A new look Suede would remerge in 1996 for the release of their third album ‘Coming Up’ – adding to their ranks the Bernard Butler obsessed, teenage guitarist Richard Oakes, as well as keyboard player Neil Codling and his fabulous cheekbones. “It was a chance to do everything ‘Dog Man Star’ didn’t and make a bright, communicative album,” said Brett. “It’s like a pendulum: you go one way and then the other.” Butler, meanwhile, collaborated with singer David McAlmont upon leaving Suede (resulting in the classic single ‘Yes’), then went solo. He’s spent the last 25 collaborating with the likes of The Libertines, Duffy and Edwyn Collins. On their return, Anderson moved to Highgate, North London, where he lived in solitude, listening to the chanting of the Anabaptist Mennonite sect living in the flat next door and drawing on a fresh set of influences, from acid-fuelled dreams of Hollywood casualties to watching Performance on repeat. “By that point I’d become quite a strange person,” he says. “That’s what success does to you. I indulged my strange obsessions.” What exactly are you supposed to do when following up on one of the seminal albums of British music in the 1990s? Such was the conundrum facing Suede in 1994 as the critical acclaim of their out-of-nowhere debut and the subsequent burden of expectations regarding the sophomore record was taking its toll on the group. Relations between the wispy, effeminate, and at the time, unbearably egotistic vocalist Brett Anderson and lead guitarist Bernard Butler had soured to the point where Butler eventually left the band before completing the record. After a long and expensive recording span, A New Morning was released in 2002 and was a commercial and critical disappointment in the UK. The first single released from A New Morning, " Positivity", became the group's only single to chart in Canada, [11] and peaked at number one in Denmark. [3]

Suede themselves still regard the album as one of their best, but they have their reservations, particularly in regard to the production. Anderson had this to say about “ Moving”: What follows is a journey up and down the terrain of Anderson and Butler’s scarred imagination, with lyrics that encompass James Dean’s death, JG Ballard dystopias and a crushing sense of romantic doom, all imbued with the Suede tropes of nocturnal avenues under street lamps and brooding offices.Many insist that the nine-minutes and 25 seconds of ‘The Asphalt World’ on side two of the record is ‘Dog Man Star’s’ shiniest jewel. Suede bass player Mat Osman has said that the song – largely conceived by the bands increasingly prog-obsessed guitarist Bernard Butler – was originally intended to be 25 minutes long, with an eight-minute guitar solo wedged into the mix. “ Lots of the musical ideas were too much,” says Osman. “They were being rude to the listener: it was expecting too much of people to listen to them.” As usual it will come down to how much of a fan of the band you are and how much enjoyment you’ll get out of the physicality of this set, but ironically the biggest Suede fans are likely to be the most disappointed. On another new song, 'Daddy's Speeding', he takes Carroll from Alice In Wonderland to James Dean in Hollywood Babylon. Carroll's drug-dream collides in a car with Ballard's Crash, Anderson's "green fields" and "death machines" evoke Ballard's modern, barren landscape. There's also a bit of Kenneth Anger's infernal expose on Tinseltown thrown in too. Unsurprisingly, Brett has added acid to his usual diet of drugs - the heaven and hell drug, the opener of perceptual doors, the most un-Britpop of narcotics.

Copsey, Rob (22 September 2020). "Mercury Prize: The best-selling winning albums". Official Charts Company . Retrieved 24 September 2022. Cooper, Leonie (29 August 2014). "Suede to release 20th anniversary 'Dog Man Star' boxset". NME . Retrieved 9 December 2016. Furman, Michael (14 December 2006). "Suede – Dog Man Star". Tiny Mix Tapes . Retrieved 4 July 2013.

Brett took divine inspiration

Unlike Dog Man Star, Britpop gets worse with age (especially when compared to trip hop and drum and bass, whose long tails still wag today). After 1994 it became the most conservative music in pop history, perpetrated by the children of baby boomers brainwashed by the myths of the Sixties and desperate for a piece of the action. Part of that Sixties afterlife was the urge to ape a perceived Englishness and update it to include football and beer with guitars. a b c d Monks, Jon (1 September 2003). "Suede – Dog Man Star – On Second Thought". Stylus Magazine. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016 . Retrieved 15 June 2020. In terms of actual audio the answer is, in truth, not very much. In fact, not only is there no new audio (i.e. previously unreleased material) on this new anniversary set, there is actually LESS than on the previous deluxe reissue. For reasons unknown, the five demos that appended the album on CD 1 of the 2011 deluxe are missing from this big box. To make it clear there are only two CDs in this new box and they replicate the CDs in the old deluxe minus the demos. One bit of good news is that Stay Together is the FULL unedited long version not the slight edit from 2011. The wind howls. A door slams. Everything explodes into silence like the end of one of Dog Man Star's unfinished masterpieces. The remaining members of Suede breathe a collective sigh of relief and take the brass section through a rendition of 'The Girl From Ipanema'. Dog Man Star had to be finished without Butler. There were some overdubs he laid down at Konk, due to contractual obligations, although Buller now doubts that these were actually used. Parts of it benefitted, for sure. 'The Wild Ones' had its extended outro removed. Anderson and Buller made a loop of the singer's plaintive chorus refrain, glued it together with piano overdubs and faded the song out. It poppified the tune and a similar Butler outro felt far less bolted on when ending 'You Do', his single with David McAlmont. a b Petridis, Alexis (22 April 2005). "Frankly I hated Suede". The Guardian . Retrieved 27 July 2013.