After safely negotiating those choppy comeback waters with 2013’s robust Bloodsports, Suede go in for something altogether more ambitious. Their seventh album is a grand beast, decorously detailed with orchestras, sumptuous regret, and desire untamed. Songs bleed into each other, there’s a wonderfully indulgent (and well-earned) reprise, and Brett Anderson has rarely channeled his lithe, lascivious energy more effectively. He’s electric on “Outsiders” and “No Tomorrow”—that swagger now rich with self-reproach. “Pale Snow,” “I Can’t Give Her What She Wants,” and “The Fur & the Feathers,” meanwhile, are exquisite portraits of a band using their grueling past to move masterfully onto a new chapter.
- 2022
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- Bernard Butler
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