the sunday style, aug 8 99 by gerald martinez

    hard -edged suede top british band suede changed the rules of popmusic & everyone else just followed. when they formed around 1991, 'independent' music was something to besidelined, not celebrated. bands released EPs & gazedat their feet & being successful didn't come into it.now, 3 million album sales later (including 5 top 10hits off the last album), suede have redefined the'left-field' & called it mainstream. without them, bands like oasis or blur wouldn'texist in quite the same way that they do today. indeed while they may have spawned/ spurned 'britpop'their cultural impact is of a far greater significance: they represent nothing more or less than thedisaffected youth.

    suede are (we know who !) brett anderson (vox),richard oakes (guitar), mat osman (bass), simon gilbert (drums) & neil codling (keyboards) in the early days, suede were a far cry from the band we know them to be. Iin mid-1998, suede set about recording their 4th album, head music. the album opens with electricity ,the 1st single, which is a huge, life affirming,classic suede pop song. it's as hard-edged & spiky as any suede single sofar. on it, there are elements of pistols & hendrix &a catchy chorus that u could probably eat if u could grab hold of it quick enough !

    the dark sensibility prevalent on electricity is continued on savoir faire. it's funky, Prince-like inparts. firm but fair you'd have to say.can't get enough follows & starts like 'she's lost control', allmechanised synth drums & weird effects before turninginto an ever-so psycho punk rock song about needinganother fix. it's a really exciting song. after this we get everything will flow, a big string-laden ballad that'sto make it as a single futher down the line & downwritten as a backdrop to the aftermath / comeback of anarcotics episode.

    she's in fashion is tipped as the 2nd single. This is probably suede's brightest, lightest moment ever. delibarately ironic, it is sure to be a huge hit (notjust on the catwalk) (me- it didn't, right? it didn'tmake to the top 10, right ? i wasn't following the chart at the time of SIF's release) with the memorablelines 'and she's as similar as u can get/ to the shapeof a cig-ar-rette' sound so gloriously decadent. it isprobably the spookiest suede song around these partsbut it's also probably their sexiest. a vey slinkynumber. head music, the title track (not the LP) is aboutas rude as it gets. 'give me head ' (3 times) brettintones. hi-fi is another other-worldly number thatkraftwerk might have come up with. indian strings is abeautiful-yet-forlorn, orchestral, eastern influenced ballad.