Skip to main content

Dog Man Star - Suede

 


Released: 1994

Label: Nude

When I bought: sometime around 2010/2011

Poor old Suede. They did all the Britpop stuff first didn't they, but they just don't get the credit. Mercury Music Prize win, failing to break America, lead singer breaking up with Justine Frischmann. They did it all first.

And, as their second album shows, even Be Here Now.

Yep, that's what Dog Man Star is. A ridiculous, overblown, self-indulgent record that is essentially egos run amok.

Every idea is taken to the nth degree, every song has layers upon layers upon layers, and the lyrics are full of so much melodrama it would make Morrissey wince.

But my god, it absolutely works.

'Introducing The Band' kicks things off with huge sounding drums, while it takes Brett Anderson mere minutes to start singing about "the tears of suburbia".

'We Are The Pigs' gets things going properly, and in comes that epic Bernard Butler guitar tone that helped make Suede's debut album such a glorious record. The song features sleazy brass ripped off from the Peter Gunn theme, and ends with children's voices singing the refrain "we all watch them burn." This is still just the second song remember.

The album is just full of melodrama and washed with reverb. It is supposed to sound huge, and it does. 'The Wild Ones' is a love song that the band perhaps wanted non-album single 'Stay Together' to be. Brett starts the tune dropping his voice as low as he can go, before building up to the glorious song title in the chorus.

Much like how 'Be Here Now' had its influences writ large, so does 'Dog Man Star'. 'The Power' has the la la la la bit from 'Starman', while Brett tries his full Diamond Dogs era Bowie on 'This Hollywood Life' - an incredible piece of gothic glam.

Not that Bernard Butler is shying away for showing off his record collection. His guitar playing is absolutely cranked to 11. The fuzz on his sound on 'The Hollywood Life' is insane, and half way through the 9 minute opus that is 'The Asphalt World', Butler finally manages to turn Suede into Pink Floyd, something he'd been trying to do the whole album.

Closing track 'Still Life' starts off simple, then a 40-piece orchestra arrives and it turns into Disney ballad. Is it too much? It's a bit like a waiter bringing you more dessert after you've said you're full. Sure, it tastes great, but is it necessary? 

As is well documented, Brett and Bernard barely spoke during the making of this album, with the guitarist leaving the band before the record was complete.

Easy to say with hindsight, but you can hear the tension in the music, with the two in a seemingly constant state of oneupmanship via vocals and guitar lines.

Perhaps it's for the best Butler left. Another album like this would have been ridiculous. Indeed, at the time, many thought this album was indeed that, but then it was released just weeks after Oasis shifted the direction of guitar music with 'Definitely Maybe', and this sort of melodrama was out of vogue. A 'beer and football' record this ain't.

Listening now, what a gem. An ode to bombast, ambition, and indulgence. Serve it up again, please.

9/10

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Franz Ferdinand – Franz Ferdinand

Year Released: 2004 Label: Domino Year Bought: 2004 January 2004. I'd just quit uni. Was back at the family home in Bishop's Stortford. The place I'd been so desperate to get away from, and I was back and already bored.  And then things got a bit less boring. I remember this so clearly. I was having a shower and the radio was on, and on came 'Take Me Out'. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. At first I thought it must be an old tune that had passed me by, but no, it was announced as a new song by a band called Franz Ferdinand. It sounded glorious. It sounded interesting. After the staleness of the post-Britpop years, and beigeness of Coldplay, Travis et al, there was actually a British band doing something interesting. I loved it, and when the album came out the next month, I gobbled it up with glee. Listening back now, and I still love it. The hushed opening of 'Jacqueline', the sleaze of 'The Dark of the Matinee', the homoeroticism of 'M...
Post a Comment
Read more

NME Awards 2004 - Various Artists

  Released: 2004 Label: NME When I bought: 2004 In ye olde days before streaming, and even YouTube, it wasn't possible to hear within a matter of moments pretty much every song ever released. Therefore, compilations like this by the NME actually had a degree of value. Take 'Paperbag Writer' by Radiohead, a b-side from 'There There', the lead single from 2003's Hail to the Thief. I bought the album but not the single, so I'd never heard this tune. It's a brilliant track, with its electronic shuffle beat and muffled vocals making it sound like a left over from Kid A, or the starting point for Thom Yorke's debut solo album which would be released the following year. Likewise, 'See You Soon' by Coldplay. A true delight from a 1999 EP, with delicate guitar playing, scarce production, and honest vocal delivery. It's a reminder that once upon a time Chris Martin et al were able to operate with that oft-neglected trait: restraint. As a snapshot o...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Good, The Bad & The Queen - The Good, The Bad & The Queen

  Released: 2007 Label: Parlophone,  Honest Jon's When I bought: 2007 Damon Albarn plus Paul Simonon from The Clash plus Simon Tonge from The Verve plus Tony Allen who helped create the Afrobeat genre. A pretty strong 'supergroup'. I listened to this album perhaps twice when I bought it in 2007 and remember being really bored by it.  Now I'm older, greyer and generally less angry at the world, would a re-listen spark joy? No. Urgh. This album is just so dull. First of all, the mix is terrible. I get that when you have the bass player from The Clash you want to hear him, but the bass just dominates the sound.  As a result, Albarn's vocals are buried for much of the album, and the melodies aren't strong enough to hold the attention. The album is primarily led by piano and acoustic guitar, and Albarn is trying his full 'I'm an authentic geezer' act, but it feels likes no one is really pushing themselves. This album was adored by critics at the time. I d...
Post a Comment
Read more