Suede have announced details of a new project called Suede30 – celebrating three decades of their acclaimed self-titled debut.
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Arriving on July 7 will be special limited edition 30th anniversary releases – offering up their 1993 debut in a newly mixed and mastered format. Containing the fan favourites and era classics “Animal Nitrate”, “So Young”, “The Drowners” and “Metal Mickey”, the LP hit Number One upon first release, selling over 100,000 copies in its first week and becoming the fastest-selling debut album ever in the UK at that time before going on to win the Mercury Music Prize.
The band’s glam rock sound and aesthetic – along with their very real tales of mundane UK life – were at odds with the prevailing US grunge trends of the time, and was inadvertently a precursor to the Brit-rock movement.
“It was a genuinely magical time in my life and one for which I’ll always be grateful,” said frontman Brett Anderson. “It felt incredible being in what I thought was quite probably the most exciting band in the world at the time, making a record which felt like more than just another band making another album.”
Bassist Mat Osman added: “So, 30 years ago, this is where it all began. A mixture of the live songs that had won us a following and our first experiments in the studio. Listening back now it still has that sense of wildness, and drama, and possibility of those early days. So young and so gone, indeed!”
To mark the announcement, the band have also shared a remastered video of the single “Metal Mickey”, which you can check out below.
Suede30 will be released on July 7 on 180g black vinyl LP, double DC, picture disc and blu-ray editions, all with audio newly mastered by Phil Kinrade at AIR Studios from the original ½” tapes and production masters, overseen and approved by original album producer Ed Buller.
The double CD deluxe gatefold edition will also include the nine B-sides, along with a cover of The Pretenders‘ “Brass in Pocket”, originally recorded for an NME covermount cassette.
The picture disc LP (limited to 1030 copies worldwide) will feature reimagined exclusive artwork by Paul Khera, along with an exclusive picture disc featuring Anderson’s lyrics housed in a deluxe gatefold sleeve featuring gold foil detailing, and a classic Kevin Cummins photograph across the centrefold.
Pre-order the album here, and check out the tracklist below:
CD 1: SUEDE
1. “So Young”
2. “Animal Nitrate”
3. “She’s Not Dead”
4. “Moving”
5. “Pantomime Horse”
6. “The Drowners”
7. “Sleeping Pills”
8. “Breakdown”
9. “Metal Mickey”
10. “Animal Lover”
11. “The Next Life”
CD 2: THE B-SIDES
1. “My Insatiable One”
2. “To The Birds”
3. “He’s Dead”
4. “Where The Pigs Don’t Fly”
5. “Painted People”
6. “The Big Time”
7. “High Rising”
8. “Dolly”
9. “My Insatiable One” [piano version]
10. “Brass In Pocket”
The band kicked off the anniversary activity last month by performing a unique show in Manchester that celebrated 30 years of their debut album.
Meanwhile, the band have recently been touring in support of their acclaimed 2022 album Autofiction. Speaking to NME last year, Anderson revealed that the band were already at work on their next album.
“The next record that we’re planning to write, and have already started, is much more experimental,” he told NME. “I don’t really know if there’s an arc with [Autofiction]. I’m not seeing it as a selection of albums. You just have to do it one at a time, really. I do think of those three records as [being] together, especially Night Thoughts and The Blue Hour, but the next record will be completely different.”
He added: “I’d love to think that our most daring work is ahead of us. That’s a really exciting prospect – that a band at our stage of our career haven’t just settled for running through the motions. I love making new records: it makes my heart beat faster, it’s what I get up for in the morning.”
With “further activity soon to be announced” soon, Suede’s UK Autofiction tour continues with two nights at London’s O2 Academy Brixton on December 15 and 16.