BBC Review
Looks like the glory days are long gone.
Rob Crossan 2009-10-30
Of all the stars that shone during the salad days of Britpop, few have faded as comprehensively as ex-Suede vocalist Brett Anderson.
As Jarvis Cocker continues to release critically acclaimed albums, albeit to a far reduced audience than he was reaching a decade ago, and Damon Albarn, Anderson’s old nemesis, swings effortlessly from Chinese opera to Malian blues to cartoon pop, barely a ripple of recognition has been given to Anderson’s solo releases since the general indifference to his reunion with Suede guitarist Bernard Butler as The Tears in 2004.
This is Brett’s third solo album in as many years, and proof that the glory days are long gone is apparent in this record’s seemingly wilful inability to contain anything approaching a solid tune.
Minimal piano and woodwind abound on tracks such as The Swan and opener Hymn, where Anderson’s wobbly vibrato struggles to find the right key. There’s a spectral folk feel to Wheatfields, where the rolling acoustic guitar stubbornly refuses to go anywhere beyond one, quickly tiresome, riff.
Anderson claims that Slow Attack was inspired by absorbing himself in cinematic scores, but there’s little here of interest to fans of Morricone et al. Indeed, even if so many of the tracks didn’t slip through the speakers in a semi-comatose state, any redeeming qualities in the Mark Hollis-influenced musical arrangements are let down by the lyrics. It’s tragic indeed to hear the man behind such literate gems as Animal Nitrate and Stay Together descend to bleating inanities like “I am the hunter, you are the hunted” on The Hunted, a track with anthemic pretensions which actually just sounds dull.
It appears doubtful that even hardcore, ageing Suede fans will have the urge to persevere with this deeply unsatisfying music.
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Comments
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Good god. What a heaving, breathing testament to personal prejudice. This is THE living proof that any professional music critic's review is really just another person's opinion, as much as any arts critic will bleat otherwise. (see cosmo landeson)
in this case, the opinion is not even a particularly well informed one. it's not 1992 you dolt. why, why in god's name would someone's music sound like music they made SEVENTEEN YEARS ago??? maybe if they were a failed musician relying on scribbling a few tawdry paragraphs for a little-read online website they would.
and let's dredge up anderson v albarn agai - zzzzzzzzz. How lazy can you get? move on you twit.
if anyone is interested, slow attack challenges a lot of what anyone knows of suede or brett anderson. it is largely a majestic, emotional album with incredibly atmospheric pieces inspired by wood sounds and maybe movie scapes. the lyrics are very emotive, and the vocals are intense and direct. it's a genuinely powerful album which will reward your attention.
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Yes, this is a very clever review - never before have I read someone demonstrate a total lack of musical knowledge and taste so comprehensively and succinctly!
Brett's solo albums have been very strong - particularly the first - but I think this reviewer is labouring under the delusion that Anderson was at his best circa 1996.
These are elegant, thoughtful and grown-up songs - if you want "Trash", revisit "Coming Up" - but leave the reviews to the grown-ups. The sonic palette here is in fact rich and very filmic.
The Tears album was, FYI, also very good indeed.
It's true that Brett currently has a lower profile than Damon, and even (bafflingly) Jarvis Cocker, but that doesn't automatically mean his music has "suffered".
And don't knock his lyrics as having become less poetic or clever - again, revisit "Coming up". You'll discover there have often been couplets in Anderson's work which fall some way short of Shakespeare. But then again, he co-wrote Dogmanstar, which for my money is the best british album from the 90's, so I'm prepared to give him some slack!
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i suppose this comment being only the third one posted in two weeks since this 'review' appeared says it all really. The bitterness and sense of failure felt by this websites staffers can't help but project through into their scribbles. I'd have the hump too if I worked in the dingy basement area of the nations most bloated corporate broasdcaster, knowing people are more likely to read the small print on their TV Licence bills than they are my efforts here.
For someone who loves and regularly immmerses himself in the score and host films of Ennio Morricone, I find the lazy and blatantly obvious comparison insulting. Morricone is the first composer who comes to mind for most people when talking about 'cinematic' scores, so the name drop here is lazy. Anyone with an ounce of critical credibility would delve a bit deeper and come up with other more relevant references such as Nyman, Glass, Badalamenti, Mansell, or even the reflective moments of Jerry Goldsmiths First Blood soundtrack (listen to Frozen Roads while watching the scene where Rambo leaves the Delmore Berry family home and heads towards the town for instance) ... that said, I love this album so this is one Morricone fan with 'interest', huh?
I suspect the dragging up of 15 year old songs to make a point indicate a similar hankering for the glory days of this 'critic' too... perhaps a junior writer on Melody Maker, or an all-expenses-paid gig reviewer for Select or Vox... though most likely nothing more substantial than Piers Morgan's tea boy at The Sun's Bizarre column office.
Enjoy your retirement Mr Croissant, here in the quiet backwaters of bbc.co.uk.
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I hardly disagree with the reviewer. Slow attack has fantastic songs:Julian's eyes, The swans ,Leave me sleeping,The hunted...
I am abit sick of reading the same opinions about Brett's music.Many reviewers should have their own opinion, not just the herd's.This record deserves a listen!
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Dear Rob,
I can see what you mean, but I have to say this sounds like a review of BA's last album, INTO THE WILDERNESS. I bought his first solo album (in a last reflex of an old-school Suede fan), half of the songs on which I like -- the single 'Love Is Dead' is on a par with the best of the late Suede ballads such as 'Everything Will Flow'. On that album he introduced some completely new aesthetics into his songwriting. The second album was pretty much a failure: a hollow, annoying affair, artlessly hammering piano (IMO he doesn't know how to play the piano...), whining voice, cringe-worthy lyrics, songs made of boneless flesh.
I do agree to a certain extent to your comment on Brett's lyrics (although your example is not really striking). His abstractions have become a bit callow at times: in 'Ashes Of Us' e.g. he sings 'And the orchid grows in a sunny place, where I sip my tea with a scarecrow's face [...]'. This 'concrete poetry' I find a bit hard to relate to...
In spite of this, SLOW ATTACK shows how good Brett Anderson can be in collaboration with other musicians, who know how to use his anachronistic, almost modernist idea of beauty and turn it into something less embarrassing and actually very enjoyable. I think Andy Gill in his review for The Independent found the perfect adjective when he called it 'bucolic'.
I would compare it to Françoise Hardy's last proper studio album, the brilliant TANT DE BELLES CHOSES (2004). No vocoders, but also no neo-folk attitude. SLOW ATTACK is almost free of retro styling. Yes, it's again very mannerist, but less so than other albums of his.
I love very different music artists such as (just to give a random selection) Kelis, The Foals, Johnny Cash, Broadcast or the Kitsuné Maison series, depending on the mood I'm in. Compared to Brett's other albums, SLOW ATTACK is an entirely different affair, and it thus has to be looked at from a different perspective: It is again completely ignorant of contemporary pop culture, full of Oriental references (like the predecessor ITW), and seems like an aestheticist concept album. As such I really enjoy it.
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