Quillon's Almostopster: Suede - Coming Up

You cannot take Sweden out of Quillon

Through this Almostopster project we have now had rap, country, black metal, classic rock such as the Beatles and even some electro-industrial. So what is it time for now? No, not any Swedish punk, you get radio-friendly Britpop instead. As Tarb commented when I told him of my choice; I really had to pick an album by a band effectively called “Sweden”. Although that was actually just a coincidence, I’ll admit it made me more certain it was the right choice as the resident Swede here.

I went through a lot of different albums before deciding on this one. Some of the others ended up in my latest reliquary update but this one is flawed in such a way that I know it will never reach that level, even if it will always hold a sweet spot for me, so it fits perfectly for this Almostopster project.

Suede had previously released Dog Man Star which was a more experimental album for them, but for Coming Up they decided to instead do a straightforward pop album packed with hits, which I think they almost succeeded with. Several of the songs, such as Trash, Film Star, Lazy, Beautiful Ones and She, are some of their greatest hits ever, and show clearly why Suede are one of the greatest britpop bands ever. Brett Anderson’s unique voice and his almost sexual energy makes for a great vocal delivery, coupled with simple and energetic melodies, this is just excellent. Unfortunately they also included a couple of weaker tracks such as By the Sea and Picnic by the Motorway. They’re not exactly bad songs, but they disrupt the flow of the album a bit for me, and depending on my mood I sometimes skip them, which definitely disqualifies this as a topster album. All in all, this album lands at a 9/10 for me.