Suede by Suede
Suede is the debut album by English alternative rock band Suede, released in March 1993 on Nude Records. At the time the fastest-selling debut album in British history, Suede debuted at the top of the UK Album Chart, won the 1993 Mercury Music Prize, and is often credited with starting the Britpop movement. The sound of the album has been compared to The Smiths and the early David Bowie era. Suede quickly attracted the attention of the British music press; in 1992 before they had even released their debut single, Melody Maker featured the band on its cover, dubbing them "The Best New Band In Britain." The following year Q magazine hailed them "The band of 1993..." The year leading up to the release of Suede saw the group dominate the music press, receiving critical praise across the board. According to a March 1993 article in The Independent, at the time Suede "had more hype than anybody since the Smiths, or possibly even the Sex Pistols." Critics supported the band during their early stages despite the often eccentric behaviour of singer Brett Anderson. Suede was recorded at Master Rock Studios in Kilburn, north west London and cost £105,000 to make. In the studio, the producer Ed Buller's method of working was that he would form a close relationship with the band member whom he thought to be most important for the sound and creative input. In Suede's case it was guitarist Bernard Butler, which did not go down well with Anderson. Butler would be the band's closest musical collaborator for the years ahead. Anderson liked Butler as a person and for his enthusiasm for Suede. He endorsed his production on the first single "The Drowners"; however, he had different views on "Metal Mickey", feeling that Butler took the "metal brutality" out of the song. Instead of the song ending abruptly after the chorus, which the band demonstrated when performing live, Butler suggested an extended fade-out, which incorporated a key change. Butler would eventually clash with Anderson for similar reasons during the recording of the next album, which was an event Anderson could perceive early on. "I think as Bernard got more technically aware, because he always had a fine ear, he very soon saw flaws in what Ed was doing.
