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Rating:
One of the secondary features of '90s Brit pop bands was their ability to produce great b-sides during a period when the 45 rpm format was losing its commercial appeal.
Suede wisely decided to compile their best b-sides from the time of their debut LP into a double CD, allowing them to ride the success of their previous album Coming Up from '96.
The double CD was released in 1997 and essentially contains all the b-sides from their singles (taken from Suede, Dog Man Star and Coming Up) in chronological order of release with CD1 essentially presenting the band during the era of their first guitarist Butler and CD2 featuring compositions after his departure and the inclusion of Oakes on guitars and Codling on keyboards.
This is a collection of excellent musical quality that stands on par with the band's other releases.
The sounds, much more than what can be inferred from the albums, are a tribute to the Smiths school and Brett Anderson's voice sounds especially (particularly on CD1) like Morrissey's, while Butler has committed to memory and made his own the arpeggios and riffs of Johnny Marr, thus creating a sonic canvas made of dissonances and glissandos that form the musical backdrop upon which Anderson's naive melodies are drawn.
It's pointless to compare the two discs and thus the two different periods of the band: certainly the b-sides authored by Anderson/Butler have a higher level of originality compared to the later tracks composed by Anderson with Oakes. This will become more evident when listening to the b-sides from the singles extracted (but not included in this collection) from the LP Head Music of '99 and from New Morning of 2002.
Particularly notable are "My Dark Star", "Whipsnade", "Modern Boys" (from the first CD) and "Another No One", "Young Man" and "W.S.D." (from the second CD).
Definitely an album to buy if you're a fan of Brit pop with a glam twist.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 To the Birds (05:23)
Don't take your life cos your bicycle won't fly
You may be going to heaven tonight
Don't spoil the show for the love of some albino
You won't be going to heaven alone
I see her by the window waiting every night
So I wouldn't give a shit if your bicycle's in bits
I think I'm going to heaven on it
I see her by the window pour the poison from you
I'll go there through the window in my sixteen hole boots
And I'll sing to the birds here at my side
And I'll sing to the birds that will save my life...
Don't take your life cos your bicycle won't fly
You may be going to heaven tonight
I wouldn't give a shit if your bicycle's in bits
I think I'm going to heaven on it
I see her by the window and I see there's a day
We'll walk out through the traiffic and pour the poison away
So I'll sing to the birds there at my side
And I'll sing to the birds who will save my life
na na na na na na na
...I will lie down for her
04 He's Dead (05:13)
I wake up every day,
But I don't want it that way
I take my thoughts to the round about
Cause me and them we like to get out
Oh what you do in your head,
You do in your head
Oh if he is dead
He said he had a horrible house
I looked in it and learnt to shut my mouth
He said I had the luck of a son
With all the love and poison of London
Oh what you do in your head
You do in your head
Oh if he is dead
Oh what you do in your head
You do in your head
Oh if he is dead...
05 The Big Time (04:28)
I watch the slow hand kill the day
See my starring role tick away
I watch the skyline for him to come
And when he comes along we'll be gone
And we'll go into the city
Into the light
We'll be there in the headlines
There overnight
Cause this is the big time
This is the way
Now he's in the big time
He'll show you the way
This is the big time
This is the way
Now he's in the big time
And you're in the way
08 My Dark Star (04:26)
In a hired car she will come to England from the sea
And as the tide flows the London snows will come.
And from the skyline shines the lies of the government's singular history
So in a hired world she will buy a gun
And she will come from India with a love in her eyes
That say oh how my dark star will rise
In rented gear 2000 years we waited for a man
But with a tattooed tear she'd die for us all tonight.
And she will come from India with a gun at her side,
Or she will come from Argentina
With her cemetery eyes that say
Oh, how my dark star will rise,
...and she will rise.
11 Modern Boys (04:08)
come unto me my winter son
we could lie on the rails
and when the morning comes
we'll be miles away, miles away
slipping away while the city sleeps
running away from this cruel disease
miles away, miles away
modern boys, modern boys
hand in hand
sick of the fear
chasing away all the hungry years
we're the modern boys
come unto me my sickly thing
we could lie on the rails
but to really win
we'll just drive away, drive away
yes the world calls my international
so let the decades die
let the parties fall
and we'll be miles away, miles away
'cos we'll be living like
modern boys, modern boys
hand in hand
sick of the fear
chasing away all the hungry years
we're the modern boys, modern boys
into the night, under the stars
jumping the lights in the silent cars
he's on your left
i'm on your right
it's so easy in the concrete night
14 Europe Is Our Playground (05:36)
Run with me baby, let your hair down
Through every station, through every town
Run with me baby, let's take a chance
From Heathrow to Houndslow, from the Eastern block to France
Europe is our playground, London is our town
So run with me baby now
Run with me baby, let your hair down
Through every station, through every town
Run with me baby, let's make a stand
From peepshow to disco, from Spain to Camber Sands
Europe is our playground, London is our town
So run with me baby now
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