It's New To Me: Sci-Fi Lullabies by Suede (1997)

Illustration from a South Tyrol codex by Hugo von Trimberg, 1468

I didn't really follow Brit-pop much in the '90s, but I'm finding that I missed out on some pretty good stuff. So I'm playing a little catch-up. I have to admit, though, that Suede (or the London Suede, as absolutely no one refers to them) was never high on my list. Their relatively thin discography, emphasis on sexual politics, and Brett Anderson's aggressively annoying voice were all turn-offs for me. But I'm a sucker for non-traditional starting points for investigating the band, and I was curious about Suede's famous b-side collection, Sci-Fi Lullabies.

People have said that Sci-Fi Lullabies holds up as well as (or better than) Suede's first two albums (the ones with Bernard Butler on guitar, generally held to be their best work). I can't speak to that, not having heard either Dog Man Star or their self-titled debut, but for me Sci-Fi Lullabies turned out to be a great introduction to the band. It's a two-disc, set and the first CD, composed primarily of the b-sides to the singles from Suede's first two records, is especially good, displaying everything I was looking for in this band. The amazing, otherworldly guitar sounds, sweeping melodies, and glam swagger combine wonderfully, making up for any misgivings I had about Butler's vocals. And the tracks work surprisingly well together, sounding as like a real album.

Starting with the amazing one-two punch of the poppy "My Insatiable One" and the majestic "To the Birds", the collection sounds like more like an a-side collection than a set of castoffs. "The Living Dead" is a delicate acoustic counterpoint to the glam sound, and "Where Pigs Don't Fly" brings a wistfulness to their usual capital-A attitude. The only dip in quality in the first disc is in "The Big Time" and "High Rising" being placed back-to-back - they are both faintly boring and overlong ballads that slow the momentum in an otherwise flawless run of songs.

The second disc of Sci-Fi Lullabies is composed entirely of b-sides from Suede's third album, 1996's Coming Up. Bernard Butler had been replaced in the band at this point by Richard Oakes, and I've heard that the band's sound was steered entirely by Anderson at this point, even though other band-members had co-writing credits on some of the songs. The loss of Butler is easy to hear in this later material, as the guitars have a more direct sound and lose some of that cool otherworldliness. But I think I benefit from coming to this material later and with no baggage, because I enjoy this later material a lot as well. The hooks are still there, the sound is darker and more aggressive, and I find the lyrics more interesting. Plus, it's amazing that Suede wrote fifteen b-sides for Coming Up. The album itself was only ten songs long. Suede may have stretched a little too far, in fact, as the second CD of Sci-Fi Lullabies trails off a bit at the end - I guess they were running out of steam a little when it came to the album's fifth single.

My favorite of the entire set may be "Killing of a Flash Boy", a b-side from 1994 "We Are the Pigs" single. It starts with a great, crunchy guitar (a la Bowie's "Queen Bitch") and the vocal drips with attitude. The lyrics, as far as I can tell, are sexy-sounding nonsense (I'm still trying to figure out "They know that when she's stacked up top/she'll be a sucker for the shotgun show"), but they're delivered with a sneering conviction that is a big part of Suede's appeal for me. I may need to go buy some actual Suede albums - I hope I won't be disappointed in the real deal.

"Killing of a Flash Boy" by Suede