“Maybe, maybe it’s the clothes we wear/The tasteless bracelets and the lens in our flare…”
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[5.67]
Alfred Soto: It starts and ends with the reassuring fact that it sounds like Suede: riffage that blurs the line between flash and dash, rhythm section holding it down, and who needs a second guitar when Brett Anderson’s yowls will do?
[7]
Edward Okulicz: A competent, unembarrassing comeback single, with none of the weird individuality of any of Brett Anderson’s solo output, or any of the embarrassment of the worst tracks off Head Music or A New Morning, but none of the spiky highlights either. Not as instantly loveable as either of the two singles off The Tears’ album either. A superbly middle-aged Britpop record, for the band’s now ostensibly near-middle-aged fans, which I refuse to admit I am one of.
[6]
Iain Mew: Do you like choruses? This has quite a good one! Though one which by some oversight doesn’t include the phrase “you and me”. Maybe the coded message is that from now on it’s going to be “you and you”. The song also has verses, including the words “like a hairline crack in a radiator leaking life”, which is brilliantly evocative in a different way to that I remember from Suede in the past, and “shot my love at fifteen paces” which is correspondingly bad. Throughout, it sounds exactly like Suede of old, Coming Up minus its little cutting edge, to an extent where I wonder whether this is a tarted-up old demo scenario like Pulp. I think I’m at a point where the only Suede I need is Dog Man Star, “Stay Together” and “Beautiful Ones” (the last one for karaoke).
[5]
Brad Shoup: Suede’s always struck me as reluctant deployers of rock. They’ve been so indifferent for so long to whatever possibilities may be left in the guitar/bass/drums setup that a couple surf-rock stings constitute genuine surprise.
[4]
Daniel Montesinos-Donaghy: Brett Anderson’s “it starts and ends with you” hook is a pretty grandiose statement – romantic, yes, but suffused with a somewhat frightening edge. The non-Anderson qualities of the track are solid – the guitars rumble, the keyboards add dramatic dashes of colour and Simon Gilbert’s drums sound particularly powerful. There’s just about enough sass to get it over, but not enough to make it feel more than a little perfunctory.
[6]
Jer Fairall: Exudes all of the confidence, and competence, that a veteran rock band should, but the guitars still blare with a sweet mix of glam and grit, and the melody reaches for the sky like the band has something to gain beyond still managing to command a prime festival spot. Encouraging, if hardly remarkable.
[6]