Pitchfork

[Posted Monday, October 20th, 2003 04:30:00 Pitchfork Central Time]

So your basic (London) Suede fan falls into one of two categories: 1) You saw So I Married an Axe Murderer, and you love that one song they did, what's it called again? or 2) Dude, can you believe that you can only get A New Morning as an import? I mean, what the fuck?!? So, for the first person, that song is called "My Insatiable One." And for the second, well, the rest of this report is for you.

This week, Suede is set to release a greatest-hits compilation in the UK, not-so-creatively (but accurately, at least) entitled Singles. The album covers the entirety of Suede's career, and will consist of all of their copious commercially released singles, as well two new tracks. The new songs have a different sound, according to always modest and unassuming front-man Brett Anderson on Suede's official website: "Most of the new material is more aggressive and less song-based than A New Morning. We've been spending a lot of time working on tracks that sound nothing like traditional Suede. I needed to write something as soulful as A New Morning at the time but now that's out of my system and it's time to release the beast." Which should be frightening to us all. Suede's last album to be released in the U.S. was 1999's Head Music, and so far, this one seems destined to be import-only as well. The tracklist:

01 Beautiful Ones
02 Animal Nitrate
03 Trash
04 Metal Mickey
05 So Young
06 The Wild Ones
07 Obsessions
08 Filmstar
09 Can't Get Enough
10 Everything Will Flow
11 Stay Together
12 Love the Way You Love [previously unreleased]
13 The Drowners
14 New Generation
15 Lazy
16 She's In Fashion
17 Attitude [previously unreleased]
18 Electricity
19 We Are The Pigs
20 Positivity
21 Saturday Night

In true Suede fashion, and perhaps befitting a career singles retrospective, Singles has also spawned its own multi-CD single release, for the new track "Attitude." The release will consist of a pair of three-track CDs and a DVD single. The first CD features two new tracks and an exclusive video; the second has a demo of "Attitude" and two unreleased earlier tracks, and the DVD has the video of "Attitude" (starring John Hurt, no less), alternate versions of songs dating from the Coming Up and Head Music sessions, and a commentary on the Singles collection. As always, the boys do like to pack in the extras (can a follow-up to b-side collection Sci-Fi Lullabies be far behind?). The "Attitude" singles were released in the UK earlier this month. Tracklists:

Disc one:
01 Attitude
02 Golden Gun [previously unreleased]
03 Oxygen [previously unreleased]
04 Attitude short film [alternate version]

Disc two:
01 Attitude [demo version]
02 Just a Girl [Dog Man Star outtake]
03 Heroin [Head Music outtake]

DVD:
01 Attitude short film [original version]
02 We're So Disco [Coming Up outtake]
03 Head Music [Arthur Baker mix]
04 Singles commentary

Suede will be heading out on a short European tour in support of Singles that will keep them on the road through December, and following that, well, you know rock stars: they'll probably be celebrating a quiet Christmas at home, so get off their backs already! The dates:

11-01 Santiago de Compostela, Spain - Santirock Festival
11-18 Vitoria, Spain - Wintercase Festival, Pabellón Medizorroza
11-20 Barcelona, Spain - Wintercase Festival, Razzmatazz Sala 1
11-21 Valencia, Spain - Wintercase Festival, Republicca
11-22 Madrid, Spain - Wintercase Festival, Riviera
12-04 Dublin, Ireland - Ambassador Theatre
12-05 Belfast, Northern Ireland - Waterfront Hall
12-07 Glasgow, Scotland - Academy
12-08 Manchester, England - Academy
12-09 Bristol, England - Academy
12-11 Birmingham, England - Academy
12-12 London, England - Brixton Academy