Suede – Dog Man Star (1994)
[Album 360/1001]
I’m glad I chose to re-read my review of Suede’s self-titled debut. Otherwise, this review would likely have ended up being a carbon copy!
Obviously I was going to approve; a song like The Power is as close to a textbook definition of “my cuppa” as I’ve heard.
So instead, I’ll attempt another lens.
As an exercise with my business classes, I’ll sometimes get students to try to argue the other side of a debate. For example, if they are diametrically opposed to the Keystone XL Pipeline, try to play the role of Nick Naylor (from Thank You For Smoking), be the Sultan of Spin, defend those Oil Companies. If you’re an oil enthusiast, start painting your protest sign & writing marching chants in solidarity with the Environmentalists!
As I find myself at one extreme of Dog Man Star appreciation, here’s my attempt at joining the Suede-haters:
1) There’s a difference between having a ‘sound’ and ‘having a formula.’ A couple tunes here could be considered slight reworkings of So Young from album #1.
2) If you want glam/guitar-driven/britpop, it’s better enjoyed individually as opposed to the melange heard here. If this is Suede at the zenith of their powers, Bowie/Smiths/Pulp at their peaks would provide superior listening experiences.
3) If you take…nope, that’s all I got.
It appears I would not pass the empathy exercise as a student!
Fortunately, Suede’s Dog Man Star should pass any musical evaluation with flying colours.
1001albumsin10years 
Never liked Suede, they just got launched at us with far too much hype over here. My criticism – not enough bollocks!
I can appreciate that – they were under the radar here (and I believe called ‘the London Suede’ south of the border) so no such overexposure fortunately for me.
The first song I heard by them was ‘trash’ and that would have been the late 90s, so it’s been fun playing catch-up!
I have this. Picked it up on CD a few years back … other than a cursory listen I haven’t actually spent any time with it. Probably the result of the hype Mr 1537 refers to. Definitely one of those bands …
I’m trying to think of the Canadian equivalent of a good band being ruined by the hype machine. There’s a rule in Canada that states that 30% of music played on the radio must be deemed in some way “Canadian Content” (some combination of performer/producer/writer..) – fortunately most of the stuff that would be overplayed because of that rule wasn’t really my cup of tea to begin with!