{"id":5075,"date":"2025-09-09T13:19:48","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T13:19:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/suedes-antidepressants-reviewed-britpop-outliers-on-exhilarating-grandiose-form-151272\/"},"modified":"2025-09-09T13:19:48","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T13:19:48","slug":"suedes-antidepressants-reviewed-britpop-outliers-on-exhilarating-grandiose-form-151272","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/suedes-antidepressants-reviewed-britpop-outliers-on-exhilarating-grandiose-form-151272\/","title":{"rendered":"Suede\u2019s Antidepressants reviewed: Britpop outliers on exhilarating, grandiose form"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div class=\"post-preview\">\n<p>Before it was about sonic cathedrals, sex vampires and superhold hairspray, goth was the invention of distressed souls going slowly mad in cramped suburban homes on the southern fringes of London. It was <strong>David Bowie<\/strong> haunted by his brother\u2019s asylum in Coulsdon\u2019s Cane Hill Hospital on \u201c<strong>The Bewlay Brothers<\/strong>\u201d. It was <strong>Robert Smith<\/strong> wandering out of the new town dream of Crawley into the ancient European night of \u201c<strong>A Forest<\/strong>\u201d. And, most of all, it was <strong>Siouxsie And The Banshees<\/strong> divining an uncanny psychic vortex in a Chislehurst sitting room on \u201c<strong>Happy House<\/strong>\u201d and \u201c<strong>Christine<\/strong>\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"post-content google-ld-json\">\n<div class=\"editable-content\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button has-custom-width wp-block-button__width-100 is-style-3d\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-vivid-green-cyan-background-color has-background wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/shop.kelsey.co.uk\/uncut-magazine?offer=UNC1025&amp;source=UNC1025brandsite&amp;channel=banners#anchor-shop\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Click here and subscribe to Uncut<\/strong><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"height:100px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-there-was-unfinished-business\">There was unfinished business\u2026<\/h2>\n<p>Before it was about sonic cathedrals, sex vampires and superhold hairspray, goth was the invention of distressed souls going slowly mad in cramped suburban homes on the southern fringes of London. It was <strong>David Bowie<\/strong> haunted by his brother\u2019s asylum in Coulsdon\u2019s Cane Hill Hospital on \u201c<strong>The Bewlay Brothers<\/strong>\u201d. It was <strong>Robert Smith<\/strong> wandering out of the new town dream of Crawley into the ancient European night of \u201c<strong>A Forest<\/strong>\u201d. And, most of all, it was <strong>Siouxsie And The Banshees<\/strong> divining an uncanny psychic vortex in a Chislehurst sitting room on \u201c<strong>Happy House<\/strong>\u201d and \u201c<strong>Christine<\/strong>\u201d.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"youtube-embed\" data-video_id=\"_SRGosDStEM\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Suede - Antidepressants (Live)\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_SRGosDStEM?feature=oembed&amp;enablejsapi=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Watch the video for \u201c<strong>Antidepressants<\/strong>\u201d, filmed at Suede\u2019s show at London\u2019s <strong>Alexandra Palace<\/strong> in July 2024, see <strong>Brett Anderson<\/strong> prowl the stage with supernatural vigour, and you realise that Haywards Heath was always on that same cursed North Downs leyline. \u201c<em>This is the house that you saved up for<\/em>,\u201d Brett drawls, with all the estuary hauteur of Siouxsie in her prime. \u201c<em>There\u2019s a room in the back in case you get scared<\/em>.\u201d There\u2019s a perfectly judged pause, then the withering kiss-off: \u201c<em>Prisoner<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For all that they\u2019ve been tagged as Britpop heralds or glam revenants, and for all Brett\u2019s talk of <strong>Antidepressants<\/strong> being the post-punk successor to the raging, ragged punk of <strong>Autofiction<\/strong>, the undeclared hinterland of <strong>Suede<\/strong> has always been goth. With their 10th album, they finally, gloriously, make no bones about it: <strong>Antidepressants<\/strong> couldn\u2019t be more goth if the band appeared on the cover in frightwigs and winklepickers. (In fact, Brett appears bewinged by a split carcass of meat, like a vegetarian <strong>Francis Bacon<\/strong> \u2013 which is, fair play, even more goth.)<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-the-most-intoxicating-unhinged-suede-album-since-coming-up\">The most intoxicating, unhinged Suede album since Coming Up\u2026<\/h2>\n<p>After <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.uncut.co.uk\/features\/interviews\/suede-weve-got-to-find-ways-to-be-uncomfortable-139878\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Autofiction<\/a><\/strong>, the band had apparently been plotting a perverse career zigzag from the moshpit to the arthouse, with, of all things, a ballet soundtrack \u2013 perhaps their own version of <strong>The Fall<\/strong>\u2019s <strong>I Am Kurious Oranj<\/strong>, which so impressed the teenage Anderson. But the immediate, electrifying effect of \u201c<strong>Antidepressants<\/strong>\u201d when first debuted last summer, on both the band and the audience, made it clear there was unfinished business.<\/p>\n<p>Beyond the imagery and lyricism, the serrated edge of <strong>Antidepressants<\/strong> is provided by <strong>Richard Oakes<\/strong>. Suede\u2019s impressive second act has, in large part, been the sound of the guitarist stepping out of <strong>Bernard Butler\u2019<\/strong>s long shadow and redefining the band in his own image. Rather than Ronson-y riffs, it\u2019s an exploration of the rays and hail radiance <strong>John McGeoch<\/strong> conjured in Surrey Sound Studios as he voyaged from <strong>Magazine<\/strong> to the Banshees.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s there from the start, on opening track \u201c<strong>Disintegrate<\/strong>\u201d, in the brutal, pounding riff that might have fallen from the first <strong>Public Image Ltd<\/strong> album. \u201c<em>We walk on polluted beaches<\/em>,\u201d Brett declaims, with stately sprechstimme gravitas, \u201c<em>feeling our bodies disintegrating<\/em>.\u201d It may not sound like the most auspicious opening gambit, but in practice it\u2019s irresistible. <strong>Antidepressants<\/strong> is the most intoxicating, unhinged Suede album since <strong>Coming Up<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c<strong>Disintegrate<\/strong>\u201d into \u201c<strong>Dancing With The Europeans<\/strong>\u201d into \u201c<strong>Antidepressants<\/strong>\u201d into \u201c<strong>Sweet Kid<\/strong>\u201d and \u201c<strong>The Sound And The Summer<\/strong>\u201d could be the best side of a goth album since the first side of the Banshees\u2019 <strong>Juju<\/strong>. It\u2019s a surging wave of desolation that miraculously keeps growing ever grander. When it finally crashes, on \u201c<strong>Somewhere Between An Atom And A Star<\/strong>\u201d (one of two survivors from the ballet project), it does so in the form of their most grandly languid ballad since \u201c<strong>Sleeping Pills<\/strong>\u201d.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-this-music-is-thrilling-in-its-heedless-grandiosity\">This music is thrilling in its heedless grandiosity<\/h2>\n<p>If the second side can\u2019t quite maintain that pell-mell pace, it still includes \u201c<strong>Broken Music For Broken People<\/strong>\u201d \u2013 a rattling, redemptive anthem for chicken-dancing midlife goths \u2013 and \u201c<strong>June Rain<\/strong>\u201d, which unashamedly gives <strong>Guns N\u2019 Roses<\/strong>\u2019 \u201c<strong>November Rain<\/strong>\u201d a run for its money and, by rights, should come with a swooping drone video of Oakes playing the guitar solo outside a church.<\/p>\n<p>In a certain mood, for all that this music is thrilling in its heedless grandiosity, you might wonder if it\u2019s all a bit, well\u2026 silly? Goth, after all, is the quintessential music for sullen suburban teenagers feeling the existential weight of the world on their skinny shoulders. Is this shrieking, hysterical music really a suitable outlet for men hurtling towards 60?<\/p>\n<p>But Suede are surely onto something. If there\u2019s one thing we\u2019ve learned in the 21st century, it\u2019s that the mythical midlife of pipe-and-slippers comfort and boredom we feared as teenagers barely exists anymore. Life after 50 turns out to hold more terror and intensity \u2013 precarious love, loss and loneliness \u2013 than you ever imagined. Some days, the world of <strong>Antidepressants<\/strong>, full of panic rooms and hospital wards, paranoia, shame and Mirtazapine, feels more like documentary realism than beautiful dark fantasy. \u201c<em>You will never be blithe and careless<\/em>,\u201d Brett sings forebodingly on \u201c<strong>Disintegrate<\/strong>\u201d, \u201c<em>and your music will never be long and sweet and low<\/em>.\u201d In other words: Suede, goth for life.<\/p>\n<p><em>When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.stuff.tv\/about-us\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Here\u2019s how it works<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"squirrel_div\" data-squirrel-id=\"13326510\" data-loaded=\"false\"><script async src=\"https:\/\/squirrels-gen.getsquirrel.co\/scripts\/01b9822bc6df10cc54883d3ee4415d0c.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uncut.co.uk\/reviews\/suedes-antidepressants-reviewed-britpop-outliers-on-exhilarating-grandiose-form-151272\/\">Suede\u2019s Antidepressants reviewed: Britpop outliers on exhilarating, grandiose form<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uncut.co.uk\/\">UNCUT<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Before it was about sonic cathedrals, sex vampires and superhold hairspray, goth was the invention of distressed souls going slowly mad in cramped suburban homes on the southern fringes of&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[90,88,670],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album","category-reviews","category-suede"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5075\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}