Suede - Antidepressants 

This tenth album from Suede might not quite fit the definition offered by frontman Brett Anderson in the early stages of its genesis (“experimental” is, of course, often a relative term), but there’s nothing across these eleven tracks that suggests the Sussex stalwarts have ripped up theirs, or anyone’s rulebook. Still, what ‘Antidepressants’ does succeed at is living up to its name: its similarly suitable working title came from centrepiece and standout ‘Broken Music For Broken People’, a song which bears greatest similarity to the band’s ‘90s megahits while also possessing a passing resemblance to Alternative National Anthem ‘Mr. Brightside’.

For all Brett’s thirty-plus-year protestations against the term Britpop, that ‘Antidepressants’ has appeared following a nostalgia-fuelled summer during which entire generations discovered ‘90s behemoths for themselves (and amid a period where the algorithms like to suggest the longtime popular) gives the record potential - if its delivery avoids veering into wilfully earnest territory – to latch itself onto these new audiences. The overly melodramatic ‘Somewhere Between An Atom And A Star’ begs to be epic and ‘June Rain’ is pure, instant nostalgia for a time not yet lived; opener ‘Disintegrate’ brims with Joy Division-esque agitation, while dark closer ‘Life Is Endless, Life Is A Moment’ suggests a chicken-and-egg situation as it parallels Fontaines DC’s propensity for expanse. Amusingly, too, when writing ‘Trance State’, they could hardly expect to have been the second artist to namecheck Mirtazapine this summer [this issue! – Ed]. There are points where the lyrical repetition fails in its emphasis, and instead falls into overdone (‘Criminal Ways, ‘Dancing With The Europeans’), and – to be incredibly nit-picky - the sampled and distorted “see it, say it, sorted…” that concludes ‘The Sound And The Summer’ frustratingly cuts off before its iconic whole. But, overall, ‘Antidepressants’ is a solid, pleasantly dense record from a band who’ve been solid for decades yet.