Editorial Reviews Music Review:
Music Review
Music: Chris Wood/Roger Wilson/Martin Carthy
A Tutto Ballo ! Estate [Explicit Lyrics]
Your Game: Live at the 9:30 Club Washington, D.C. [Live]
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When the London Suede's original guitarist, Bernard Butler, quit the band in 1994, Anglophiles from coast to coast breathed a disconsolate sigh. Butler had played with passion and power, crafting sweeping rhythms that perfectly complemented frontman Brett Anderson's melodramatic vocals. How could the group ever find a suitable replacement? Well, they did the following year when Richard Oakes joined, and between then and now Oakes has grown into a dynamic, swaggering, and sensual musician, imbuing Head Music with a sleazy, vibrant energy. Like the band's 1996 disc, Coming Up, the album brims with glammy incandescence. Songs such as "Electricity," "Elephant Man," and "Head Music" couple thrusting beats and sweaty riffs with yelping vocals and lascivious lyrics ("She's shaking obscene like a fucking machine"). But the Suede also believe in candlelight and satin, as they prove on the more romantic fare of "Everything Will Flow," which glides along with mellifluous strings and delicate guitar lines, and the enigmatic "She's in Fashion," which writhes with bubbling guitars and sultry keyboards. --Jon Wiederhorn