The Best of Suede

When Britpop first began to cohere as a concept and a potential mission statement, no band defined its vague, abstract ideas better than Suede. By the time Britpop became an actual going concern, Suede were simply grandfathered in; and when the whole thing spittered to its post-Oasis peak, Suede were considered washed up. But in 1993, they were the creators of the fastest-selling debut LP in UK history and had been anointed as saviors of British indie before their debut single, "The Drowners", even hit the shops. This made them a natural for the British press to create ideas around, and so when Select argued for a return to wit, artifice, glamor, and British art school traditions, Suede were easy avatars for those hopes.

Wit, artifice, and glamor may have been foreign to bands like Oasis or Cast or Ocean Colour Scene, but for many in 1993 they were welcome respites from a hangover of faceless, egoless electronic producers and gruff, dour American arena rock. On the relative margins of UK music, Tricky and PJ Harvey and the Tindersticks lurked-- and the Aueturs and Saint Etienne were also considered prototypical British hopes-- but Suede could articulate the desires of the outsider while broadcasting over Radio 1. Like Pulp, although perhaps neither band would be into the comparison, Suede were a more acceptable and easy to grasp Big New Thing. And, also like Pulp, they were comfortable creating complex pop songs about human relationships-- fluid with notions of sexuality and openly pursuant of lust and animal drives in an demure indie world that favors flowers and letters. Try to imagine, for example, Jarvis Cocker or Brett Anderson wooing someone by making them a mixtape?

Unusually, however, they were introspective about the whole thing too. While American glam revivalists like the Dandy Warhols wallowed in a cliché of leather jackets and rock'n'roll decadence, Suede inhabited those worlds at night and seemed to be able make some sense of the consequences and their motivations in the light of day. They did epic and visceral but they also did delicate and tortured. These twin poles-- crunchy glam rock and fragile balladeering-- found them at their best. They slipped when they lived between those worlds, aiming for the midtempo and MOR. As a result, there's a lot to admire about Suede, and a lot to ridicule, and they typically go hand in hand. In the end, Suede had no tribal allegiances, and few nationalistic desires; they were essentially fueled by youth, low-rent glamor, available drugs, cheap thrills, and the hangover and harm one gets from their pursuit. If they romanticized anything, it was being young and bored and free. Ordinariness was the enemy.

The group was undoubtedly at its best during its first few years, when guitarist Bernard Butler was still acting as ambitious musical foil to singer Brett Anderson's anguished, romantic lyricist, and this is reflected on the new 2xCD collection The Best of Suede. The first disc of the set is essentially a replay of their singles collection, dropping a few late inessentials; the second is a very well-chosen selection of album tracks and B-sides from throughout their career, but mostly from the era surrounding the band's 1993 self-titled debut and 1994's Dog Man Star, which was finished without Butler after a walkout over creative differences.

On the whole then, this provides a pretty complete, accurate picture of who Suede were, something that would have been incomplete without that second disc. The group's singles tend to fall into the glam-rock half of their work; it's disc two that elevates this set into something special, and into all the Suede that most people will ever need. In hindsight, it's striking how little the band fit into the landscape that coalesced around it. The band's first five singles-- "The Drowners", "Metal Mickey", "Animal Nitrate", "So Young", and "Stay Together"-- and their B-sides (five of which are here) foisted a charismatic, direct group onto the UK's shoegaze- and Madchester-soaked indie scene of the years prior.

In the end, Britpop soon became about a desperate need to fit in; Suede made great pains, for a time, to stand out. The protracted Dog Man Star sessions left the band in a few pieces, but the sheer scale and willingness to work without a net was at odds with most of their peers. The resulting record is full of pomp or pomposity depending on whom you ask, and there are no apologies for it here: The band wisely include the full, widescreen 20-minute run of "The 2 of Us", "The Asphalt World", and "Still Life" on this compilation.

After the departure of Butler, Suede again kicked against fashion: Unlike their pioneering peers, however-- Blur looked west for their self-titled 1997 album; Pulp made a hangover record-- they eased into the second phase of their career by retreating to their past. When guitarist Bernard Butler split to put together one great single with David McAlmont, and little else, Suede hired Richard Oakes, a 17-year-old Bulter acolyte located through their fanclub. Oakes did his best Butler-circa-Suede impersonation on their comeback LP Coming Up, and Anderson shifted into self-parody on a few of his lyrics. The band got by on hooks and gumption, and oddly became a bigger success than ever, enjoying five Top 10 singles in the UK and taking off throughout the rest of Europe.

Retracing their steps was naturally a sloppy affair creatively, however, with second-hand retreads and just plain gaffes. Another weak album later, and a comeback that few remember, filled out the rest of the group's career, and although the cherry-picked songs from those sessions sound better here in retrospect, nobody was going to break sales records or receive early hype based on the strength of something like "Everything Will Flow". These few songs are here to make up the numbers and provide a complete picture. And this is a complete picture: This is one of the most warts-and-all bands of our time-- their risk/reward divide was off the charts. In today's more timid climate, it would be almost unthinkable.