It’s all about the title track on Antidepressants, the latest album from Suede. The tension is thick and the song vacillates between death rock verses and the boisterous punk chorus. Brett Anderson’s voice takes on a ominous as he digs into bourgeoisie paranoia. “I look in my house, it’s a luxury design, but there’s shit on the walls that I’m hiding behind,” he sings. “There’s a room at the back in case you get scared. Prisoner.”
Antidepressants is the 10th album from the English band and touted as their “post-punk” collection. After my first listen, I took that to mean that Richard Oakes leaned harder into the John McGeoch influence and Simon Gilbert lays into the drums with more of a doomy, tribal, Budgie feel. So, you could also maybe say that this is Suede’s Siouxsie and the Banshees album. Since this review is written by someone whose teenage bedroom boasted both Suede and Siouxsie and the Banshees posters in it, you should consider that a recommendation.
The goth twist on Antidepressants is a welcome surprise, but it’s also not coming completely out of nowhere. Even back in the Britpop ‘90s, Suede was a hell of a lot darker than than the other bands who turned up on the pages of British music magazines. Dog Man Star – truly one of the 1990s greatest albums— is devastating, but that’s not a major reference point for the band here. Really, Antidepressants digs into the band’s past as listeners and expands on some of the ideas that were present in smaller doses on Autofiction in songs like “15 Again.”
Ultimately, it all comes together because the post-punk bands, like Suede, perhaps more than most ‘90s bands, were really children of the glam revolution. (Apologies to T. Rex for appropriating the song title.) They were all, in some way, pulling from bits and pieces from T. Rex, Roxy Music and, of course, David Bowie.
Maybe the biggest connection to Suede’s own past on Antidepressants is in the lyrical content, particularly the class consciousness that comes through on another one of the album’s standouts, “Broken Music for Broken People.” Here, Anderson opens with a comparison between the “they” counting money and the “we” with “shop girls’ change.” For the chorus, he sings, “it’s broken music and it’s broken people who will save the world.” It’s a more hopeful take on the themes that permeate the Suede classic “Trash.”
Overall, too, the romanticism and sexuality that’s in so many Suede songs remains on Antidepressants, in songs like “The Sound and the Summer,” “Criminal Ways” and “Trance State.”
A few years ago, around the time that Autofiction was released, I caught Suede at at the Hollywood Palladium. I hadn’t seen them live before and what struck me was the balance between the old and new material and how the band kept the attention of the fans rapt during it all. It’s not every band with 30+ years of history behind them that can do that. It’s a specific talent that Suede has, to be open-minded enough to incorporate different elements into their music while still retaining the essence of their sound. That skill carries through on Antidepressants.
Antidepressants by Suede is out now.
Liz O. is an L.A.-based writer and DJ. Read her recently published work and check out her upcoming gigs or listen to the latest Beatique Mix. Follow on Instagram or Bluesky for more updates.
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