Dog Man Star

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It's a lovely song, panoramic in scope, boundless in its generosity, taking in Asia, fields of Cathay and pebbledash graves, the wings of youth and the entrapped. Starting life as an ode to meritocracy, it's the happy face of Dog Man Star's ambition, of coming from nothing and making something, and inspired by left wing politics. The second verse strikes a sadder note amid the jubilation, speaking of lives lived "for a screen kiss" the unattainable embrace sought by the truly lonely and that "English disease", belonging to "a world that's gone". From an early 'Pantomime Horse' draft onwards, "gone" had become something of a favourite in the Anderson lexicon, conflating loss, narcotic oblivion and romantic surrender in one syllable. Bernard Butler is in his West Hampstead flat, demoing material for Suede's eagerly anticipated follow-up to their eponymous first album, the Mercury Music-award-winning, fastest-selling debut since Frankie. Music is pouring out of him at an alarming rate. On the demos, guitar lines are flying everywhere on endless reams of odd, distorted music, music with an almost violent creative streak, music that roars with the joy of creation, music that sobs with real loss and loneliness. All these compositions have one common purpose; to tear up the blueprint that has proved to be such a winning formula for Suede. In the words of future friend and collaborator Edwyn Collins, he wants to "rip it up and start again". Bereavement and clashes over the album's producer heightened the tension and, with just one part to complete on the album, Butler walked out for good. Suddenly, having blazed the trail for Britpop, they returned with an album deemed out of step with its sunny positivism. a b Tangari, Joe (7 June 2011). "Suede: Suede [Deluxe Edition] / Dog Man Star [Deluxe Edition]". Pitchfork . Retrieved 8 April 2013.

These performances showed a total commitment to singing, to experimenting and matching his musical partner's, his co-star's audacity. In the studio Anderson would get in character, spending hours perfecting the intonation of the title in 'Daddy's Speeding' until the second word sounded like a "silver car accelerating". Even the singing was trying to be seen. Butler seemed to antagonise his bandmates when he appeared on the front cover of Vox magazine under the tag line "Brett drives me insane." [17] In a rare interview, in that he only ever would do press interviews on the pretext it was about guitars, he said of Anderson: "He's not a musician at all. It's very difficult for him to get around anything that isn't ABC." [17] A despondent Anderson remembers reading the article the same morning he was recording the vocals for "The Asphalt World": "I remember trying to channel all this hurt that I was feeling and the iciness I was feeling into the vocal." [18] Butler later apologised to Anderson over the incident. Ed Buller on producing Suede: "All these awful stories came out that are completely untrue", Alice Gustafson, Headliner Magazine, 7 February 2022 When the record was eventually released, it caused barely a ripple on the music scene; Blur and Oasis were already sharing the spotlight with Pulp. The only enthusiastic group seemed to be the critics, having found an excuse to write ‘sophomore slump’ on yet another review. Unlike most reformed bands, Suede still have the same creative fire in their belly and have released some of their best material, with the current album Autofiction being named Louder Than War’s album of 2022. The prospect of seeing this performed live is one that has resulted in sold-out shows right across the country Suede are still a big draw. The timing for the gig works out well for me, having watched the first episode of Channel 5’s Britpop series and reading bassist Mat Osman’s novel The Ruins. Suede are taking up a fair amount of space in my head at the moment.All except Suede and Dog Man Star: "Discographie Suede". lescharts.com (in French). Hung Medien . Retrieved 12 April 2013. We were competing with the great records of the past; that's what we had to prove with it. I was trying to write without any boundaries. I was living in a bizarre house in north London, taking lots and lots of hallucinogenic drugs, and writing in a stream of consciousness about anything I wanted and pushing myself as an artist. Dog Man Star is a real testament to what you can create when you want to push yourself as far as you can go." Further north, in Sheffield, Pulp's Mike Leigh vignettes meet the steel city's synth heritage in increasingly poppier forms. In Manchester two brothers are fronting a band called Oasis. Noel Gallagher hears 'Animal Nitrate' on the radio and is galvanised to pen 'Some Might Say', a future number one. Oasis' logo is the swirl of the Union Flag; the Roses' abstract expressionism simplified to embody a new national pride. By the end of 1993, Anderson stares out from the cover of the NME accompanied by the quote/headline: 'England Drives Me Nuts'. There are no Union Flags behind him, and there will be no songs about chip shops on Dog Man Star And what's the point of trying to nail it all down with words? While those gigs last year were a wonderful vindication of Suede, and their recent three night album stop off at Brixton saw a legion of new, mainly female fans, they're never going to succeed in convincing the increasingly prosaic British population that they're worth bothering with. As with the man I saw on the Victoria Line last week, a little older than me, in office gear, eagerly pulling the cellophane off his Dog Man Star reissue as if he were 20 years younger and still wearing ladies' blouses, these are artefacts for the devoted, to be treasured and poured over. Even if their cardboard spines are a little thin. BONUS DVD FEATURE: BRETT ANDERSON AND BERNARD BUTLER 2011 INTERVIEW, INCLUDING FILM INSERTS BY SIMON GILBERT

Kops, Pieter (10 December 1994). "What's In A Name" (PDF). Music & Media. p.25 . Retrieved 6 December 2018. Turner, Luke (10 June 2011). "Still So Young? A Personal Exploration of the Suede Reissues". The Quietus . Retrieved 24 July 2013.Beautiful Ones: An Introduction to Suede (Digital)". Demon Music Group . Retrieved 5 November 2021.

But the ending to the story is a happy one. Anderson and Butler became friends again, and worked together as The Tears. Listen to it without the stifling burden of expectation and Here Come The Tears is a tentative step towards brilliance. 'The Ghost Of You', 'Apollo 13', 'Autograph', 'A Love As Strong As Death' and b-side 'Low-life', were all worthy additions to the Anderson/Butler songbook. Suede, meanwhile, have returned with Bloodsports, their most focused effort since Coming Up, arguably their finest since Dog Man Star.

Butler wrote a song about grief, which ended up on this album’s reissue

a b c "Listen to Suede's guide to Dog Man Star – audio". Q. 21 October 2014 . Retrieved 21 March 2017.