Suede- antidepressants review

 Suede would have to be my favourite band, having beautiful ones as an earworm back when I was in year 9 led to a (hopefully) lifelong obsession with music. One thing in particular that makes this band shine is that unlike most late career bands they exist for a greater purpose than selling out stadiums. As Brett Anderson put it in the bands shows at the Southbank Centre ‘we are not a nostalgia act’. 

With antidepressants and it’s predecessor ‘autofiction’ (arguably an even greater album) the band have entered a ‘black and white’ era largely inspired by punk and post punk. A that while previously influential to suede had never took centre stage in the bands music. The band claim autofiction is the ‘punk’ album whilst antidepressants is the ‘post punk’ album but both are stylistic similar and honestly antidepressants is the one with the most ‘bite’ and ‘aggression’ out of the two. 

Take the album opener (and lead single) disintegrate, it has one of the heaviest guitar riffs of the band’s career, it’s a passionate rallying cry calling for the embrace of death, leading to a chorus built for live performances. Another heavier track is the sound and the summer, a song which could honestly be interpreted as being about anything from dogging to Brett threatening to kill his partner in a car crash. These are incredible tracks not just from a late career band but any band in general, having a punky edge autofiction somewhat lacked. 

Autofiction on the other hand arguably has more post punk tracks such as personality disorder and shadow self. In fact antidepressants only real purely ‘post punk’ track is the albums title track, an awkward, wiry, spindly, creature but with a guitar riff and chorus designed for stadium play. It’s not to say that the post punk influence isn’t scattered throughout, criminal ways is an instrumental love letter to Adam and the ants whereas trance state adopts a bass line akin to the cure. But they have a ‘suede flair’ distancing themselves from their influences. 

Actually there’s moments where the album follows suede tradition to a t and perhaps even to a fault? Dancing with the Europeans is very much a song written to be a single reminiscent of hit me or like kids from previous albums, it has post punk flair but it’s far from one of the band’s highlights. Sweet Kid is a tribute to Brett's son, a sort of sequel to life is golden from The Blue Hour… even though sweet kid doesn’t quite live up to life is golden… and the riff to sweet kid is highly reminiscent of dog man star’s classic new generation. 

Broken music for broken people also follows band tradition by being a rallying cry for the underdogs, similarly to trash. Although it inherits a bruce Springsteen influence with it’s riff and Brett's lyricism which provides a much welcome surprise. Another semi-traditional suede song on the album is somewhere between an atom and a star, it starts reminiscent of the tears track Apollo 13 but then briefly goes incredibly heavy with Brett chanting the line ‘one day it’ll all be uncovered’. The song reaches a fitting yet repetitive climax but a return to the songs brief heavy segment could’ve made it a suede classic. 

Although it’s the moments where suede are hitting new areas that are the best. Previously mentioned tracks: disintegrate, the sound and the summer and criminal ways all do that. But it’s the closing two tracks that do this the best. June rain is undeniably the album’s strongest song, a beautiful soft semi spoken ballad, perhaps suede’s saddest song of all time (with very strong competition) until giving the ultimate gut punch with the bold and passionate second chorus before settling down to Brett restating the song’s opening line: ‘I’m an alien on the opposite side of the road and you’ve clung to me despite the fact that I’ve let myself go’. It’s a beautiful moment which brings a tear to my eye. Following that song is an impossible task but life is endless life is a moment, is still a very strong song. Far more cryptic than almost any other suede song with only a few lines across a five minute runtime, but it still manages to capture an immense sense of memento mori. 

This album may not be the greatest suede album (in fact it’s my personal 6th favourite) but it shows a band willing to enter exciting territories. My only personal wish for album 11 is that they drift away even more from the norm.

8/10