Suede - Antidepressants
Galvanized by the energy from 2022’s Autofiction tour, Suede follow up their ‘punk’ album with – appropriately – their ‘post-punk’ album, with the influences said to include the music of their youth such as The Fall, Joy Division and Siouxsie and the Banshees.
As such, where Autofiction bristled with raw urgency and livewire energy, Antidepressants is a darker sequel: more neurotic but also more ambitious.
Most explicitly, on June Rain Mat Osman’s bass gothically aligns with guitarist Richard Oakes’s Bansheeisms while also fusing early U2 with The Chameleons’ etherealism.
Sadly, its elegant shimmer is cut short after just one chorus, the adage of ‘leave them wanting more’ expertly applied.