Suede: The Reissues Reviewed

Suede: The Special Editions
(Demon Music Group)
* * * * *

Oscar Wilde's suggestion that "we are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars" could well have been a blueprint for glam rockers Suede, who specialised in finding traces of glitter in the most minging, gloomy and hopeless of urban backstreets.

Having been a big fan of the band back in ye olde school days, I'd spent the last decade avoiding the bastards: sometimes you don't want to be reminded of your bum-fluff goatee era. That however, is a personal tale - and only a fiend would deny that their discography is utterly unique. These tasty-looking special editions then, are a chance for the curious and the nostalgic to jump in the gutter and get down to some serious star-gazing.

The first album 'Suede' (1993) was served up on a wave of Suedemania: having been declared the best band in Britain by Melody Maker before releasing a single note, the band met the hype head on with an ambitious debut. Somewhere between the massive pop choruses ('Animal Nitrate', 'Metal Mickey') and the borderline suicidal melodrama ('The Next Life', 'Sleeping Pills'), we find a group who're flirting with taboos: heroin and gay sex are referenced throughout what became the fastest selling debut album ever in the UK.

Things took a turn for the bleak with 'Dog Man Star' (1994), a masterpiece which captures the lowest depths of depression alongside a disturbing thrill of violence. The band's compositions went over the moon during this period: 'Still Life' and 'The Asphalt World' feel like epic arthouse cinema soundtracks, while harder rockers like 'We Are The Pigs' see guitarist Bernard Butler approaching Hendrix-like transcendence.

Unfortunately, fear and madness were not far behind: Butler quit the band while 'Dog Man Star' was still in the mix, citing general voodoo vibes. The only thing to do then, was to start 'Coming Up' (1995). By recruiting two young gunslingers, Suede shook off their doom and caught a new wave: 'Trash' became a number one single, while songs like 'Picnic By The Motorway' retained enough sci-fi melancholy to keep fans addicted.

The Grim Reaper eventually had his way with Suede though. The rubbery electro-pop of 'Head Music' (1999) was partially successful in its attempt to reinvent them as a sensitive funk band, but final album 'A New Morning' (2002) saw them croak in the middle of the road.

Still, they were great - one of the best, perhaps - and these special editions leave no stone unturned, with archive concert films, commentary interviews and the famously strong B-sides: 'Dark Star', 'The Living Dead', 'Killing Of A Flash Boy'' - all of them still immense.

Ric Rawlins