Suede – Head Music Review

After the titan-like release of Coming Up, the excesses of the time and genre were too much to handle. It led to a capitulation of the genre. Two routes were available. Either you headed the way of Blur and Pulp, making jaded and maligned masterpieces which hit out not just at the culture of the times but the people they had become, or the route Oasis and Suede took. Overexerting themselves with simple sounds but still likeable enough, holding firm to that core base of fans, to make a go of it. Such is the case of Head Music, the messy but charming 1999 piece from a band still with half their glance on Britpop’s formative years and the sound that spawned such a brilliant run. But everything from chronic fatigue to crack prevented Suede from being their very best – not that it would matter much to their chart performance. What it affected, though, were the emotional drive of songs, the instrumental fluidity that had been Suede’s strong suit. 

It is still there in flashes, from the electronic art rock of opener Electricity, its overlapping vocal performance quite the treat to the cool grooves of She’s in Fashion where the promise of a groovier sound is upheld. Head Music is a constant back-and-forth between Richard Oakes and the rest of the band. He sounds cast out by the larger, electronic focus of the new Suede sound. It is a step down in quality but there are plenty of interesting, intense moments. Skip over the hedonistic reflections of a rather bleak and shallow Savoir Faire and onto Everything Will Flow – a string-reliant piece but the best song of Head Music. What Suede is trying to do here, reinventing itself as a groovy unit that is closer to danceable tunes than the genre that still defines the band, is admirable.  

Head Music is not exactly easy listening. Within those whirring noises and multi-layered “woo hoo” noises come a discontent with the social rockface the band is climbing. Can’t Get Enough again deploys the self-indulgence of the times but finds some time to pepper strong guitar riffs and punchy percussion throughout. Punchy works like these are rarely given a UK outing and it is understandable as to why, they were not exactly the finest pickings of their discography. But Everything Will Flow, while not being as rebellious in attitude as their We Are The Pigs days still has an acoustic drive to it, a brilliance reserved for the string-laden songs of Head Music that fits the continuation of their Coming Up sound. Blank smiles and a general malaise overtake any potential thrills.  

Tracks like Down cut through the sybaritic moments which weigh Head Music down. Those opportunities for Anderson to reflect but, as he would admit in later interviews, were overtaken by a chance to exonerate himself as one of the best songwriters of all. He is not far off the mark with his assessment but to make it the core focus of an album already maligned by studio trouble is a bold move which would break the band. Head Music remains a shadowy entity for their discography – a solid listen which has more than a few charms – but the odd one out. Give it time to grow and it sounds a lot better than on first listen. This is an album where Suede attempts to keep their fundamental style but remain up to date with erratic genre movements.  

What results in an often tonally unaware piece of work also holds some of their best efforts. She’s in Fashion, Everything Will Flow and even later tracks like Asbestos. Head Music seeks out a new style of sound but does not sound all that dedicated to it. Pursuing the thrills of danceable music was a flash in the pan for the band who, on their return to the studio, would also return to the massive flow of art rock which still brings out the best in them. Head Music is a necessary endeavour into a new genre, one filled with Rolling Stones-like guitar leads on Asbestos and saxophone fixtures which feel as out of place as they do fascinating. It is an album of mixed materials but the overall appeal is sound, a new direction for the band at a turmoil-laden time.