Attack of the Killer Track! is a series that explores lesser known tracks from artists from a variety of genres. Some of the tracks were singles, some of them were obscure b-sides or long forgotten album tracks. One thing is certain – all of them are killer tracks.
It is absurd to call this track a “lesser known” track – to those in the know, that is. To most of the American music audience Suede are unfortunately all but unknown (and even then, they are known as The London Suede). The album this track is taken from, Coming Up, was released in 1996 at the beginning of the end of the Britpop era (the nail in the coffin would come in 1997 with the release of Be Here Now by Oasis). To me this song sounds British, it sounds Pop, but it doesn’t necessarily sound “Britpop”. On the previous record, Dog Man Star, Suede excelled at dramatic songs with overwrought string arrangements. Memorable and eerie guitar refrains were provided by Bernard Butler. By 1996 Butler had left the band and there was a real question whether Suede could carry on – and if they could, would be they be any good? It was a DIFFERENT Suede, that’s for sure, but the 1st record of the era is one of my favorites by the band. This single in particular always brings a smile to my face and brings me back to the carefree days of youth. It peaked at #8 on the UK charts and didn’t chart at all in the US. Smile and sing along with Brett Anderson to these lyrics:
High on diesel and gasoline, psycho for drum machine
shaking their bits to the hits,
Drag acts, drug acts, suicides, in your dad’s suits you hide
staining his name again,
Cracked up, stacked up, 22, psycho for sex and glue
lost it to Bostik, yeah,
Shaved heads, rave heads, on the pill, got too much time to kill
get into bands and gangs
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqovGKdgAXY]