Suede – Antidepressants – Album Review
by Killian Laher

Suede’s return just over 10 years ago has to be one of the most successful comebacks in music.  Unlike some of their peers, they haven’t just reformed to milk the fans for cash, but have now recorded five strong albums.  This album is equally as impressive as its four predecessors

It opens with the stomping Disintegrate, a song made for playing live.  Singer Brett Anderson belts the melody out over Richard Oakes’ guitar and a pounding beat.  The album has some of the catchiest songs they have recorded.  Anderson sounds like a tortured soul on Dancing with the Europeans and the spoken/sung title track that follows.  These songs are positively euphoric anthems, made to be sung back by a live audience.  Broken Music for Broken People is, despite its title, particularly jubilant.  Guitarist Richard Oakes has to be one of the more underrated guitarists around, yet his fine brand of jangle propels songs like Sweet Kid, Sound and the Summer, and Criminal Ways to great heights.

It’s not till six tracks in that there’s any real let-up in intensity.  The slowly building Somewhere Between An Atom and A Star adds some grime to the guitars, and the closing duo of June Rain and Life Is Endless, Life Is A Moment takes the tempo down a notch or two.  But these tracks are the exception; it’s an album full of guitar anthems.

The album plays like a collection of future greatest hits; the only reservation is will it have the depth of other albums, which are slower to reveal their charms?  It’s hard to see any Suede fan being disappointed with this.

Disintegrate