•
Rating: Three years after the success of "Comin' Up" and two after the b-sides collection "Sci-Fi Lullabies", in 1999 it was time for Suede to release their fourth studio album, titled "Head Music".
Recorded between '98 and '99 and produced by a big name like Steve Osborne (The Happy Mondays, Curve, Placebo, Doves, New Order, The B-52's), the album represents a sought-after and strongly desired shift by Anderson and company compared to the excellent predecessor.
Suede, in fact, strive to integrate what are now their distinctive sounds with a more aseptic and electronic approach. The involvement of Neil Codling's keyboards is, therefore, more prominent in the structure of the tracks compared to Richard Oakes' guitar, who, however, had earned respect while replacing a key element like Bernard Butler. Codling even tries his hand at songwriting with the rock-nursery rhyme "Elephant Man", the only track not produced by Osborne, but by Bruce Lampcov instead.
Not that Oakes hides away, of course: just listen to the leading single "Electricity", which combines the usual guitar approach with a pleasant dose of well-balanced electronics, maintaining the melodic charge that was prominently featured in "Comin' Up". "Savoir Faire", exclusively penned by Anderson, combines the synthesizer with a captivating and glam melody, then makes way for the robotic pop rock of "Can't Get Enough". "Everything Will Flow" is a beautiful linear, epic, and engaging ballad, as are the other more introspective tracks of the album, among which the best is undoubtedly "Down", evocative and splendid in its simplicity. Brett, then, delivers one of his best vocal performances ever. Mid-tempo tracks like the hit "She's In Fashion" or electric episodes like the title track instead bring the mind back to the more typical Suede of their earlier works. The closing track, "Crack In The Union Jack," also penned entirely by Brett Anderson, is polemical and scathing from its title.
In the end, this "Head Music" may not be the most beautiful album, but certainly the most complete and interesting of Suede's career, and will be their third LP to reach the top of the UK charts. The subsequent "A New Morning" and the best of "Singles" would (definitively?) draw the curtain on this great band.
Key tracks: Electricity, Savoir Faire, Down
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Can't Get Enough (04:15)
I feel real now walking like a woman and talking like a stone age man
I feel real now talking like buddha and doing it again
I get kick I rip it up kick it up take it like a teenage tough
I feel real now talking like sugar and shaking that stuff
Singing I can't get enough
Singing I can't get enough
I feel schizo every so psycho kicking at an old tin can
I feel real like a man like a woman like a woman like a man
I make dead space feel like a headcase take it like a teenage tough
And feel real now watching those wheels and shaking that stuff
Singing I can't get enough
Singing I can't get enough
Singing I can't get enough
Singing I can't get enough
I feel real now walking like a woman and talking like a stone age man
I feel real now talking like buddha and doing it again
So give me this and give me that smother me and give me some of that bad stuff
I feel real now talking like sugar and shaking that stuff
Singing I can't get enough
Singing I can't get enough
Singing I can't get enough
Singing I can't get enough
02 Beautiful Ones (03:44)
High on diesel and gasoline, psycho for drum machine
shaking their bits to the hits,
Drag acts, drug acts, suicides, in your dad's suits you hide
staining his name again,
Cracked up, stacked up, 22, psycho for sex and glue
lost it to Bostik, yeah.
Shaved heads, rave heads, on the pill, got too much time too kill
get into bands and gangs.
Oh, here they come, the beautiful ones, the beautiful ones La la la la la
here they come, the beautiful ones, the beautiful ones La la la la la
Loved up, Doved up, hung around, stoned in a lonely town
shaking their meat to the beat,
High on diesel and gasoline, psycho for drum machine
shaking their bits to the hits,
Oh, here they come, the beautiful ones, the beautiful ones. La la la la la
Here they come, the beautiful ones, the beautiful ones La la la la la
You don't think about it,
You don't do without it,
because you're beautiful,
And if your baby's going crazy
that's how you made me,
la, la, la, la....
And if your baby's going crazy
that's how you made me,
And if your baby's going crazy
that's how you made me,
la, la, la, la....
la, la, la, la la, la, la, la la, la, la, la la, la, la, la la la la la
04 She's in Fashion (03:25)
She's the face on the radio
She's the body on the morning show
She's there shaking it out on the scene
She's the colour of a magazine
And she's in fashion
She's in fashion
She's employed where the sun don't set
And she's the shape of a cigarette
And she's the shake of a tambourine
And she's the colour of a magazine
And she's in fashion
And she's in fashion
Oh and if she tells you 2 is 1
then 2 is 1 my love,
Oh and if she tells you, you should know,
then you should know my love,
She is strung out on a TV dream
And she's the taste of gasoline
And she's as similar as you can get
To the shape of a cigarette
And she's in fashion
And she's in fashion
05 Saturday Night (05:09)
Today she's been working, she's been talking,
she's been smoking, its gonna be alright
Cos tonight we'll go dancing, we'll go laughing, we'll get car sick
and it'll be okay like everyone says, it'll be alright and ever so nice
We're going out tonight, out and about tonight
Oh whatever makes her happy on a Saturday night
Oh whatever makes her happy, whatever makes it alright
Today she's been sat there, sat there in a black chair,
office furniture, but it'll be alright
Cos tonight we'll go drinking, we'll do silly things
and never let the winter in
And it'll be okay like everyone says, it'll be alright and ever so nice
We're going out tonight, out and about tonight.
Oh whatever makes her happy on a Saturday night
Oh whatever makes her happy, whatever makes it alright
...we'll go peepshows and freak shows,
We'll go to discos, casinos,
We'll go where people go and let go...
...oh whatever makes her happy...
Loading comments slowly
