Suede
Coming Up

The trajectory of Suede was symptomatic of the fleeting splendors and the transience of much English pop, a liturgy that seems to persist to this day.

They became brilliant stars at the time of their early singles and the natural consecration of their debut album, and then drowned after the release of their introspective masterpiece dated 1994, that "Dog Man Star" which still seems to us among the best things published in England in the past decade. The departure of the group's Johnny Marr - the great guitarist Bernard Butler - just before that album came out, and the declining acclaim following the new wave of Brit-pop led by Blur and Oasis made it so that back then, no one would have bet a pound on the continuation of Bret Anderson's group's career.

However, the release of "Coming Up" in 1996 surprised many, because although it did not match the achievements of previous works, this work confirmed that the name Suede was able to carve out a niche even amid the rising tide of Brit Pop. A phenomenon of which Suede were certainly forerunners, since it was their guitar riffs and the 3-minute pop dimension of the early singles that revived a certain type of sound, while in the early '90s grunge and the remnants of Madchester and shoegaze were running rampant: the single "Beautiful Ones" was an excellent attempt to combine a certain rock conciseness with the classic glam allure of the London group, to remind us that the way for the various Gallaghers was paved precisely by the Anderson-Butler duo. This new pop direction of the group was made necessary by the loss of Butler's creative drive: "She", "Film Star", "She is star crazy" and "Trash" skillfully combine greater sunniness and the usual ironic and brilliant imagery.

The Suede that won our hearts the most, those dreamy, romantic ones like Brett's voice, which could be linked to the Smiths for that desperate way of representing the impossibility of being normal, are present in moving tracks such as "By the sea", "Picnic by the motorway" and especially "Lovely day", the ideal continuation of "The wild ones". A bet won by Anderson, then: the group would continue with decent inspiration until 2002, until reuniting with the beloved-hated Butler in the remarkable project The Tears. Old age reconciles minds, it's known, but it was a pleasant happy ending for those who feel a pinch of nostalgia for that period of English music.