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Picture courtesy of Cosmo the World's only MooCat.
| Value for Money | 9/10  |
|---|---|
| Overall rating | 9/10 |
| World of Karaoke Elvis Presley |  | £13.88P&P: £7.75 |
| Blue Suede Shoes Gonna Shake This Shack Tonight |  | £12.59P&P - Check site |
| La Reggae/Blue Suede Shoes | | £11.59P&P - Check site |
| Boppin' Blue Suede Shoes | | £4.99P&P - Check site |
| Blue Suede Shoes - A Rockabilly Session | | £7.44P&P - Check site |
Full review by
cosmo
expert review 
on 4th Aug 2004
User Rating : 9
Respect :
+1
Good Points: Fantastic lyrically and with brilliant, catchy guitars.
Bad Points: A couple of filler tracks. Listening to this before Bernard Butler's post-Suede output is depressing as he never quite fulfilled the potential he revealed on Suede's first 2 albums.
General comments: Suede's first, eponymous album was one of the most eagery-anticipated debuts of the 1990s. When Suede first arrived on the scene in a hail of arse-slapping publicity to usher in the debacle of Britpop with "The Drowners", they caused an unheard of amount of press coverage, and completely changed the face of indie rock music in Britain by making it accessible, exciting and a far more alluring prospect than the drudge-rock being foisted upon the nation by a host of second-rate American grunge bands.
Because Britpop is now so universally derided as a scene and perhaps because their later output failed to match up to their early promise, what seems to have been forgotten is exactly how shocking, celebratory and simply glorious their early work really was.
The first three singles, "The Drowners", "Metal Mickey" and "Animal Nitrate" positively ooze with electricity and sexual energy and Bernard Butler's glam-rock guitars drive the songs along at such a pace as to make it impossible not to stomp your feet. Brett Anderson's sexually-ambiguous lyrics are at once immediate and he creates such vivid, poetic portraits of his subjects that the listener starts to build a very lifelike picture of the seedy underbelly of suburban life.
When the album finally came along it was to rave reviews and the record itself surprised many journalists and fans who had been worried that Suede could not match the intensity of the early singles and b-sides. Although a a couple of tracks ("Moving," "Animal Lover") do feel a bit like filler, the album itself fulfills all the early promise. Although Suede's early singles were all loud, footstomping rock songs, the band reveal their ability to write lurid and atomospheric ballads as well, particularly the splendid "Pantomime Horse" and "Breakdown."
Suede, on their debut, create a vivid and, at times, disturbing portrait of suburban Britain, of cityscapes, trains, drugs and sex, bored housewives and depressed teenagers.
My advice is to overlook the "Britpop" tag, buy this album and revel in its energy, intensity and elegance.
cosmo's review and ratings | 373 words
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