1. Dog Man Star
'Sometimes we ride in a taxi to the ends of the city/Like big stars in the back seat like skeletons ever so pretty' Suede's difficult second album might be, in every way, one of the the most difficult second albums ever. Say what you like about them, they never did things by half. Every great band has to release one album that nearly destroys them, and in Suede's case, the recording and release of Dog Man Star exerted psychic damage that lingered over the rest of their career. The stratospheric success of the first album inevitably led to tensions between Anderson and Butler- behind the scenes at least, Suede conformed to rock cliché- each of whom had different visions for the band. Butler also clashed with producer Ed Buller over small things like a proposed twenty five minute prog odyssey with an eight minute guitar solo (eventually turning up, in 'truncated' form, as the nine minute something 'Asphalt World'). On Anderson's part, his drug use became increasingly part of the creative process, and he wrote the album's lyrics on acid, while living in a Victorian mansion, next door to a Christian sect who held regular prayer meetings. The fact that anything got recorded at all is remarkable. The fact that any of it works is incredible. The album opens with the doomy incantation of 'Introducing the Band', which is about as far from Britpop as the 100 Years War. The sound is much improved, with a greater variety of instrumentation, but the lyrics are more mysterious (and borderline doggerel) than ever. This is clearly a work that owes more to the concept album tradition than anything from the actual time it was recorded in, and as if to prove it, track two (and a single, although not a very popular one) is 'We Are the Pigs', a dystopian rocker that sounds like Bowie circa Diamond Dogs. What marks it out as more than a straightforward rehash is Anderson's at times embarrassingly emotional songwriting. 'The Wild Ones', probably Suede's best song, is a gorgeous ballad, entirely without irony or emotional distance. 'Black or Blue', sung in fragile but soaring falsetto, might well be the least macho song to be written and performed by a man. The sense that Anderson is engaged in some bizarre public ritual of self-diminution is what makes Dog Man Star a compelling work. Unfortunately, it's also what made it a complete flop at the time. While Anderson and Butler clashed in the studio, their real nemesis emerged- the New Lad, personified first by Damon Albarn and then, most convincingly and indomitably, by the Gallagher brothers. Britpop, which Suede had envisaged as sexually deviant and fraying at the edges, took a different turn and became a nationwide celebration of normality. In that climate, a man howling 'This is the asphalt world' to the sound of another man abusing his guitar had zero commercial purchase. It's a shame, because years later, they've been vindicated- not by their own hand, but by the lack of any similar ambition on the part of whatever passes for the British rock scene nowadays. In perspective, Dog Man Star was only released two years into Suede's recorded existence, but it effectively determined every other choice in their still ongoing career. For the music press, who initially despised it, the album was a stick to beat the band with every time they released a new record. Unfair perhaps- the circumstances under which it was recorded could never be replicated, at least not by choice. Not, however, inappropriate. In Brett Anderson's view, Dog Man Star was a bigger failure than it actually was, a colossal folly that had to be ignored and denied- explaining the popwards turn of the band's later albums. But in denying their ambition, Suede made themselves just another Britpop band, and proceeded to churn out a body of work four times as vast as Dog Man Star but forty times less interesting. Dog Man Star was too intricate, too elaborate, but also too heartfelt and fragile to be surpassed, by themselves or anyone since. If nothing else, Anderson and Butler should feel vindicated for one thing- they created a difficult second album of the best possible kind.