3. Sci-Fi Lullabies
'In the high life, I've got this feeling now/I've got this horrible feeling' Suede's mastery of the B-side means that this collection, while not technically an album, is up there with the best of their records. The hyperbole that greeted the early singles was partly justified by the flipsides, which tended to be longer, less polished and more experimental. There was a musical world of greater depth and perversity than the band's provocative image might have suggested- although 'My Insatiable One', the first track on the compilation (covered, sans swearing, by Morrissey, in a bizarre feedback circuit of fey British indie) is about a love affair with a blow up doll, only a few songs later Anderson is tackling weightier themes of loss and failure, most poignantly on the horn-assisted 'The Big Time'. The early tracks are also great showcases for Bernard Butler's guitar work, which manages to be melodically intricate without losing its attack, particularly on the ragged 'He's Dead', a song that teeters between control and collapse on the strings of his Les Paul. It's impossible to understand the transition from the debut album to Dog Man Star without listening to these B-sides- they're trial runs for the psychedelic bombast of the second record. While Disc One is essential, Disc Two, charting the post-Butler era, is best discarded. The failure of Dog Man Star scared the band straight, and the B-sides for Coming Up are resolutely B-side-like, half-done sketches knocked off during a lull in recording. Without the creative tension between Anderson and Butler, Suede became a singles act in the narrowest sense of the term, and none of the songs from this era deserve reappraisal. In some cases ('These Are the Sad Songs' is literally just Anderson singing the titles of other people's songs) they actively discourage a repeat listen. Luckily, there's absolutely no reason to bother with disc two. Stick to the first one and pretend Suede stayed that good forever.