For those of you that are new to my MidNight Gems series. Welcome to this nightly trip on which we will uncover & recover some amazing songs & covers.
As I did Tori last time around, I felt a bit guilty toward these guys. Still I was not planning on doing this already....but something made me. Suede is the other band I grew up on. But let's start backward.
This album was a birthday gift from my best friend. Suede´s latest album, The Blue Hour really brought back memories, so let´s get small-town dreaming on the outskirts of existence.
Mr. Anderson's psychotic vocals are still there, and the band turned up the melodrama. But it´s the way the song is build-up that takes me back to the Dog Man Star era. This is classic Suede with a touch of their Golden Years.
Beyond the Outskirts
Well as we are already talking about my Favorite album, Suede´s second album had it all.
Everything was nicely orchestrated, it might sound weird but these songs somehow made me feel like listening to the Britt Pop version of Pink Floyd. Although their lead singer Brett Anderson wasn´t happily carrying that Britt Pop torch.
He made that very clear on this second album, by being a tad more experimental than a Blur or Oasis.
Brett clearly did not Care for the UK that night.
Suede - Black Or Blue
Let's take one step back to where it all started for me the first album.
Oh boy, now I need to be honest the first time I heard this album at a friend's place I was like...."Hey, Put Kravitz back on, who is this whiner?"
It took probably until loving their second album before I started appreciating the first one, but hey I was so young. That guy, in this video, made me feel like "a bisexual man who never had a homosexual experience."
Suede - So Young
The first Suede Album I bought on the day it was released was Coming Up.
Of course, just my luck, when I really got into Suede it was already too late. I mean this album was okay and a commercial success, but I felt they were already fading.
That might be hindsight as this next song definitely had all the ingredients and also that sniff of psilocybe cubensis.
The Chemistry Between Us
I was hooked,there was a chemistry between Brett and me and they were the best band in the world ...for a while....
Basically till the next album with B-sides and rarities,Sci-Fi Lullabies.
Bought it, played it twice and it has been collecting dust ever since. I even missed that one great song it did contain, found that one years later when I downloaded some suede mp3s.
Maybe I am biased, as I have a love for songs with a girl's name as their title.
Sadie
Well now we are entering the real dark ages, at least for the band. Anderson had become a crackhead and if you turn that into an album you get Head Music.
So I will fast forward to A New Morning, which was a refreshing new start.
Brett claimed that even though he was addicted to basically everything it was the first Suede album that was drug-free or at least not influenced by dope. Of course, that´s BS, but the album indeed sounded way less trippy, more acoustic, and introverted.
Let´s have some more (lonely) girl names.
Lonely Girls
To keep it a bit emancipated I will add a boy´s name as well. The song was recorded as the title theme for the film Far From China.
Simon
As Brett sings, where do we go?
Because Head Music was the most expensive album the band made so far, and it did not deliver....
Britt Pop was dead and so was Suede. Or as per their own announcement on November 5th 2003
"There will not be a new studio album until the band feels that the moment is artistically right to make one."
And I had never seen them perform Live on stage, this was a sad day and it took eight long years to get better.
Finally, in 2010 there was this one-time-only reunion concert, that turned into a small UK tour and ended in the 2011 European Tour which was in line with their Best Of album.
It was May 2011, he was back, and I was front row. I finally got to touch him.
He was still looking good for an ex-crackhead, but had become a real man and no longer even resembled that androgynous boy I liked a lot back when we were So Young.
The tour brought the band back together, a new album followed. Bloodsports got the best reviews since their Coming Up album from 1996. But I was not convinced till I heard the follow-up album Night Thoughts.
For me that was the time that the band returned to their former self. walking that tightrope between orchastrated and dramatic. I knew that both Brett and I now know more than we used to.
Tightrope
Now that was where my Suede (Brett) Love Story ended and two grown man went their "possibly bisexual man who never had a homosexual experience" way.
The END
Well not just yet. I still need to share my favorite songs. You´ve heard most of my darlings, but I saved my best for last.
Brett did this sweet mashup in the past,
Brett Anderson - The 2 of Us & The Asphalt World (live)
But I can´t leave without the real deal.
And real means the whole song live:
The two of us
I will leave it at this 'Cause that's where I go
And that's what I do
And that's how it feels when the sex turns cruel
Yes, both of us need her, this is the asphalt world
Brett Anderson - The Asphalt World
YouTube Playlist
Of course, all songs are once again captured in the YouTube playlist.
All Midnight Gems Playlist published on youtube can be found here
What the fluff are midnight gems?
Somewhere lost in time, trying to escape out of the rabbit hole back into the rat race there is a vacuum..... that´s the place where midnight gems are found.
My Midnight Gems will try to uncover & recover those beautiful songs that nobody ever noticed or might have been forgotten.
Who the fluff am I?
Being a former DJ playing about everything and having an uncompleted study of radio journalism. I have been wanting to do this for years....Thought about it many nights and guess now it´s time to finally take it to the streets.
Hope you enjoyed this slightly confronting wave of amazing music and you still feel like joining me on the next special edition trip as vol.80 of Midnight Gems is coming soon.
