A few short years ago the mighty Suede delivered the unexpected with Autofiction, an album so potent in its vitality and beautifully self-aware in its context it remarkably earned a place alongside the English icons’ ’90s-era holy trinity. It found a weathered and battle-worn band once again comfortable in its own skin, exploring themes of aging, of personal growth and maturity, and how we are all so much older than we were when we first kissed in rooms to popular tunes. It was perhaps the most in the moment Suede record since the forever unfuckwithable debut.
Nearly three years later, Brett Anderson and the gang are prepping their 10th (!) studio album in Antidepressants, out September 5 via BMG, and this week’s sterling new single “Dancing With The Europeans” suggests there’s still some magic floating through the air that binds us all these decades later. And it carries the same type of contagiousness we first heard in 2013 comeback record Bloodsports, and all the hits that came before it.
A thematic electrical current that flows through Antidepressants is a feeling of connection in an increasingly distant world, and “Dancing With The Europeans” encapsulates that notion in the same way classic tracks like “Trash” and “Can’t Get Enough” once did. The bond between Suede’s die-hard fans and the band itself has always had a starring role in this never-ending drama, and now the two merge blissfully through the metallic sheen and effortless cool that permeates this new ripper.
“There’s a sense of optimism about this song,” says Anderson. “I remember specifically we were doing a gig in Spain during the time we were writing this album. I was going through a bad time and at a low, personally. But we played this brilliant gig. There was a great connection between me and the audience. I thought of the phrase, dancing with the Europeans. There’s something about that word, Europeans, that I really like. The phrase summed up the experience of looking for connection in a disconnected world. This sense of, where do we find those bonds with our fellow human beings That show in Spain broke down those barriers.”
Come dancing with one of England’s most essential bands, on this day or any one prior, as this evolving second act is holding steady as far more impressive than any of their Cool Britannia peers.
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