Having assessed the careers of many other artists that have guested on the show using ‘Brett’s Curve’ (sic) as a benchmark, how would Brett Anderson reflect on the career of Suede with hindsight and the objectivity of wisdom, along with freedom from the attachments of the band’s earlier career? As expected, Brett has some fascinating things to say: “I don’t know if longevity should necessarily be a goal”. Well, now this is a turn up for the books…
Suede (or, The London Suede for our friends in the USA) has reached 30 years in the business (well, minus the seven years the band was officially split in 2003). As singer Brett Anderson hits mid-50s, you cannot accuse him, or the band, of being boring. The energy and vitality of Suede’s 9th studio album Autofiction is striking, as are the band's recent live performances. More than that however, the album is Suede’s strongest batch of rock songs since, well, perhaps since ever.
This is all the more remarkable in a sense, coming off the back of The Blue Hour (2018), which was also a remarkable record, albeit very different to Autofiction, with lush production, strings and field recordings. It suggests Suede is a band reborn, on top of their game.
I spoke to Brett on the eve of the release of Autofiction and found him in fine fettle, excited at the prospect of promoting the record (how refreshing is that!) and discovering how it would land with both critics and fans. Not least because in a sense, it is a full-circle record that harks back to Suede’s beginnings 30 years ago (that first EP The Drowners in 1992) but at the same time comes across fresh, confident and modern.
On listening to the new L.P. I was immediately struck by two songs in particular, ‘Personality Disorder’ and ‘Shadow Self’. On these songs, Brett goes for a spoken word verse, influenced by the recent trend set by young British bands such as Dry Cleaning, Yard Act and Working Mens Club. Brett wanted to give it a go, never having tried the vocal technique before, and the results are superb. He’s good at it for one thing, but for another - both songs have a liberated, post-punk vitality.
However, to pick out songs from Autofiction isn’t really the point. The pandemic and the resurgence of vinyl have conspired to create the perfect conditions for the revival of the album as a whole, cohesive work. So many bands have taken a ‘back to basics’ approach (“the search for primitivism” as Brett terms it) with their post-pandemic records but the songs on Autofiction took four years to write, with the final selected 11 songs paired down from 50. The band is also on a new label (BMG) and launching the record with a series of small intimate shows, including two recent secret gigs as ‘Crushed Kid’.
With the band already having released a high grade b-sides collection (1997’s Sci-Fi Lullabies) it is a very real prospect that some of those other 39 songs might see light of day - indeed the idea seems to strike Brett as a good one. I do hope there might be a companion piece to Autofiction before too long.
This isn’t just another episode of The Art of Longevity but one in which Brett and I discuss the whole concept of the show (which he inspired) - the career arc of rock & pop bands - a process that has all the inevitability of “the lifecycle of a frog”.
The way Brett put it himself in the second part of his autobiography, Afternoons With The Blinds Drawn, is thus:
“Every band follows the same sort of career arc with the same points plotted grimly along the way like the Stations of the Cross: struggle, success, success, excess, disintegration and if you’re lucky - enlightenment”.
Having assessed the careers of many other artists that have guested on the show using ‘Brett’s Curve’ (sic) as a benchmark, how would Brett reflect on Suede’s career with hindsight and the objectivity of wisdom along with freedom from the attachments of the bands earlier career?
Wonderfully contradictory, Brett’s pointed longevity advice includes some gems:
“I don’t know if longevity should necessarily be a goal. There is plenty of music made by bands who’ve made one record. For me, longevity just came about because of the obsession of doing what I do, recognition of my flaws and always thinking that you’ll never be good enough. The search for perfection, the journey, the search…that’s the point of it”.
It’s a fascinating conversation and a fitting season finale…but for Brett and his band wow, what a time to hit new heights. As he sings on Autofiction’s opening track (an ode to his mum) “In many ways I’m still a young boy”. Being forever youthful might just help with longevity too.
Autofiction is available here. Suede are touring now.