Have Suede ever bettered their debut?

[Goat Boy]

They never bettered the debut but I prefer Dog Man Star, partly for sentimental reasons but its vaulting ambition is rare for that period. I love records that really go for it.

The debut is wonderful though and the b-sides of that period were mostly great too. They really had something great going on and then Butler left and some of the magic did too even if Coming Up has a hooky immediacy that is still appealing. I get what Quaco would like it. It's old fashioned but in the right way (i.e. let's write 10 strong songs and make a 40 minute album with some hits in there)

[Count Machuki]

Aren't they called English Suede over there?

That assumes they’re spoken of, and they really aren’t.

They're really not. But if they were, it'd be London Suede. London Suede.

[GoogaMooga]

They have their most devoted following in Denmark. One time they appeared at the annual four day Roskilde Festival, and ended up playing not one, but three gigs, which is unheard of at the festival. Everyone else, big or small, gets booked for one gig.

[Deebank]

Did they ever make it in the U.S.?

Not in my experience, excepting a couple of the "cool kids"

As I recall, at the height of their UK fame they left to conquer the US.

They toured with The Cranberries who came off the tour as stars while Suede headed back to Blighty tails between legs.

[Deebank]

Aren't they called English Suede over there?

That assumes they’re spoken of, and they really aren’t.

They're really not. But if they were, it'd be London Suede. London Suede.

Bollocks! They’re from Hayward’s Heath!

[Count Machuki]

Hayward's Heath Suede doesn't really have the same zip to it.

[Samoan]

[Deebank]

Hayward's Heath Suede doesn't really have the same zip to it.

The Wivelsfield Suede?
The Three Bridges Suede?

Hmm, you might have a point.

[50 Shades Of Blue]

Did they ever make it in the U.S.?

Not in my experience, excepting a couple of the "cool kids"

As I recall, at the height of their UK fame they left to conquer the US.

They toured with The Cranberries who came off the tour as stars while Suede headed back to Blighty tails between legs.

Which is absurd.
Hard to think of anything more boring than listening to The Cranberries

[Darkness_Fish]

Other than Suede.

[Geezee]

The debut is wonderful though and the b-sides of that period were mostly great too. They really had something great going on and then Butler left and some of the magic did too

I'll never forget I guess what must have been the summer of 1994 my friend and I were wandering around a festival that used to happen every year in Stockholm, looking for girls. We did this every year when i came back to sweden over the summers, and as awkward teenagers we rarely had much success. But this day, we struck gold - we met two gorgeous girls and they wandered the festival with us across an idyllic summer's day, went to the amusement park together etc, and as the day turned to evening my friend and i glanced at each other and started genuinely thinking that this might happen. Conversation turned to music, and turns out that these girls were massive Suede fans. They couldn't stop talking about their favourite songs, and my friend and I got even more into it because they were one of our favourite bands too. In fact my friend, an excellent singer, could sound incredibly like Brett Anderson when singing, and he serenaded them with The Drowners. The girls were talking excitedly about an upcoming album and tour that apparently Suede were going to do, and I turned to them and asked point blank - "but hold on, don't you know that Butler left the band and everything's gone to shts with the band?"...this of course being a time where it could take weeks or months for news to get out about something. We were sitting in a rollercoaster ride at that moment, and in my memory the actual ride stopped and instead the whole world started swirling around us - the girls looked at me and when they understood I was serious, they started balling their eyes out. When the ride stopped, the girls left, still crying, and we never saw them again. If I could turn back time, this is one of many times that I'd like to go back and punch myself before I'm about to say anything.

Yes, a bit of magic did die.

[Goat Boy]

Doh!

[GoogaMooga]

Bernard Butler's solo album I read wasn't much cop, though.

[The Slider]

I have never really seen the supposed godlike genius in Dog Man Star.
I like it least of the first four.
3,1,4,2 in my world
I don't know the subsequent ones well enough to say beyond that

But The Drowners is my favourite song by them.

[Mike Boom]

the debut is still their best for me

[northernsky]

Bernard Butler's solo album I read wasn't much cop, though.

Oh, it has its moments. There’s just a sapping lack of personality.

Guess I used to rate Dog Man Star over the debut, now I’d rank them similarly. Coming Up was just fine, but seemed a bit facile somehow - like it didn’t mean as much anymore. That said, I never saw them with Butler in the band but I did see them with Oakes and Codling, just after Coming Up, and they were absolutely fucking dynamite.

Their later albums bored me, but I just luv ”She’s in Fashion”, to the point of annoying colleagues by playing it on repeat.

[Quaco]

They really passed me by. I only know one or two songs.

Welcome to your new walking down the road arm in arm Saturday night pissed to the gills song...

[harvey k-tel]

Eesh. Does his voice always sound like that?

[The Slider]

Yes
Even moreso most of the time.

[northernsky]

Eesh. Does his voice always sound like that?

No, he’s mostly much more mannered than that.