Last week, we were treated to a cryptic message from Suede’s Brett Anderson, suggesting that we were in for some news on the band’s long-awaited sixth studio album in the coming days. Indeed, our speculations were correct, as today they have announced that the album, entitled Bloodsports is set for release in March. It will be preceded by a single entitled ‘It Starts & Ends With You’, which will be released in February. But until then, to whet your appetites, the band have made the song ‘Barriers’ available as a free download from their website. Head here to grab it.
"After a year of sweating and bleeding over the record it’s finally finished so we wanted to get some music out there as soon as we could," says Anderson in the text accompanying the announcement. "’Barriers’ isn’t the first single but we are proud of it enough just to chuck it out there and thought that it’s pulsing, romantic swell somehow summed up the feel of the album quite nicely . The album is called Bloodsports. It’s about lust, it’s about the chase, it’s about the endless carnal game of love. It was possibly the hardest we’ve ever made but certainly the most satisfying. It’s ten furious songs for me have reclaimed from ourselves what Suede was always about; drama, melody and noise."
Says Luke Turner, tQ Suede ed: "So ‘Barriers’ is a song that, well, does exactly what a Suede song in 2013 should do. This is not a band who you’d expect or want to be reinventing the wheel, or embarking on ill-advised new directions, but while being very Suede, it is unlike anything they’ve done before. If Head Music and A New Morning were let down by the band rattling down a cone of diminishing returns, ‘Barriers’ is a terrific widescreen pop track that befits a collection of men who are now more into blueberries than the brown. So there’s an excellent guitar turn by Richard Oakes, the always efficient suburban R&B roll of Messrs Osman and Gilbert, Neil Codling’s nippy synths (I’d have turned them up a bit louder myself) and, topping it all, Brett Anderson in terrific voice, singing about lemonade, lipstick and Belgium. When Suede began to fade from view they were competing against the flaccid AOR or Travis et all. By returning with something that’s got that their sound indelibly inked into it (with some new hints of Simple Minds) – and incredibly commercial – it’s clear that Suede have remembered how to write pop songs. Bring on the LP."
And to bring that drama, melody and noise to the live arena again, they’ve announced that they are to play a one-off show at London’s Alexandra Palace on March 30th, coinciding with the release of the album. Tickets are on sale from the usual outlets now.
