
Eddino Abdul Hadi
GLAM ROCK/ART ROCK
NIGHT THOUGHTS - Suede
4/5 stars
Britpop stalwart Suede's latest album, Night Thoughts, paints rich tales of doomed romantics and the fear of losing loved ones
Aptly, their seventh album - their second since reuniting in 2010 - perfectly captures the melodrama of dealing with the passing of time. They have come some way since their pointed, bittersweet anthems for young urban misfits expressed in uplifting rock tunes and grandiose ballads. While there are clearly great songs here - such as the uplifting high of Outsiders and the sentimentality of Tightrope - Night Thoughts, a concept album composed to accompany a short film, is a cohesive collection meant to be savoured in its entirety. Anderson and company paint rich tales of doomed romantics and the fear of losing loved ones that unfold throughout the dozen tunes, accompanied by the band's symphonic, reverb-laden sounds.
In the arena-rock build-up of album opener When You Are Young, there is longing for simpler times, when "there is nothing right and nothing wrong" and the protagonists in the songs can "play in the maze, till your mother she calls you away".
The theme comes full circle 10 songs later in the reprise, When You Were Young, revisiting the same stories in the past tense. Anderson said in an interview that he was inspired by his experiences in raising his children while working on the new songs, and Outsiders and Like Kids, too, hark back to the giddiness of youth. All the while, the moody textures of minor chord progression and melancholic melodies soundtrack the yearning to salvage dissipating relationships. "I bought you those pretty things, but you gave them back," Anderson narrates on I Don't Know How To Reach You, a reflection that continues on What I'm Trying To Tell You and I Can't Give Her What She Wants.
Then comes perky rocker No Tomorrow ("Fight the sorrow/Come, there's no tomorrow"), which displays a conscious effort to not let the mundaneness of everyday life get one down. Coming out barely two weeks after British music icon David Bowie's death, Night Thoughts shows how much Suede was influenced by the Thin White Duke. Like most of their releases since their 1993 debut, Bowie's touch is there in the songs' glam-rock aural aesthetics and penchant for romanticising the ones who live on the fringes of society. This is most prominent on the tracks The Fur And The Feathers ("We are thrown together/And who knows what we'll become/The fur and the feathers, the fox and the geese") and Outsiders ("Thrown like two winter roses into a broken vase/They're playing the hand they play"). Still, Night Thoughts plays on the strength of Suede's legacy - the catchy pop of 1996's Coming Up and layered grandeur of 1994's Dog Man Star.
It is the sound of a band growing up with class.
http://www.straitstimes.com/lifestyle/e ... with-class

Re: Night Thoughts promotion/reviews

Posted: 28 Jan 2016, 21:28
by sunshine
25 ENE 2016
Suede, los supervivientes del 'britpop'
Entrevistamos a Brett Anderson, líder de una banda que ha sido capaz de hacer lo mejor y lo peor de la escena musical británica
Xavi Sancho
"Me sucede como a Dorothy Parker", anuncia Brett Anderson a través del teléfono en lo que puede considerarse lo más prometedor que ha propuesto el líder de la banda londinense Suede desde 1992, cuando lanzó su primer single, The drowners. "Ella decía que odiaba escribir, pero que le encantaba la idea de haber escrito. Con las grabaciones me pasa lo mismo: son dolorosas, casi insoportables. Durante esos periodos odio a todos los miembros de la banda, me odio a mí, odio hasta al cartero. Pero luego escucho los álbumes y me encanta haberlos hecho".
Al final, lo que cuenta Anderson no es tan brillante como su mejor disco (Dog man star), ni tan sonrojante como esa aberración llamada Head music, el álbum que en 1999 parecía confirmarles como la banda de britpop de final más tragicómico. De hecho, las palabras de Anderson si fueran una cosa, serían (hola, Raffaella) su nuevo disco, Night thoughts: ligeramente sorprendente, bastante familiar, a ratos brillante y siempre digno.
Presentado en un apoteósico concierto el pasado noviembre en Londres, el álbum sigue la línea de su predecesor, Bloodsports: un disco de Suede que logra el hito de entregar media docena de canciones que, cuando sean interpretadas entre sus clásicos, no provocarán estampidas hacia el baño o la barra. "Hemos logrado que, de vez en cuando, alguien te diga que le gustó el concierto pero que hubiese preferido más temas nuevos", informa ufano Anderson, quien formó a principios de los noventa uno de esos grupos que parecía imposible que envejeciera con dignidad y que, cruzada la segunda década del siglo XXI, resulta creíble incluso cuando habla de los problemas de adolescentes desde el punto de vista de un adolescente. "El secreto es el sentido del humor", afirma el vocalista, destacando uno de los pocos aspectos por los que jamás será recordado su grupo. Se lo recordamos. Se ríe. "Es que, de verdad, estos tipos son muy graciosos, y la clave para la longevidad de una banda es tener en ella al menos a dos que amenicen las esperas en los aeropuertos. En Suede hay tres que podrían haber ganado más dinero con la comedia que con el pop. Eso sí, concedo que jamás hemos usado el humor en nuestra música. No hay nada que odie más que la ironía en el pop. Puedes ser gracioso en lo que quieras menos en el pop".
Aparte de esta férrea creencia, la falta de humor en su música también tiene mucho que ver con cómo afronta Anderson su obra. "Cada cosa que hago es para superarme, y es una carrera contra mí mismo que jamás podré ganar. ¿Crees que voy a poder hacer otro disco como Dog man star? Claro que no, sería un imbécil si lo dijera. Eso no quita que sea suficientemente imbécil como para seguir intentándolo", informa con irónica sinceridad. La misma que utiliza al referirse al periodo más oscuro de la banda, la que medió entre su mejor disco (el mencionado Dog man star) y el más comercial (Coming up). Fue entonces cuando dejó la banda Bernard Butler, verdadero ideólogo de Suede para aquellos que también piensan que Johnny Marr era más importante que Morrissey en The Smiths.
"Siento mucho cómo se fue Bernard del grupo. Me arrepiento de muchas cosas porque ya soy suficientemente mayor como para hacerlo sin vergüenza. Lo bueno es que ya he tenido ocasión de hablar con él de lo que pasó. De hecho, he tenido tiempo de hablar de cualquier cosa". Menos de fútbol o política, le recordamos. "El fútbol es para el humor, y ya sabes que de eso no escribo, y la política debe ser cerebral, mientras que el pop es emocional. Solo canciones como North country blues de Dylan logran ser políticas, cerebrales y emocionales a la vez. Yo eso no lo sé hacer”.
• Night thoughts ya está disponible.
http://elpais.com/elpais/2016/01/25/ten ... 29832.html

Re: Night Thoughts promotion/reviews

Posted: 28 Jan 2016, 21:29
by sunshine
27 · 01 · 2016
Wee Small Hours: Suede Interviewed
It's an oft-observed phenomenon, but true: life, in the internet age, has sped up. And nowhere is this more nakedly evident than in music. Songs aren't heard, they're aggregated, videos aren't absorbed, they're simply premiered and then filed away. With their new record, though, Suede are sticking to their guns – their foot isn't on the accelerator, it's on the brake.
“There's lots of documentation that people are much more superficial with their consumption,” Brett Anderson tells me. “They'll flit from thing to thing, they'll lose their attention span. There's a tendency that, because this is happening in the mainstream, for record companies to suggest it's happening everywhere, and you should do things in a certain way and you should tailor the way that you work to suit the Zeitgeist. And I think that's nonsense.”
“There's whole armies of people out there that want depth in their work, they want to commit to their music and to the art that they consume,” he insists. “They don't want a flippant, superficial experience, they want something with a little bit of depth to it. It's just that, real. It's just bloody-mindedness to say, well, we're going to make a record that doesn't sit neatly with that Zeitgeist. I've no interest in chasing the Zeitgeist, it doesn't interest me at all. I find it... fairly futile to be honest. I'd rather oppose it than go with it.”
Accurately enough, new album 'Night Thoughts' could scarcely be accused of chasing the Zeitgeist. It's an ambitious piece, one that by its very design forces the listener to consume the record in its entirety. Songs lean into one another, like a Roman arch where each block supports the other, the most humble and ornate sharing a common purpose.
It's a studio record, born from touring. Taking comeback album 'Bloodsports' out on the road, Suede found a virile, visceral energy – one they took straight into the studio. The singer explains: “There's something to be said for a band that have been touring for a while – it's a completely different feeling to a band that haven't toured for a while. The way they play together, the energy.”
With old cohort Ed Buller on board as producer, the band pitched up in Brussels, exploring one of Europe's most beautiful cities while letting their minds wander. “It's residential, but most residential places you read about are in the countryside – and Suede don't really work in the countryside. We come out in hives, immediately,” laughs bassist Mat Osman. “We basically went in and recorded a whole album. A whole album's worth of material, just us noodling around. Not thinking about songs, not thinking about structures and stuff. Almost treating it like a soundtrack, or something.”
The aim, he insists, was to be as un-Suede as possible. “We wanted to just try and do something that is completely different from what we normally do, which is just sitting in a room with acoustic guitars, concocting songs. There's lots of stuff on the record that can only really come about from that kind of studio-as-an-instrument, kind of thing. 'Pale Snow', which is two songs shunted together, and doesn't repeat. It doesn't have any hooks, or things like that. It just meanders. It's the kind of thing that you would never sit down and write, in your Donovan-style acoustic guitar musing.”
Brett, meanwhile, high-tailed it back to London. The band sent across regular updates, sound files for the singer to explore. Lyrically, 'Night Thoughts' has a remarkable unity – as, indeed, do all aspects of the record – so it comes as no small surprise to learn that, throughout, Brett Anderson worked on instinct, allowing ideas to coalesce randomly, almost naturally.
“I didn't sit down and think: oh, I'm going to write a song about parenthood and loss and ageing and decay,” he insists. “I was writing about family, I suppose, in a broad term, and fear of loss. The fear of being overwhelmed by these things.”
“It's not until half way through that you realise what it is that you're doing,” the singer asserts. “Artists sometimes make out that they're more in control than they are. We're certainly not. We kind of go with these things, and I find them out myself. I'm quite instinctive about it. This sounds funny because writing is cerebral, but when you're writing songs, it's not like that for me. It's much more like a bunch of feelings, and then you rationalise it and tie it all together and try to make sense of it afterwards, I think.”
Re-grouping in West London, Suede soon developed a clear idea of where the album would head. “We knew right from the start that we wanted... I guess more of a mood piece, where the tracks flowed into each other,” Mat explains. “There's a certain kind of feeling about it, y'know. The music was – naturally, I think – quite dark, and it has that late at night feeling. It's quite slow. And all the changes that are going on in Brett's life, those two things came together.”
There's a nocturnal, somnambulist atmosphere rippling through 'Night Thoughts'. From its explicit evocation in the title down to the cool, glistening keys of Neil Codling, the record seems to dwell in the un-named space that exists between too late and too early. “It's just something that was happening in my life,” sighs Brett. “I was waking up at these annoying times! And sitting there and being overwhelmed by life. Thinking, oh, what's going on here? Everyone has those moments. I wanted to reflect it in the sleeve, as well. I had this constant image in my head of a really small, vulnerable character in this big frame, in a really big setting. The small figure lying in the sea. This metaphor for being overwhelmed by life.”
Even at its grandest, most flamboyantly beautiful, there are aspects of 'Night Thoughts' that remain tied, anchored to a kitchen sink sense of realism. At one moment towards the end of the album, the voice of an elderly lady can be heard – seemingly a fellow customer in Brett's local cafe. “We used a lot of found sounds, lots of the voices you can hear – some of them are my kids, some of them are real conversations that I've had,” the singer explains. “There's an old lady towards the end of the album and that's a real conversation that I had with this charming old lady in a cafe. Just talking about life and all of these big questions, and she was amazing – I just thought she was great. And unbeknown to her I recorded it and used it on the record! Things like that. I quite like that, the way it ties in. I wanted it to feel quite human.”
It's a heartening image – and one quite wonderfully tied to Suede's own iconography – to envision one of British music's great survivors sitting down with an old lady for a cup of tea. Despite all of its changes, I offer, London is still London. “It's always changing,” he replied. “That's what makes it itself. I still find it very inspiring, London. I wrote a line once: “all the love and poison of London.” And that still resonates with me – there's something still equally beautiful and equally poisonous about it. But I think that's true of any great city. It's just a huge maelstrom of life, and London is still very much like that, to me.”
'Night Thoughts' is a deeply London record, a deeply British record. The album was aired at the end of 2015 with a sensational show at the Roundhouse, with the band playing behind a sheet while a film shot by Roger Sargent was screened in front. It's a curiously perverse move in every sense – the band hidden while the music is heard for the first time, the themes of the music interpreted in a radically new way while still unknown to most fans.
Brett explains: “I called Roger up – because I loved what he did with the Fat White Family, actually. I thought it was an amazing video. I explained the themes of the record, there's a lot about family on there, fear of loss, growing old and looking back at youth, and all these sorts of things. They resonated with him because he was going through family loss at the time, and he really wanted to express himself. It's not supposed to be a slavish reflection of the narrative, it's almost supposed to be someone else's interpretations of the themes.”
In a way, it's an entirely appropriate decision. Suede want the listener to switch off, to slow down, and to soak up their music. “I love that feeling,” says, Brett, “when you get in the cinema, where you go to watch a film, and the lights go down, and you turn your phone off, and you're committed to two hours of your life where you're not able to check your emails, or go and make a cup of tea. I don't know – there's something nice about committing to these things, especially if it's worthwhile. It takes you on a journey. We wanted that for the album, really.”
Mat Osman is in clear agreement. “I just feel like there's a vast number of people who want something with a bit more substance that they can lose themselves in,” he argues. “And it's not just my generation, looking on the records that we were listening to growing up and thought were great. I find it in everyone. People who love music... they want that feeling you get in the cinema. I love that feeling of going to the cinema and the lights go down, and 500 of us lose ourselves for three hours. Everyone's committing to it. I love it, it's great. And I don't think it's as strange and un-zietgeisty an idea as we're being told.”
At one point in our conversation Brett dwells on the band's refusal to bow to the prevailing norms. Stubborn-ness, I suggest, is a large part of what defines Suede, of the palette they draw from. “It hasn't always been to our advantage, to be honest,” he chuckles. “It defines us, to a certain extent. We've always... it sounds a little clichéd, done things for our own reasons. But I feel like we have. It feels like we've trodden our own path through all this.”
“The mainstream has moved around us,” insists. “Sometimes we've been a long way from the mainstream, and sometimes the mainstream has collided with us and veered off again. We'll just carry on cutting our way through the undergrowth with our machete, doing what we do. And I like that.”
Suede exist in a curiously autonomous realm – their reformation charging old fans, those inspiring live shows winning legions of new admirers, people unaware of their history. Caught between those two realms, 'Night Thoughts' embraces both – it's a record that could only be made by a band resolutely aware of their past, yet brave enough to forget it.
http://clashmusic.com/features/wee-smal ... nterviewed

Re: Night Thoughts promotion/reviews

Posted: 04 Feb 2016, 23:19
by sunshine
04 febrero, 2016
MondoSonoro Entrevistas
SUEDE: “Es muy peligroso intentar competir con tus discos antiguos”
Texto: Raúl Julián | Fotos: Steve Gullick |
Casi tres años después de “Bloodsports” (Sony, 13), Suede certifican la solidez de su regreso con un disco tan inspirado y convincente como “Night Thoughts” (Warner, 16). Un álbum donde las peculiaridades del grupo reaparecen para brillar ambiciosas y desterrar definitivamente escepticismos.
Brett Anderson responde a la llamada mientra apura algo de comida (no logro decidir si se trata de cereales, yogur, o directamente chupa un caramelo), con un interés y una educación exquisita que mantendrá a lo largo de veinte minutos de conversación telefónica. El motivo del contacto es la inminente publicación de “Night Thoughts” (Warner, 16), séptimo disco de estudio de Suede y segundo movimiento dentro de la etapa más reciente de los londinenses.
En torno a esta hipotética fase de madurez -bien entendida y capaz de mantener intacto el pleno el sentido del grupo- tuvo lugar la entrevista con el carismático vocalista, sin renunciar a echar la vista atrás para tratar temas como el apogeo del Britpop en los 90 o su actual relación con Bernard Butler. Una charla casualmente acontecida sólo dos días antes de que el mundo se estremeciese ante el fallecimiento de David Bowie, principal influencia del grupo británico.
Creo que “Night Thoughts” (Warner, 16) es, en su mayor parte, un disco más dramático, más teatral y también más glam y épico que “Bloodsports” (Sony, 13) ¿Estás de acuerdo? ¿Qué clase de disco queríais hacer y qué efecto esperas conseguir en el oyente con este álbum?
Sí, es más dramático, más extremo… más atmosférico que “Bloodsports” (Sony, 13). Quería que este disco fuese un viaje completo, mientras que “Bloodsports” (Sony, 13) fue algo más como… diez canciones independientes puestas en conjunto. Eran diez muy buenas canciones, pero independientes entre sí. Quería que “Night Thoughts” (Warner, 16) fuese una experiencia vivida desde el principio hasta el final, y ésa es la principal diferencia: creo que queríamos hacer un álbum completo y más coherente.
Con la excepción de alguna canción muy vertical como “No Tomorrow”, “Outsiders” y “Like Kids”, diría que el disco está más cerca del sugerente “Dog Man Star” (Nude, 94) que de la inmediatez de “Coming Up” (Nude, 96)…
Sí. Efectivamente “Dog Man Star” (Nude, 94) es un disco realmente bueno, así que imagino que intentamos hacer un disco con un sentido de la ambición similar al de “Dog Man Star” (Nude, 94). Nuestro segundo trabajo fue un disco muy ambicioso y queríamos que “Night Thoughts” (Warner, 16) también contase con ese tipo de ambición. Pero creo que es muy peligroso intentar competir con tus discos antiguos, porque aunque quedasen como destacados dentro de tu trayectoria, cuando los hiciste eras una persona diferente. Sería tonto si tratase de escribir una canción parecida a “The Wild Ones”, que es increíble. Hay un montón de canciones increíbles en “Dog Man Star” (Nude, 94)… Quiero competir a la hora de tener ahora el mismo nivel de ambición que antes. Los que en su momento fueron los dos últimos álbumes de Suede, “Head Music” (Nude, 99) y “A New Morning” (Columbia, 02), no eran tan buenos como los demás. Fueron discos menores. Nuestra motivación a la hora de hacer estos dos últimos discos,“Bloodsports” (Sony, 13) y “Night Toughts” (Warner, 16), fue la que realmente necesitábamos. Supongo que es un poco como reescribir la historia. Algo así como decir: “Aquí es donde deberíamos haber ido. Ésta es la dirección que deberíamos haber tomado. Éste debería haber sido el enfoque en lugar del que tomamos a finales de los 90”.
Este nuevo álbum viene acompañado de una película del director Roger Sargent ¿Cómo se complementan ambas obras? ¿Cuál es el concepto que presenta este doble lanzamiento y cómo surgió la posibilidad del proyecto conjunto?
Cuando terminamos el disco nos dimos cuenta de que habíamos hecho un álbum que parecía una pieza completa y muy compacta… algo para escuchar desde el principio hasta el final. Y eso fue muy importante para nosotros: ver como las canciones se fusionaban entre sí dando lugar a una experiencia completa. Cuando llegó el momento de hacer vídeos (que es una cosa inevitable que sucede cuando terminas un disco), pensamos que, en lugar de eso y en lugar de hacer lo habitual separando las canciones y rodando películas individuales para ellas, podíamos hacer una única película que cubriese todo el álbum. Así reforzábamos esa idea de que el álbum es una pieza completa y apoyábamos el sentido de compromiso que el público necesita tener para conectar con el disco. Por eso le pedimos a Roger que hiciese una película. Y sí… estoy bastante contento con el resultado. Es bastante interesante: la película parte de los mismos conceptos que el álbum pero no es una interpretación literal de los mismos.
Es un disco con una orquestación muy rica y trabajada ¿Cómo fue el proceso compositivo? ¿Fue complicado dar con la instrumentación necesaria que amparase la fuerza latente en las canciones?
Creo que es mucho más ambicioso como disco en sí que la propia instrumentación por separado. De hecho, la composición de la canción es lo más ambicioso. No pretendíamos que fuesen canciones al uso cuando las escribíamos. Queríamos contar con una especie de fases enlazadas y vinculadas con otras fases precisamente a través de las diferentes canciones, más que con canciones propiamente dichas. Es un enfoque muy interesante, y también lo es la experimentación que conlleva esa idea. Hay un montón de atmósferas y un montón de sonidos diseñados por Neil (Se refiere a Neil Codling, teclista, guitarrista y co-compositor, que se incorporó al grupo en el tercer disco de la banda). Él diseñó muchas de las formas que suenan en el disco, y en mi opinión hizo un trabajo realmente increíble. Es un enfoque diferente a la hora de hacer un disco: un montón de fases entrelazadas a través de las diferentes canciones, y donde esas etapas son tan importantes como las propias canciones en sí. Creo que, definitivamente, es un enfoque interesante.
En “Night Thoughts” (Warner, 16) habéis vuelto a trabajar una vez más con Ed Buller ¿Por qué lo escogisteis como productor del nuevo álbum?
Oh… es de la familia. Es como el miembro adicional de Suede (Risas). Es un tipo interesante, y todos nuestros mejores discos los hemos hecho con Ed –Ed Buller ha ejercido como productor en “Suede” (Nude, 93), “Dog Man Star” (Nude, 94), “Coming Up” (Nude, 96), “Bloodsports” (Sony, 13) y ahora “Night Thoughts” (Warner, 16)– y de alguna manera y a pesar del tipo de viaje, el desenlace siempre es positivo. A veces es duro trabajar con él, luchar con él, y ehhhhhh… bueno, es bastante duro y tormentoso trabajar con él. Se enfadada con nosotros y nosotros con él, pero nos aseguramos de que eso quedé atrás al final del día para poder continuar trabajando al día siguiente. En ese sentido es un poco como si fuese un familiar: estamos en condiciones de discutir entre nosotros y luego perdonarnos los unos a los otros. Si estuviésemos discutiendo con alguien al que no conocemos tan bien sería más perjudicial para la relación, pero con él lo hacemos unas veinte veces al año. Empezamos a trabajar con él con nuestro primer álbum en 1992, y de eso hace veinticuatro años. Es mucho tiempo y hay muchas historias detrás… Es como nuestro padre o nuestro hermano: confiamos mucho en él y sé que estará ahí en cualquier momento. Es increíble y siempre saca lo mejor de la banda.
Lo que está claro es que éste es un disco con la marca de Suede: contiene guitarras descriptivas, estribillos irresistibles, canciones emocionantes… ¿Qué elementos debe contener una canción para que pase a formar parte del repertorio de Suede?
¿Qué elementos? Hummmm… (Duda y emplea unos segundos en pensar la respuesta). Con Suede hay un montón de posibilidades. Obviamente en el tipo de canciones rocosas que hacemos, los contrastes entre la voz y la guitarra son muy importantes. Y luego están las canciones más emocionales y atmosféricas. Creo que todas cuentan con un sentido del drama o albergan una sensación de tensión en ellas… Y a veces tienen un aire más facilón, como en “She’s In Fashion” y temas de ese tipo, pero muchos de los fans de Suede dirían que ésa realmente no era una canción de Suede… (Risas).
En el pasado conceptos como la nocturnidad, la juventud, las relaciones, las drogas, el cine o la ciudad de Londres inspiraron vuestras canciones ¿Qué es lo que te motiva a la hora de escribir ahora? ¿Dónde encuentras la inspiración en la actualidad?
¿Qué es lo que me inspira a la hora de escribir canciones ahora? La creencia de que todavía no he escrito mi mejor canción. La creencia de que todavía no hemos hecho nuestro mejor disco. Ese tipo de búsqueda… la competencia con uno mismo. Eso es lo que me inspira en la actualidad. Es lo más motivante. Por otro lado, creo que lo que impulsó las letras en este disco fue el hecho de escribir sobre la familia y las relaciones familiares. Es de lo que van muchos de los álbumes, pero éste es el primer disco que he escrito desde que me convertí en padre, y buena parte del disco trata sobre el miedo inherente al hecho de ser padre… es algo que uso como motor en las canciones. Pienso que comienzas a ser padre de manera automática, cuando te valoras a ti mismo como niño y echas un vistazo a tu propia infancia. Creo que muchas de las canciones hablan de esas cosas, aquí hay un montón de temas acerca de la familia… tal vez no propiamente sobre los padres, pero canciones como “What I’m Trying To Tell You” o “I Don’t Know How To Reach You” tratan sobre las relaciones familiares.
Hace casi tres años que entrasteis al estudio para grabar nuevo material por primera vez tras la separación de Suede en 2003. Entonces había cierto escepticismo ante vuestro retorno, pero lo cierto es que regresasteis con un disco espléndido como “Bloodsports” (Sony, 13) ¿Qué significa este disco para ti? Tengo la impresión de que estáis realmente orgullosos de él…
Sí… Es muy importante, y fue muy, muy difícil de hacer: tuvimos que emplear el tiempo necesario para hacerlo bien y conseguir el equilibrio necesario. Estoy muy, muy orgulloso. Fue como reestablecer la fuerza creativa en Suede. Fue muy, muy difícil resucitar la banda para hacer nueva música después de muchos años sin hacerlo, encontrar el tono adecuado y lograr que sonase a la vez familiar y fresco, así que para nosotros “Bloodsports” (Sony, 13) es un gran disco. Son los cimientos previos a “Night Thoughts” (Warner, 16), y de algún modo hizo posible que ahora exista este nuevo disco. Así que sí, definitivamente para nosotros es un gran disco.
Han pasado más de veinte años desde el apogeo del Britpop, movimiento que significó un renacer del orgullo británico, especialmente como respuesta a la imperante escena norteamericana ¿Cómo ves ahora, con la madurez que da el paso del tiempo, ese patriotismo? ¿Consideras que aquellos años fueron positivos desde un punto de vista creativo?
No creo que fuera especialmente positivo desde un punto de vista creativo. Creo que lo único interesante del Britpop fue el rechazo al imperialismo de la cultura americana. Eso sí fue interesante… una interesante celebración del modo de vida británico, pero desde un punto de vista artístico no lo veo claro: hubo un montón de relleno. Cuando empezamos en 1992 cantábamos acerca de nosotros mismos y del mundo que veíamos a nuestro alrededor, y eso sucedió así por el mero hecho de vivir en Gran Bretaña. Si hubiésemos sido una banda japonesa hubiéramos cantado sobre Japón. Para nosotros no fue una celebración de la Gran Bretaña de ese modo en que se vendió, sino la documentación de la vida británica que teníamos delante por el mero hecho de ser ingleses y estar allí. No es la misma cosa. Eso es lo que pasó con bandas que aparecieron después de nosotros, y que en efecto celebraron explícitamente el orgullo de Gran Bretaña y todo aquello. Nosotros nunca lo hicimos… nunca celebramos aquello, y casi interpretábamos como algo negativo que nos metieran en aquel saco.
En cualquier caso y a nivel popular habéis quedado como los principales representantes del movimiento junto a Blur, Oasis y Pulp ¿Cómo te hace sentir eso? Parece que ahora todos los grupos de aquella época renegáis un poco del Britpop…
Yo creo que a nadie le gusta ser categorizado. No sé a las otras bandas, pero a nadie le gusta ser etiquetado. Es un poco extraño hablar de Britpop ahora que siento que ha pasado tanto tiempo desde aquello… (Risas). Tengo la sensación de que ahora estamos haciendo nueva música que ha trascendido absolutamente más allá del Britpop. Tal vez en nuestra raíces… pero no es como si todavía estuviésemos cantando canciones sobre ir a la White Chapel con un descarado acento cockney (se refiere a un popular acento londinense que imita mientras hace la frase) o algo así… Ha sido un camino largo, nuestras canciones siempre han ido sobre las emociones humanas más básicas: el miedo, el sexo, la soledad, la depresión y todas estas cosas. Los movimientos van y vienen, pero Suede lleva recorriendo el mismo camino y escribiendo canciones con el mismo estilo desde hace veinticinco años. Tal vez estemos haciendo lo mismo durante otros veinticinco años (Risas). No lo sé, no puedo predecirlo…
Debo reconocer que “Dog Man Star” (Nude, 94) es mi disco favorito de siempre (quiero decir: no es que sea mi disco favorito de Suede, sino que es mi disco favorito a secas), así que me gustaría preguntarte qué sensaciones tienes tú ahora al escuchar ese álbum… ¿Crees que es el mejor disco de Suede o el más representativo?
¡Wow! Gracias, oír eso es un privilegio. Y sí, creo que probablemente es el mejor álbum. En realidad las canciones de “Dog Man Star” (Nude, 94) son bastante sorprendentes. Hay algo mágico en ellas… en la forma en cómo se hizo el disco, la tensión que había detrás de todo aquello con Bernard a punto de dejar la banda (Se refiere a Bernard Butler, miembro fundador, guitarrista y co-compositor junto al propio Anderson de las canciones de los dos primeros discos del grupo, que abandonó la banda justo en aquel momento), el hecho de ser una banda muy exitosa tratando de hacer un segundo disco extraordinario… Creo que las condiciones en que hicimos “Dog Man Star” (Nude, 94) son de algún modo irrepetibles, y no creo que a muchas bandas actuales se les permitiese hacer un disco así ahora. No era exactamente un suicidio comercial, pero ciertamente tampoco era un álbum especialmente comercial como “Suede” (Nude, 93). Es mucho más interesante. Estoy jodidamente contento de haberlo hecho (Risas), pero si hubiéramos sido más prudentes y hubiésemos estado más interesados en nuestras cuentas bancarias probablemente nunca habría llegado, y creo que ahora seríamos un poco más arribistas de lo que en realidad nunca fuimos cuando hacíamos discos en los 90. Sencillamente nunca nos preocupamos acerca de lo que las radios iban a pensar de él… hicimos esa especie de obra sorprendente sin preocuparnos de lo que entonces era comercial. Es un disco único y muy excepcional, y ni siquiera quiero pensar en qué habría pasado si algo hubiera impedido que sucediese.
Precisamente creo que en los últimos años has recuperado la buena relación con Bernard Butler ¿Existe o ha existido alguna vez la posibilidad de que vuelva a trabajar con Suede? (Como parte de la banda o incluso como productor…) ¿Te ves colaborando con él de nuevo en el futuro?
Sinceramente, no lo sé. Afortunadamente Bernard Butler y yo somos amigos de nuevo, pero no creo que él quiera volver a estar en Suede nunca más. Está centrado en sus propios proyectos. Suede y Bernard Butler son dos cosas muy diferentes y desde entonces hasta ahora han pasado ya veinte años… (Risas). De algún modo es una pregunta extraña… ¿Por qué no produce a Suede? En mi opinión no podría funcionar. No funcionaría. Me gustaría pensar que Butler y yo trabajaremos juntos de nuevo en algún momento porque lo que teníamos era muy, muy especial, pero a veces no puedes recuperar eso. Son cosas que sucedieron justo en ése momento y tienes que saber cuándo es buena idea retomarlo de nuevo y cuándo, por el contrario, es mejor dejarlo estar. Y yo siento que ahora lo correcto es hacer música interesante con Suede, así que quiero continuar con lo que estamos haciendo y no buscar una conclusión a esa pregunta. Y quién sabe si un día podría llegar a trabajar con él de nuevo… no lo descartaría.
Los conciertos siempre ha sido uno de vuestros puntos fuertes. La última vez que os vi en directo fue en el festival madrileño DCODE hace sólo unos meses, y volvisteis a ofrecer una lección de profesionalidad y pasión ¿Cuál es el secreto para seguir manteniendo toda esa intensidad y fuerza sobre el escenario tras tantos años?
No lo sé (Risas). Sólo me preocupo de lo que hacemos… me encantan las canciones que escribimos (Risas). Significan algo para mí, golpean algo dentro de mí que personifico en el escenario. No sé qué es lo que pasa… ni si quiera puedo analizarlo, pero ahora mismo me encanta estar sobre un escenario. Creo que en los 90 éramos una buena banda en directo, pero ahora somos una MUY buena banda en directo, mucho mejor de lo que éramos entonces, y eso también es algo muy emocionante. Veinticinco años después puedo decir que en directo ahora somos una banda mucho mejor de lo que éramos en nuestra década gloriosa.
Se ha anunciado la próxima gira europea de Suede, pero los fans españoles están preocupados porque de momento no hay fechas en nuestro país… ¿Presentaréis el nuevo disco en España?
Sí, seguro. No te preocupes. Va a haber algo en España… no puedo decir nada ahora, pero te lo prometo al cien por cien: habrá al menos dos fechas en España.
http://www.mondosonoro.com/entrevistas/suede/

Re: Night Thoughts promotion/reviews

Posted: 04 Feb 2016, 23:20
by sunshine
February 4, 2016
Suede’s ‘Night Thoughts’ Is a Late-Career Masterpiece That Should Finally Make America Take Notice
By Tom Hawking 10:42 am
(The London) Suede have always gotten something of a raw deal in America — forced to surrender their name to a largely forgotten cabaret singer, lumped in with an artificial movement they loathed, and largely ignored by a public who never really “got” their appeal. There’s certainly something very English about Suede — in the same way that you understand David Lynch’s work better once you’ve spent time in LA, you can’t really appreciate Suede’s particular brand of louche glamour until you’ve lived in the sort of squalid London bedsit or council flat that plays home to the characters in Brett Anderson’s songs. But like Lynch’s films are as universal as they are location-specific, so too does Suede’s music have an emotional pull that transcends geography.
It’s never too late, and if America was ever going to succumb to Suede’s charms, this might just be the time to do it. Night Thoughts — the band’s seventh album, and second since their reunion in 2010 after a decade-long hiatus — is out here this week, a full two weeks after its UK release, and it’s the best thing they’ve released in years, perhaps even since their 1994 masterpiece Dog Man Star.
Both musically and lyrically, it’s not wildly divergent from anything Suede have done before — which is interesting in and of itself, because it proves Anderson’s tales of doomed suburban romances and desperate glamour remain just as effective in the 21st century as they did in the late 20th. The music is widescreen and, dare I say it, cinematic, while the lyrics are kitchen-sink drama, focusing on mundanity and disaffection, and yet remaining romantic and curiously beautiful.
The key, I think, is this: Suede’s particular brand of disaffection has never really been about youth. Or, at least, it didn’t have to be. Sure, the band’s early songs were populated by impossibly beautiful, dissipated ingenues, the sort of people who managed to make nodding out with a cigarette still burning look glamorous. But the feelings that drove those characters — disaffection, boredom, a desire to transcend the quotidian, a longing for meaning in life beyond the nine-to-five grind, the desperate pursuit of pleasure, the crushing reality of Monday morning and the subway to work — all those things are just as relevant in middle age as they are in your early 20s.
In fact, one might argue they’re more so — the particular brand of longing in Suede’s work is, as Anderson said back in 1993, “the Oscar Wilde thing of lying in the gutter and looking at the stars. Life has always been cinema to me, even when I’ve been sitting in the dole office,” and at least being at the dole office in your 20s implies some sort of hope you might eventually get to those stars. For the sad-eyed businessman in the bar at closing time, thumbing through his copy of the Steve Jobs biography in the hope some Silicon Valley stardust might rub off onto him, the stars are very far away indeed.
It’s this feeling that slowly saturates Night Thoughts — Anderson has described the album as being inspired by the experience of parenthood, and it also seems to be about the experience of being parented, in the same way as, say, Pink Floyd’s The Wall dissected, in excruciating detail, Roger Waters’ daddy (and mummy) issues. One of the great fears of parenthood, of course, is that of repeating the same mistakes as your parents. Another, as Anderson explained to Exclaim, is “the terror before you become a parent. It’s explained to you that it will be challenging and life-changing and wonderful, all of these things, but they never say the fucking terror of being responsible for this vulnerable person… Lots of the album is about mortality and that fear of death. Because I don’t give a shit about my death for my own sake. I give a shit about it for the people I’m not going to be there for.”
These fears coalesce into a sort of semi-impressionistic narrative thread that runs through the record. It’s hard to follow exactly what’s happening, but you get the idea — as Pitchfork’s Stuart Berman notes, “Though [he’s] a master of evocative detail, Anderson doesn’t care much for narrative exposition rather than set a scene, he prefers to thrust you into the thick of the moment where it’s all about to fall apart.” At its darkest, it recalls another concept album about doomed lovers, Lou Reed’s Berlin: a line like, “And all that’s left is the ashes of her sorry little notes/ So no one can read the sentences she wrote” could have come straight out of “The Bed,” Berlin‘s most harrowing moment (and that’s saying something).
Interestingly, Night Moves takes the idea of cinematic drama to its logical extreme: it comes packaged with an entire feature film. The film is as impressionistic as its accompanying music; we start by watching a young man kill himself by walking into the sea, and as one song bleeds into another, so too the film’s images shift through time and space, unveiling the lead-up to the suicide, piece by piece. I won’t spoil too much here, but suffice it to say that the film captures the album’s themes — parenthood, mortality, the travails of romantic love — just as deftly as the songs themselves. And while the setting is as quintessentially English — the sea into which the protagonist disappears looks freezing — both the story and the ideas are universal. All of which is to say: come on, America, for goodness’ sake, it’s time to take notice of one of the best bands of the last 20 years. Better late than never.
http://flavorwire.com/559533/suedes-nig ... ake-notice

Re: Night Thoughts promotion/reviews

Posted: 04 Feb 2016, 23:20
by sunshine
4th February 2016
Suede's Brett Anderson's favourite music, books + film
Anderson tells us about his love of Foals, David Bowie + Sebastian Faulks
by Cai Trefor
Suede are a band of such immeasurable influence, a complete package with a far reaching aesthetic that touches on sound, vision and beyond. It stands to reason that they should be a band of wide-ranging influences, interests and passtons.
We met frontman Brett Anderson shortly before they released their incredible new album, Night Thoughts. It's since been heralded as one of Suede's best - not just by Gigwise but by fans, critics and the world at large. Creatively, Suede are at the peak of their powers.
But there's obviously got to be creative influences that fuel that fire of Anderson's, and so we asked him about some of his favourite new music, books, and films. Come with us, as we dig deep into Brett Anderson's top picks.
What have you been listening to recently?
"The track that I'm obsessed with at the moment is a song called 'Blue and Yellow Lines' by The Duke Spirit. I never really heard much of The Duke Spirit that's really done it for me before, but this new song's amazing. I'm really excited about the album which is out that's called KIN."
"There's also a band called The Organ from years ago that passed me by, that I really like actually. An American band, the singer sounds like a cross between Debbie Harry and Patti Smith. I love that."
Anyone else?
"I like Foals. They're a strange band I don't quite know what their influences are. The whole concept of influences is a slightly dull concept, it's one of those things that uninspired interviewers always ask. Their influence thing is really fascinating though. Their guitar playing sounds like Femi Cuti or something like that but obviously with an alternative structure to the song. Yeah, I love the Foals, they're great."
"Also, Joanna Newsome's Divers. I think that's great! I think she's really interesting - a fascinating artist."
What are the classic albums you always go back to?
"I don't really listen to much music that I listed to when I was a kid. The thing is about those classic songs, The Smiths, Sex Pistols, and Bowie - they were the three most important acts for me - is I don't ever listen to them. It's not disrespectful, because every single second, every moment of those songs is in my head, and it's so familiar to me I can almost sit here and replay it in my head. I don't kind of need to listen to it in a funny sort of way.
"I find it exciting finding new music. That thrill of finding a new band. Hearing something that really excites that's really amazing. Every time that Duke Spirit song came on the radio I rushed to the radio and turn it up. I kind of felt like a teenager again - it's so exciting."
How about literature?
"I read about two novels a week so.."
OK, so just your favourite three or four?
"I love Sebastian Faulks, he's one of my favourite writers. I can't read things that aren't beautifully written. I have to read things that are beautifully written. I can't read things that are just a good story. I can't stand blockbuster literature. I find it poorly written, it's all about the plot rather than the detail.
"There's a writer who I didn't really know called Tessa Hadley, who I absolutely love and she writes about incredibly about complex family relationships. It's very subtle documentation of British live which I really love. I find her books absolutely beautiful. They're really readable. They're not really about anything, they don't have a plot, they're just about people hanging out and meeting. It's about the way that the scenes are drawn, it's beautiful.
"I also like Suburban Noir novels. I love Louise Doughty and Sabine Durrant. I find that genre quite good fun."
Any films that you would recommend?
"It's different with films. I don't listen to old music, but with films, a film that I love, I watch over and over again. There's a film called Jean Des Florette and the sequel's called Manon Des Sources, that I absolutely love and it's made in the '80s by Claude Berri. It's such a beautiful film. Again, the characters are so beautifully drawn, they're so subtle and lovely. I always take it on tour with me and it's a real comfort. I watch it night after night on tour. It's like music to me, it makes me happy."
Night Thoughts by Suede is out now - read our review here.
Suede's 2016 tour dates are as follows, and tickets are on sale now. Get tickets and more information here.
Suede will play:
FEBRUARY:
Monday 8 - Glasgow -Royal Concert Hall
Tuesday 9 - Manchester- Albert Hall
Wednesday 10 - Dublin - Olympia Theatre
Friday 12 - London - The Forum
Sunday 14 - Leeds - 02 Academy
http://www.gigwise.com/features/105314/ ... foals-tour

Re: Night Thoughts promotion/reviews

Posted: 09 Feb 2016, 21:26
by sunshine
27/01/2016
Rencontre
Suede, le renouveau du groupe maudit de la Britpop
Jean-Baptiste Roch
On leur promettait les sommets, à l'égal des Smiths ou de Bowie, avant que Blur, Pulp ou Oasis ne les dépassent. Alors que Suede sort son septième album et avant son concert à Paris le 28 janvier, rencontre avec le chanteur Brett Anderson et le bassiste Matt Ossman.
Nous sommes le 21 mars 1993. « Suede n’en est encore qu'à ses balbutiements, mais a déjà éveillé l’attention d’un certain profil de fan de rock, à la silhouette mince, plutôt mâle, blanc et angoissé, qui a adoré les Smiths dans les années 80 et David Bowie dans les années 70 », écrit alors un journaliste dans les colonnes de The Independent.
Le groupe auquel il fait allusion, originaire de Londres, n’a pas encore sorti d’album, mais sur la foi de deux ou trois singles prometteurs (The Drowners, Metal Mickey and Animal Nitrate), fait déjà la une du NME, annoncé comme « The Next Big Thing ». Tous les autres titres musicaux d’outre-Manche sont au diapason, peu avares de compliments. Le Melody Maker célèbre « le triomphe de la décadence aristo sur la pop prolo ». « Ils sont la plus grosse hype depuis les Smiths ou peut-être les Sex Pistols », assure The Independent. « Ils comblent le désir presque lascif des journalistes de dénicher le groupe en qui placer tous leurs espoirs ».
A la même époque, le grunge américain a balayé la vague baggy de Manchester, et Kurt Cobain et Nirvana dominent le monde et les charts. L’Angleterre se cherche une réponse, un challenger sérieux, si possible moins dépressif. Blur et Pulp sont déjà sur les rangs. Ce sont les débuts de ce que la presse anglaise, chauvine, baptise la Britpop. Un rock qui honore les grands anciens – Bowie, T. Rex, The Jam, The Smiths… –, mais s’ancre dans l'Angleterre des années 90. Brett Anderson, chanteur précieux, forme alors avec le brillant guitariste Bernard Butler un duo flamboyant qui signera les deux premiers albums du groupe (Suede, 1993 et Dog Man Star, 1994). Il affiche clairement ses ambitions : « Je veux laisser une trace dans l’Histoire. »
Vingt-trois ans se sont écoulés depuis. Et que dit l'Histoire ? Après une poignée de tubes (Beautiful Ones, Trash) enregistrés avec le remplaçant de Butler, Richard Oakes, un seul vrai succès commercial (l’album Coming up, 1996) et une séparation de presque dix ans (2003-2013), Suede est loin de figurer au panthéon de la Britpop, largment distancé et éclipsé par Blur, Pulp ou Oasis. « On ne s’est jamais vraiment senti partie prenante de ce mouvement, ni proche de tous ces groupes. Et puis ce côté nationaliste, créé de toute pièce par la presse, m’a toujours gêné », se défend Anderson. « Dès le départ, nous avons toujours mené notre barque, à l’écart. »
C’est pourtant bien le chanteur d’un groupe emblématique des années 90, encore vivace, que l’on a retrouvé en décembre dernier – sévèrement grippé, mais dandy néo glam comme au premier jour –, dans un salon de sa maison de disques, à Paris. Accompagné de Matt Osman, le bassiste, il présente le septième album de Suede, Night Thoughts – le deuxième depuis la reformation du groupe (Bloodsports, 2013). Absence toujours notoire : celle de Bernard Butler, le guitariste des débuts qui n'a renoué avec Anderson que le temps d’un album, en 2005, sous la bannière The Tears.
« Pour Bloodsports, nous avions lutté contre la tentation de nous réinventer, de faire totalement autre chose. Un disque de “come-back” se doit d’être un rappel : on voulait qu’il soit l’essence même de ce que les gens connaissaient de Suede », explique Anderson. « Avec Night Thoughts, on a pu aller plus loin, nous autoriser des choses, occuper l’espace, surprendre. »
Guitares en avant, chant fiévreux, envolées parfois haut-perchées qui retombent sur leurs pieds : sur Night Thoughts, produit par Ed Buller, fidèle du groupe (aux manettes de Suede, Coming Up et Bloodports), on retrouve pourtant bien tout l’ADN Suede, sans véritable entorse à la recette habituelle. Suede suit toujours sa ligne assumée, comme un gage donné à ceux qui ne les ont jamais lâchés. Seules les thématiques fétiches – sexe, drogues, existence terne et aliénation – ont laissé place à des sujets plus « adultes ». « Cet album parle d’amour, mais pas du genre romantique. L’amour qui vous emporte en tant que parent », confie Anderson, 48 ans, à présent père d’un petit garçon de 3 ans.
“Tout le monde aime Bowie aujourd'hui, ce n’est pas très intéressant. Parlons d’autre chose”
De l’album sourd également une certaine nostalgie. « Je repense effectivement souvent au temps de mes 20 ans, mais je ne regrette rien, je suis bien plus épanoui aujourd’hui. Mais c'est normal, quand on a soi-même un enfant, de regarder en arrière. On prend conscience de sa finitude. » Fanatique de David Bowie, dont il s'est toujours ouvertement inspiré, Anderson a forcément dû y penser un peu plus ces derniers temps. Au moment de notre rencontre, Blackstar, le nouveau single de Bowie, venait de sortir. Son avis ? « Tout le monde aime Bowie aujourd'hui, ce n’est pas très intéressant. Parlons d’autre chose. »
De la tournée par exemple ? Suede entame un périple européen jusqu’au mois de juin. Mais comme d’habitude, aucun projet de l'autre côté de l’Atlantique. Si le groupe a été éclipsé par Blur et Oasis, c’est aussi à cause du souci que lui ont posé les Etats-Unis : obligé par un obscur chanteur de bars homonyme à changer leur nom en The London Suede, Anderson et ses compères refuseront par orgueil de se produire là-bas, se condamnant à regarder le train de la Britpop s'y engouffrer sans eux. Pour se consoler, Suede écumera l’Asie de long en large à chacune de ses tournées.
En 2016, c’est finalement sur scène que Suede se renouvelle peut-être le plus : avec une première partie de concert consacrée au dernier album, joué dans l’ordre et dans son intégralité, derrière un écran sur lequel est projeté un film réalisé pour l’occasion : puis, dans un deuxième temps, un show face au public, consacré aux anciens titres. Manière de montrer, s’il en était besoin, que Suede, aujourd'hui comme hier, tient à se distinguer, à rester à part.
http://www.telerama.fr/musique/suede-le ... 137247.php

Re: Night Thoughts promotion/reviews

Posted: 13 Feb 2016, 06:35
by sunshine
12 February 2016
Britpop band recapture majestic melodrama
Karl Puschmann
Artist: Suede
Album: Night Thoughts
Label: Warners
Verdict: Britpop outsiders recapture majestic melodrama 4/5
At night, once the distractions of the day are all done and out of the way, your mind is free to wander. Where those thoughts lead, well, that's not always entirely in your control. Deteriorating dreams, doubts and death inform Night Thoughts, making it Suede's darkest record since Dog Man Star, their claustrophobic and hazy masterpiece of doomed romanticism. It's an album Night Thoughts often harks back to, tastefully cribs from and, most surprisingly, can stand proudly beside.
But where that album was a drug fuelled majesty, Night Thoughts is the sound of sleeplessness. Of lying in bed listening to the clock tick, tick, ticking away with a brain that just won't turn off. Despite its mostly downer subject matter, the album flows confidently, continuously. It's beautifully sequenced, with intricate orchestration (The Fur and the Feathers) and reverb drenched emptiness (Tightrope) sitting comfortably beside the more upbeat stomp of Suede's dark glam Like Kids).
With no gaps between songs to interrupt its flow, Suede move effortlessly through crippling reflections, joyous recollections, grandiose dreams and aching regrets. It's heavy stuff, and in lesser hands would be exhausting. Here it's an emotionally thrilling listen. Whether on the groove-driven, misfit anthem Outsiders, the dark guitar pop of No Tomorrow or the heart breaking I Can't Give Her What She Wants, vocalist Brett Anderson proves his gift for a haunting melody hasn't diminished.
Nor has his tendency towards melodrama. His soaring, angst filled falsetto still retaining the power to stop you in your tracks and send your heart skipping.
Night Thoughts is a morbidly beautiful, intensely dramatic record. Once it gets its hooks in you it's bound to keep you awake at night.
http://m.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/n ... d=11588144

Re: Night Thoughts promotion/reviews

Posted: 15 Feb 2016, 16:29
by sunshine
February 1, 2016
Brett Anderson: ‘I Was Stupid To Let Bernard Butler Quit Suede’
The frontman shares his one big regret… and much more in this month’s MOJO Interview.
By MOJO Staff
BERNARD BUTLER’S DEPARTURE from Suede is “my biggest regret in life” Brett Anderson tells MOJO this month. The guitarist’s decision to quit the group after completing second album Dog Man Star in 1994 shocked and upset many fans, but while Suede managed to successfully continue without him – both in the immediate aftermath and since their 2010 reunion – the singer says he now believes he should have tried harder to keep their partnership alive.
“It’s probably my biggest regret in life that I didn’t try harder to salvage it,” he tells Danny Eccleston in out latest issue (March ’16 / #268), on sale now. "It’s the stupidest thing that I will ever do, because the relationship between me and him was something special, and with all due respect to everyone I’ve worked with since it was a special partnership and we made some pretty special music,” he admits.
Anderson, the subject of this month’s MOJO Interview, explains how he failed to prevent the deterioration of the pair’s relationship following Suede’s initial success. “At the time I didn’t know how to f***ing do it,” he says when asked if their collaboration could have been saved. “I didn’t know how to reach him. And I was sick of it, I was f***ing sick of it. The whole experience was unpleasant and part of me just couldn’t be bothered any more. It was like, For f***’s sake, if you don’t want to be in this band then don’t be in this band.”
Get the latest issue of MOJO, for the full, candid interview with Anderson, including the early days with Justine Frischmann, the band’s years of excess, their recent renaissance and much more.
http://www.mojo4music.com/23068/brett-a ... uit-suede/

Re: Night Thoughts promotion/reviews

Posted: 18 Feb 2016, 21:26
by sunshine
17 Feb 2016
Album Review: Suede - Night Thoughts
Second wave win for glamorous guitar slingers John Walshe,
Seven albums into a 27-year career is not generally when you expect a band to hit a career high, but Night Thoughts is probably the finest Suede long player since their 1994 sophomore epic, Dog Man Star, or their glorious eponymous debut. Indeed, Night Thoughts combines the immediacy of early seven-inches like ‘Animal Nitrate’ with the more sonically ambitious ‘Daddy’s Speeding’.
On opener ‘When You Are Young’, the first minute and fifteen seconds of ominous effects and sad strings gives way to a monumental guitar line, before Brett Anderson’s tortured Bowie-esque vocal enters stage left. For that first few bars, you could be transported back to 1993, when Messrs Anderson and Butler were set to conquer the world. Except it’s 23 years later and Bernard Butler is nowhere to be seen.
The fact that Night Thoughts doesn’t suffer from his absence is testament to the quality of the musicianship of the other Suede-heads, Mat Osman (bass), Simon Gilbert (drums), Neil Codling (piano and synths) and particularly lead guitarist Richard Oakes, whose solos are epic enough to hold Anderson’s brooding ruminations aloft, from the driving rock of ‘No Tomorrow’ to the dramatic, bruising ‘Pale Snow’, with its regret-filled coda, “It never happens to me”.
This is not a band merely going through the motions, cashing in on middle-aged nostalgia for the leather-clad days of their youth. There is an immediacy and vibrancy to these songs, their second collection since reuniting five years ago, that gives the distinct impression that they needed to be written, so the band could get them out of their system – from the insistent staccato rhythms of ‘Outsiders’ to rollicking lead single ‘Like Kids’, with its wonderfully memorable guitar hook that proves the missing link between ‘Trash’ and ‘We Are The Pigs’.When they slow things down, the results are particularly effective. ‘I Don’t Know How To Reach You’ is six minutes of longing; ‘Tightrope’ is the kind of string-drenched yearning ballad Anderson makes his own; and the aching ‘I Can’t Give Her What She Wants’ drips regret from every bar.
Best of the lot is the closing piano ballad, ‘The Fur And The Feathers’, a wide-screen masterpiece of romance and “the thrill of the chase”, where Anderson confesses, “I’m so scared of touching you, but I’m too scared to not”. It’s dark, it’s moody and it’s bloody brilliant. Suede have grown older but not necessarily wiser, replacing teenage angst with mid-life soul-searching.
Key Track: ‘The Fur And The Feathers’
8/10
http://www.hotpress.com/Suede/music/rev ... 85702.html