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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tThe London Suede, courtesy Dean Chalkley.\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
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The London Suede, \u201cAntidepressants.\u201d<\/p>\n
What do we do with the time we have left?<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the question pulsing underneath Antidepressants, the 10th album from The London Suede<\/strong>. Billed as the post-punk sibling to 2022\u2019s punk-leaning Autofiction<\/a>, this record is wiry, confrontational and completely uninterested in tidiness. Suede recorded it live, capturing the sweat-soaked grit of a band still chasing transcendence under stage lights\u2014mistakes and all. Because when you\u2019re staring mortality in the face, perfection isn\u2019t the point. Presence is. It\u2019s not mournful. It\u2019s electric. It wants to shock you back to life before it\u2019s gone.<\/p>\n The first defibrillator jolt comes courtesy of album opener \u201cDisintegrate.\u201d The pounding Motown-punk hybrid rides a scorched riff as Brett Anderson invites listeners to \u201cCome down and disintegrate with me.\u201d He\u2019s not resisting decay; he\u2019s dancing into it. It\u2019s defiant and joyous in its surrender. And that contradiction\u2014between anguish and euphoria, between letting go and clinging on\u2014threads through the entire record.<\/p>\n \u201cDancing With the Europeans\u201d is a love letter to the crowd, born from a moment Anderson had on stage in Spain when the audience pulled him out of a dark place. He closes it with the line \u201cYour ghosts are my ghosts,\u201d and you believe him. It may be their most unguarded embrace of the audience as co-conspirators since 1996\u2019s \u201cTrash.\u201d<\/p>\n And speaking of \u201cTrash,\u201d along comes \u201cSweet Kid,\u201d a brash, swaggering banger that grabs you by the collar of your too-small leather jacket and shakes you hard, reminding you these are the same beautiful bastards who gave us \u201cTrash\u201d nearly 30 years ago. It\u2019s cocky, clever and slots seamlessly onto any Suede album. If there\u2019s any justice, it\u2019ll become a live staple.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The title track is all wiry guitars and breathless yelps, with Anderson channeling Siouxsie over a tightly coiled riff that snaps into a chaotic guitar noise bridge before detonating into the final chorus. It\u2019s Suede at its most jagged and kinetic, and it\u2019s easy to see why the band made it part of its live show<\/a> almost a year before this album\u2019s release.<\/p>\n There are a couple of dips. \u201cBroken Music for Broken People\u201d has a killer slogan of a title and a sharp concept but never quite lands musically. \u201cCriminal Ways\u201d and \u201cTrance State\u201d are solid\u2014but on an album full of so much fire, they smolder instead of igniting. Still, Suede\u2019s filler can bring more heat than most indie bands\u2019 singles.<\/p>\n \u201cSomewhere Between an Atom and a Star\u201d changes the temperature entirely. It\u2019s the album\u2019s signature ballad, ethereal and aching. The verses feel plucked from Dog Man Star, all echo and emptiness, before exploding into a chorus that burns white-hot and then vanishes. It hits the same widescreen scale that \u201cThe Asphalt World\u201d took nine minutes to build\u2014only this time, Suede does it in under three.<\/p>\n \u201cJune Rain\u201d follows as a swirling and vulnerable standout\u2014a Chameleons-like dreamscape over a Boy-era U2 rhythm. It swells into something that feels like it could go on forever, but the band smartly caps it after one soaring chorus, leaving you hanging in the best way and clearing the deck for the closer.<\/p>\n \u201cLife Is Endless, Life Is a Moment\u201d is a culmination, a distillation of the album\u2019s contradictions: grief and grace, anxiety and acceptance, death and defiance. Suede builds it from a stark Cure-like riff into a towering climax of feedback and fury. Anderson belts the final word\u2014\u201cLife\u201d\u2014before the whole thing collapses mid-sentence, a final gasp that leaves you abruptly staring into the void, then silence.<\/p>\n Antidepressants doesn\u2019t attempt to solve the riddle of mortality. Instead, it grabs the mic and shouts back into that void with noise, passion and an unflinching awareness that the end is coming\u2014and an even stronger urge to make this moment matter. Suede remains a band obsessed with beauty and the rot beneath it.<\/p>\n Three decades into their career, here they come\u2014the beautiful ones\u2014with a record as sweaty, singular and spectacularly alive as anything they\u2019ve ever made.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Follow Skott Bennett at skottbennett.bsky.social<\/b><\/a>.<\/p>\n About The Author<\/p>\n
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