reviews on suede

HEAD MUSIC
by Claudia from Indonesia
Star rating: ***** out of *****

Imagine all of us living in a peaceful Suede Nation. In the morning we shall enlighten our minds with the pop tunes of Coming Up, opened by the biographical Trash to get ourselves ready for the day. In the afternoon, we shall put on Dog Man Star, to meditate and increase our musical sense. During the evening, we all shall play Suede, with the coming night in our minds and the ending day in our bodies. What would accompany a cup of tea better than thoughts of 'next life' and 'chasing dragons in our youth'? In the night, we can do nothing but party and drown in Sci-Fi Lullabies - and other b-sides, in this case - in the never-ending world of possibilities and immensely brilliant experiments on music.

If so then, Head Music would fill our dawns, where musical experiment we had the night before still lingers on our minds; this time mixed with slight pop elements. Head Music sounds like a cross between the second CD of Sci-Fi Lullabies with Coming Up itself, which is quite discouraging for the anti-'so called New Suede'-people, but more than just that, it actually has it's own soul into it. A lot more soul than those aforementioned people would feel during playing the album for the first time. This is also why Head Music would be suitable to play in our dawns, where we all sit in the silence of our rooms and really listen to the aptly titled album.

The album opens with the love story song that sounds like the title, Electricity. Brilliant sound experiments will easily be found all over the album, like in the shaking Savoir Faire and Can't Get Enough; second single She's In Fashion; anthemic Head Music; stomping Elephant Man; also the dark Hi-Fi and Asbestos. This all make the whole album sounds like music beamed from a place we've never been before or even from the future. The album would definitely whisk us, or at least our minds, to another world. Brett's perfect wit shows in between the great melodies of Everything Will Flow, with my favourite line 'nothing lost and nothing gained', that has been my guide in living life ever since the first time I heard it. More soothing melodies follow in mind-swaying Down, heart-touching strings of Indian Strings, and of course that lovely lonely tune He's Gone. Simplicity closes the album in Crack in the Union Jack, the song that beautifully flies us back into the real world of everyday life.

Being a successful musician is not about playing the same music over 10 albums - in the aim of making a 'remark' in music industry. It's also definitely not about switching from one musical genre to another according to the 'trend' going on at the moment. Being a successful musician is playing whatever he or she wants and experimenting with music, and still sound like themselves. And this is what Suede have been doing all through their magical career. If you can't deal with it, then you're not a fan enough. And if you think Neil has ruined the 'old Suede' you loved, then you just don't love them enough. Neil is Suede, and Suede is Neil - at least one fifth of it. No use of pointing out their bravery in sound experimenting as Neil's 'fault', or Elephant Man as Suede's 'serious-attitude' degradation. We've witnessed Young Men before, and as Brett revealed some years before, Suede were often thought as a serious unaffable band, because they kept their comedic songs tucked away. So if you don't like the present Suede, you don't love them at all.

Cheers to Suede, the best band in the universe, for their brilliant effort. Head Music is absolutely something to save our money for - even if we have to starve for it.