Suede - The Blue Hour

There’s every risk that with their new album, ‘The Blue Hour’, veteran rockers Suede could have gone a bit too yer da. Luckily, they haven’t, and they’ve delivered a career highlight that stands against the best of their 90s work. Opener ‘As One’ sounds as if it’s been ripped straight from a Disney villain with the perfect storm of frontman Brett Anderson’s penchant for dramatic lyrical imagery and the band’s ability to give Anderson’s words the musical backdrop they crave.

The album drips with the potent imagery that Anderson weaves through his every word, ‘Cold Hands’ rips into life immediately while single ‘Don’t Be Afraid If Nobody Loves You’ is almost a whirl of emotion while the guitars drag you in to hang off every single note and syllable.

The duo of ‘All the Wild Places’ and ‘The Invisibles’ with their string crescendos rising and falling do cause the album to drag a little towards the end but closing track ‘Flytipping’ quickly dispels any thoughts of the album limping across the finish line with its slow start leading to an impressive wall of sound crashing into the shore in such a way that leaves the listener almost breathless.

It’s clear that Suede have lost none of their power and Anderson’s vocals seem pitch perfect forcing home every single word like a stake through a heart.

Josh Williams