Despite the fact that they’ve kissed and made up with their new band The Tears, it’s unlikely that Bernard and Brett will ever reach the transcendent glories of their opus ‘Dog Man Star’. Their break-up could have marked the end for Suede but they persevered commendably for several more albums. With Butler gone, Anderson needed another foil and he came in the shape of young whippersnapper Richard Oakes (rather unfairly nicknamed little dick in the music press). The new partnerships’ first outing ably proved that Suede could quite capably recover from losing one of their muses. ‘Together’ arrived as a b-side on the ‘New Generation’ single and outpaced the lead song through the sheer kinetic energy in the grooves. Anderson vocals are marginally skewed as are the all-consuming guitar chops. The momentum hardly falters and leads spectacularly to guitars as psychedelic monoliths at its epicentre. All the players lay down markers, Simon Gilbert is notably flamboyant on drums and Mat Osman plucks at his bass like a man scrambling for toughened roots at the edge of a cliff. This is Suede leaving the melancholic drama behind, pushing their creative impulses to breaking point and finally realising that being in a band can be good fun. KD

Suede - Together

Album: New Generation EP
Year: 1995