Brett talked to NME
 

Suede, currently rehearsing for the shows in a south London studio
where NME joined them to hear songs from their forthcoming LP,
'Head Music', due for release on May 3 through Nude. Anderson
revealed that Suede have been recording 'Head Music' with
producer Steve Osborne in a number of London studios since
last May and they have just decided on the final tracklisting.

The 13-track album will feature:

Everything Will Flow
A big, string-laden ballad in classic Suede style.

Head Music
The album's title track which, according to Anderson, was, "just a phrase I heard
people start saying. It wasn't meant to have a big meaning or anything. We'd
be in the studio and we'd just say, 'This sounds like head music.' At first, it meant
that what we were doing sounded quite theoretical. It just grew from there really.
I found it intriguing."

Indian Strings
It sounds like the title says, orchestral and Eastern, a little like Led Zeppelin's
'Kashmir'. It includes the line: "Images of violence fill up my mind".

Savoir Faire
Starts like Prince's 'When Doves Cry', then goes very heavy and T Rexy. It
includes the lines: "She's shaking the scene like a fucking machine... She
got flowers in her hair/She got savoir-faire..." and, "She lives in a
house/She's as stupid as a mouse"! This is the song that, during Suede's
webchat on Sonicnet at midnight on March 1, Anderson declared as his
favourite ever Suede track because, "It's the key track on the new
album."

She's In Fashion
Features oriental-type keyboards, and sounds like a cross between pop
David Bowie and The Chi-Lites. Bassist Matt Osman told web-users that
it is, "A big summery pop song, probably as light as anything we've
done." Heavily tipped to be the second single off the album, it ends with the
lyrical coda: "Sunshine blow my mind and the wind blow my brain".

Electricity
The first single off the album. Due for release on April 12, it was co-written by
Anderson, keyboardist Neil Codling and guitarist Richard Oakes. It has been
previously referred to as "life-affirming" with "Sex Pistols guitars" and,
according to Codling, it's, "hard-edged, spiky and more like the last album than
anything else on this one". It was described by a webchat user as "punk-a-go-go" which Codling said was "nice". According to Anderson, 'Electricity' is, "just
meant to be a simple love song. It's nothing bigger than that. Why did we
choose it as the first single? Well, it was either going to be this or 'Savoir Faire'.
There are about five singles on the album, so in the end I couldn't really tell
which one should be first. It was pretty much flip a coin or roll some dice."
It includes the chorus: "It's bigger than the universe/It's bigger than the two
of us/It's bigger than you and me/We got a lot between us and it's like
electricity".

Down
Osman's favourite ever Suede track, it's described by Nude boss Saul Galpern
as "a big druggy ballad".

He's Gone
A big old-skool Suede ballad which was first performed at Reading Festival
two years ago. It includes the chorus: "Like the leaves on the trees/Like a
Carpenters song/Like the planes and the trains and the lives that were
young/He's gone/And it feels like the words to a song".

Can't Get Enough
Starts like Joy Division's 'She's Lost Control', all mechanised synth drums and
weird fx, then turns into a really heavy punk-guitar song. It's drummer Simon
Gilbert's favourite Suede track simply because, "it's got big drums on it" and
it features the line, "Walking like a woman/Talking like a Stone-Age man".

Hi Fi
Fat-sounding and moody, like Bowie in his 'Station To Station' period or
heavy Human League.

Asbestos
Very groovy and funky, features trumpet and keyboards.

Elephant Man
Codling's favourite Suede track ever, largely because he gets to play hard rock
guitar on it.

Crack In The Union Jack
Very rough and echoey, mostly featuring just Anderson and an acoustic guitar.
The last track on the album, it sounds like something off Bowie's 'Hunky Dory'.

"It's the closest we've ever come to an overt political statement," Anderson
told NME.

He has previously said the album was influenced by Asian Dub Foundation,
Audioweb, Tricky, Prince and Lee 'Scratch' Perry and he told NME this
influence is most evident on 'Crack...': "There's a lot of rage in those
sorts of bands, a sense that what people loved about punk those people have got
hold of, because they feel like they've been mistreated. There's a definite sense of
disillusionment there. You can't bandy words like 'Union Jack' around and it
not be a political statement of some kind. I was aware of that. It's meant to be a
simple metaphor for people who hide behind nationalism, these pockets of
dull existence hiding behind a jingoistic front.

"I don't really like talking about things in a one-dimensional way. The politics
of the songs are generally about human politics. Before, I've always
romanticised about it, but this time I've decided to be more truthful. If you
feel bleak about life, then say so, it doesn't matter. You don't always have
to hide behind this facade that everything's OK all the time. That's the
honesty I wanted to get across. It's just a case of looking at things realistically."