Brett Anderson seems to have been struggling under the weight of expectation since the heady days of Suede, and the success of their first three albums, Suede, Dog Man Star and Coming Up.
After the generally just-about-okay critical and commercial reaction to his and Suede guitarist Bernard Butler’s reunion as The Tears, his first solo effort, Brett Anderson, flopped. Following this, the (was there really any need) three limited edition live double albums in 2007 kept the Anderson-addicts at bay until the release this week of the cheerily titled Wilderness.
Of course, as is the way with these things, they’ll probably love what he has graciously referred to as a ‘beautiful suite of songs,’ with its gloomy cello and maudlin balladry and hail it as the return to form they’ve been waiting for since 1999.
However, and anyone not clinging to the desperate belief that this former Man Vamp will finally bowl us over with an album that proves he isn’t just a girly-voiced naval gazer will surely agree, it's pretty bad. And not just becasue its boring, which it really really is, but because it also contains some of the most contrite lyrics you could hope to find in music today (worse, yes, than Razorlight). The second verse of 'The Empress' runs thus: Didn’t I buy/ The ocean for her?/ Didn’t I wear/ /The colour ?/ Didn’t I feel/ The wind?/ Didn’t I plead?
You can see the thought processes here- ‘okay, okay. I’m in love but I'm down (again). What can I use as an analogy for this that‘ll really show how in love I really am? Err….Err…..Ooh, ooh, I know, I know! Nature. That’s a new one! Nature! And what is there in nature that’s really…big. …the Ocean! Yes! That’s MASSIVE! Good one Brett! And what else…? Err…erm…that’s a toughie…I’ve got it! The wind! That’s it, the wind! And I can’t see it, just like love! Kudos! God, I’m SO romantic in my melancholy. Mummy! Mummy! Get me my celebration milk, Brett done good today!’
Quite what Brett means by feeling the wind-other than an unfortunate bedtime incident- I doubt even he knows. Either way, this kind of overblown output blights the whole of Wilderness. And before you say it, yes, I know that he has always had a tendency towards lyrical hyperbole. But when the tunes were as good as ‘Animal Nitrate, ‘Trash, et al, it was okay. To be still doing it 15 years later is almost unforgivable.
Laura Davies
Posted In Album Reviews, Sep 04 2008.