Heroin-fueled addiction and chemistry rife with turmoil between singer Brett Anderson and guitarist Bernard Butler led to an unparalleled album of tragic, dark and painful tunes that are at times classical - The 2 Of Us and Still Life - gritty and noisy - This Hollywood Life and We Are The Pigs - beautiful - The Wild Ones - political The Power - mesmerizing - Heroine - and epic - The Asphalt World. Anderson's vocals soar to heights unattainable by any other singer on the face of the planet. Butler's overdubbed guitars on top of overdubbed guitars layer so thick the weight comes painfully close at times to collapsing the entire thread of the music but never does, and reaches epic proportions on the enormous cadenza of The Asphalt World before being joined by Anderson's powerful vocals ending in an explosion of sound and samples evoking a proper drug addict's and distraught lover's delusions.
Grandiose and at times seemingly over-the-top, the production afforded by Ed Buller was a major factor in the demise of the Anderson/Butler songwriting team that would then spell the demise of this era of Suede. He produced this album expertly, never too overworked and always keeping one foot on the ground despite the sounds on this album wanting to soar. Guitar fuzz leads to classical piano strains leads to full-blown orchestral arrangements and within all he handled with absolute integrity.
The album art of a nude figure collapsed on a bed that, in Suede fashion is left ambiguous but that we can only assume is a man, symbolizes the tragic nature of the album, that or a personification of the ending of the last song Still Life from enormous symphonic power that collapses in on itself with a final crash of cymbals and percussion and brings with it a close to the short era that was Suede with the Anderson/Butler force.
One reviewer mentioned "this album is best heard through headphones on a system turned up to a level not entirely healthy for one's ears. Even if you do go deaf as a result, chances are there's nothing much worth listening to after having sat through Suede's sophomore set." I can personally attest to blowing a pair of headphones whilst listening to The Asphalt World.
The entire album is one drug-induced frenzy. Tragically beautiful and heroic. Mesmerizing and larger-than-life. There are not enough superlatives to aptly describe this work of pure pop art, and it symbolizes both the epitome and the demise of Brit pop and the entire era, ushering in after it a new sound infused more with polished glam then noisy broodiness. It represents the culmination of an era that has now been written into pop culture history, an era noted for its dark glam and obscene stylings that will always be Brit Pop.
