Album Review: Suede - "Autofiction"

 

Definitely one of the most eagerly awaited albums of the year here at Nite Songs Towers, Suede's first new album since 2018's The Blue Hour has been touted by the band for a while as the sound of them going back to basics. Since the group reformed around 15 years ago, they've put out three albums which have proved they're anything but a spent force but all of which have owed more in terms of their sound to the epic grandeur of their finest moment Dog Man Star. All very laudable but it does sometimes obscure the sight that there's another side to Suede's sound which is the blood and glitter cut and thrust approach that informed their awesome debut album and the first two efforts made by the Mk2 line-up, 1996's Coming Up and 1999's Head Music. The prospect of something in this vein to redress the balance is certainly something that sounds intriguing on paper but there's still a definite feeling that this could go either way, a reaffirming triumph or a badly calculated mis-step to recapture the sounds of thirty years ago but without the youth and energy that fired them on.

I'm pleased to report though that Autofiction is very much the latter. It's right there from opener She Still Leads Me On, a tribute by Brett Anderson to his mother who passed away when he was a teenager which takes the soaring melodies of Trash but cuts out the piercing production that blunted that song to create a genuine 21st century Suede anthem. Anderson has written a two-part autobiography in recent years (Coal Black Mornings dealing with his pre-Suede years and Afternoons With The Blinds Drawn telling the story of the band) and it seems that the experience has awakened a lot of memories in him which have given him lyrical ammo for this album. Personality Disorder is another strident number with Anderson channelling Mark E Smith's vocal approach in the verses before Richard Oakes' sky-surfing riff kicks the chorus into gear. It's pretty clear that if Suede are revisiting their past here then they're doing it with the added experience that the last three decades have given them rather than just trying to retread past glories and hark back to another time. Former single 15 Again is a case in point - it could easily have sat on Suede or Coming Up with Oakes' roaring guitar and Neil Codling's swirling keys but it's undeniably the work of an older and more experienced band who are taking those anthemic traits that were their calling card back then and putting a whole new spin on them. Despite the title, it's anything but backward-looking.

The Only Way I Can Love You is an excellent slice of mid-tempo moodiness fired along by Anderson's brooding vocals while That Boy On The Stage, seemingly an ode by Anderson to his younger self, has a stomping Bowie/Blockbuster era Sweet style glam beat propelling it along and is another highlight. After that, I Drove Myself Home adds a bit of essential space for the album to breathe, a sparse minimalist ballad similar to She's Not Dead on the first album before the stomping Black Ice kicks side two into gear (well, if records these days still had sides but you know what I mean). Shadow Self might just be the strongest cut on the album so far with its aura of laid back menace with the music sounding like a gothed up version of Rebel Yell with Brett's menacing spoken word delivery adding an air of fight or flight to it which is absolutely exhilirating.

It's Always The Quiet Ones has an almost Bond theme like feel to it with the swooping things (if you remember Mansun's The Chad Who Loved Me, it's got a very similar sort of feel to that). What Am I Without You? could be an ode to either Brett's family or to the band's fans, an epic Scott Walker style ballad which could easily have sat on Night Thoughts which is no bad thing before the slow-building Turn Off Your Brain And Yell, another six minute cinematic epic, signs this one off in fine style.

Suede seem to be one of those bands where the key to them being one of the few Britpop era bands who have reformed without slipping silently on to the revival circuit is that they have a constant ability to surprise you and exceed your expectations and Autofiction is another shining example of this. Although it definitely does channel the group's playful glam rock indebted early spirit more than its predecessors, it does so entirely on its own terms without feeling it has to succumb to anybody's expectations and the result is a genuinely good and innovative album which takes those classic Suede sounds and drags them into the 21st century in superlative style. Highly recommended.

NITE SONGS RATING: 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑 (9/10)