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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

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