Suede – Antidepressants (BMG)
Following on from the release of their last studio album ‘Autofiction’, Suede continue to captivate their fans with catchy, ethereal songs that perfectly sum up their sound. Whilst this release is described by vocalist Brett Anderson as the post-punk follow-up to their last punk album, it retains the hit of punk rock combined with chiming guitars recorded with founding bass player Mat Osman and long serving drummer, Simon Gilbert (drums).
The first track is also the first single, ‘Disintegrate’, which has an elasticity in smacking, hard hitting percussion diced up by the invite of the dancey chorus melody and even some synth keyboards. It’s hotly pursued by the band’s third single, ‘Dancing with the Europeans’, with summery guitars – the album’s ‘feel good’ outdoor dance anthem. Second single, ‘Antidepressants’ with its Banshees-like, creeping post-punk guitar is an about experiencing the delirium of medication highs. Further confused Banshees guitar features in the next track, ‘Sound and the Summer’ whilst ‘Somewhere Between and Atom and a Star’ is am ambient rock hallucination: it drifts the listener away to cosmic escapism tickled by psychedelic guitars.
Perhaps at the release’s heart is ‘Broken Music for Broken People’: it conjures up the concept of the album, saving the world from what Anderson describes as “the tensions of modern life, the paranoia, the anxiety, the neurosis…in a disconnected world.” Osman brings post-punk funk into the mix with the reverberating ‘Criminal Ways’ and the album’s second single, ‘Trance State’; the latter is perhaps the best track on the entire release – its stripped down bassline underpins a kaleidoscope of guitars and ends on jibing keys.
The album closes on the rocking slumber of bittersweet guitars in ‘Life is Endless, Life is a Moment’, about getting older but feeling youthful at the same time which goes to illustrate the point that, whilst Suede have a particular similar euphoric sound structure to a lot of their music, their diamond retention of upbeat punch and multi-faceted approach to songwriting makes this yet another great record released against the pressures of the modern day on artists who have spanned such a long duration in their career to stay this creative.
‘Antidepressants’ is available now on vinyl, CD and digitally.
© Ayisha Khan.