Coming Up (thing)

Coming Up is Suede's third full length album, and the first full length after guitarist Bernard Butler's leaving. Although many fans will swear up and down and all around that this is awful simply because Bernard is not on here anymore, I must say that there's nothing wrong with this at all. It's more of a second coming for the band. There's no gothic melodrama as on Dog Man Star, instead we have more of a return to the days of the their self titled. A kind of party record. Yet hints of melancholy assert themselves from time to time, but I don't think anything Brett Anderson has done doesn't have a hint of melancholy.

The thing that bothered me the most when I first heard the album were Brett's vocals. I thought that on Dog Man Star his voice had matured to a great sound. Theatrical, yet never really over-done. However on here Brett simplified, which is fine, as his vocals mix in quite well with the more straight forward music. On here there's more of a party sound, think more "Metal Mickey" than "The 2 of Us". I think the band was more under the influence of the rave culture at the time (though not as much as they would be on 1999's Head Music), as there's very much a fashion, go clubbing feel to this album. That's not bad, but it may be surprising to fans who have only heard the first two Suede cds.

Despite all that many hold against this record I think it's one of Suede's most enjoyable cds. However that is in a more shut down your brain and just let the grooves and sounds come in and make you happy. Suede are content to lay back and write some good poppy songs and that's perfectly fine with me.

(However from what I hear about the B-Sides from the songs off of here Suede were also experimenting in studio with darker songs and etc. I'd be interested in hearing these, so I guess I need to pick up Sci-Fi Lullabies).

Track Listing

1: Trash
2: Filmstar
3: Lazy
4: By the Sea
5: She
6: Beautiful Ones
7: Starcrazy
8: Picnic by the Motorway
9: The Chemistry Between Us
10: Saturday Night