For two albums, Brett Anderson and Bernard seemed as if they could grow to become the Morrissey & Marr of the 90s-- Suede's self-titled debut and its follow-up, Dog Man Star, are among the best records of Britpop, and even the B-sides they wrote together were pretty consistently amazing songs. The fraying and ultimate disintegration of their creative relationship pushed Dog Man Star to its final gloriously turgid, expansive state, with each musician trying to muscle his best ideas to the front. That album isn't just a collection of a band's recently written songs, it's a sweeping picture of despair and interpersonal meltdown. Post-Butler, Suede distanced themselves from that sound, opting instead to become a sort of gutter party band. The catharsis seemed to sap Butler as well-- his solo records are only a song or two removed from totally mediocre, and aside from "Yes" I'd rather not think about his collaboration with David McAlmont.
Ten years later, Suede are dead, Butler's way under the radar and here come the Tears, the official reunion of Anderson & Butler. It's a reunion that's been about as low-key as a reunion between these two could possibly be, given that Suede were once so huge that Virgin Megastores across Britain changed their name to Head Music for a day to mark the release of the band's fourth album. Listening to the results, it seems as though they genuinely enjoy working together again-- when Anderson refers to "you and me" on "Two Creatures" and talks about running away to warmer weather in Africa, it almost sounds like he's talking to Butler and not some anonymous girlfriend as the guitarist's distinctively dissonant leads snake alongside his vocal.
That amity is perhaps a part of the reason Here Come the Tears doesn't quite measure up to the duo's past together-- the seething tension and bitchy moodiness of their original partnership undeniably made the music better and more intense. The other reason things aren't quite as transcendent this time is the more mundane matter of Brett Anderson-- he's selling his voice to tobacconists on an installment plan and can't do melodrama like he used to. Plus, years of frequently lazy lyric writing with Suede Mk II haven't entirely cleared up. That said, there also are no songs that simply list the ways in which various unrelated people are decadent and none that string together references to gasoline, diesel, alcohol, polythene, and trash in a random sequence.
Removed from the context of their past work (ha!), Here Come the Tears is a good album, one with the respective drum and bass work of Mako Sakamoto and Nathan Fisher grounding sweeping ballads like "Apollo 13" and driving the speedier songs solidly so that Butler's guitar is free to roam, jousting with the vocal melodies. Butler is still an impressive guitarist-- his solo on "Lovers" is a particular highlight. Other hallmarks of the classic Dog Man Star-era sound that surface here include the wandering, Leslie'd pianos and smearing, slightly antagonistic string arrangements, which are held back for just the right moments.
So color me pleasantly surprised-- I really expected very little from an Anderson/Butler reunion, but they've ably demonstrated that my old-guard Suede fan anxiety was unfounded with catchy, dramatic songs like "Imperfections" and "Lovers". There's nothing as great as "New Generation", "She's Not Dead", or "The 2 of Us" but there doesn't have to be, either, because the Tears have enough natural dynamism of their own to stand alone.
