Suede – Beautiful Ones Review

Those few turned off by the scratchy and volatile vocals Brett Anderson provides on Coming Up do not know what they are missing. Yes, it marks a wild turn of fortune and pitch compared to Suede and Dog Man Star, but it is the volatility which marks Beautiful Ones as one of the finest singles the band offered. Popularity meets perfection for this track – domination of the 1990s should have fallen right into their lap with this glam rock meets contemporary cultivation of sex and drugs. It marks one of the few songs which has been airlifted out of the rot and embarrassment of the Britpop term and into an alternative rock pursuit, a track dominating the contemporary ears of the next generation. Long may it last. It was one of the best songs of the time and it remains one of the best bits of music around.  

So too do the B-Sides and extra bits which were released alongside Beautiful Ones and slipped into obscurity. The guitar-heavy functions of this third album are a rewarding slice of Suede at their best – Young Men particularly settles well with fuzzy guitar and Anderson evoking some groans and moans to punctuate his trip through raves and dole drinking. He showcases the hopes of a generation gone by – the chance of a punk return in the mid-1990s on the mind of these washed-up protagonists drinking the night away and waking up off their heads. Punchy guitar work and some slick percussion and rhythm give it a sharp edge. It did not make its way to Sic-Fi Lullabies. 

But The Sound of the Streets did, a classy little jaunt through the guitar-heavy experiences Suede were perfecting at the time. Pairing nicely with Young Men, the female perspective change on The Sound of the Streets unifies the gender differences as a common struggle. Everyone is hurting and harsh with those little flickers of grievances around the globe. The money is still tight, and the drinking culture is still filtering through the summer and those days of shining weather. Not every slice of funk rock can make its way through to the setlist but in Beautiful Ones they have a charming and equally brutal collection of highs and lows. Young Men and Sound of the Streets merely add more detail. Beautiful Ones is the sum of two excellent parts – blurring them together provides a generational call to arms against the systems keeping them in place. 

And what a call it was. Coming Up and the historic Suede shows of the future benefit greatly from the immediately recognisable guitar riff, the gasoline mentions and the fear of those beautiful ones storming into your life and right on through. Beautiful Ones lingers as a masterful triumph from a band filled with hits and gritty, erotic and eye-wateringly accurate assessments of a culture now pined for rather than lived through. There is a touching clarity to the lack of hope in a generation which was clawing for some calmness, some inherent change to the pace of their lives. Beautiful Ones offers not clarity in what to do with your future but an assurance of difference being a positive step in an otherwise unpredictable storm.