Sci-Fi Lullabies

Sci-Fi Lullabies
Compilation album by Suede
Released 6 October 1997
Recorded 1992 to 1996
Genre
Length 122:48
Label Nude Records
Producer Ed Buller
Suede chronology
Coming Up
(1996)Coming Up1996		 Sci-Fi Lullabies
(1997)		 Head Music
(1999)Head Music1999

Sci-Fi Lullabies is a two-disc compilation album by English alternative rock band Suede, consisting of B-sides from the singles that were released from the group's first three albums. It reached no. 9 on the UK Albums Chart, and received universal acclaim on release. In subsequent years, the record has been hailed as one of the finest B-side compilations in popular music.

Background

The album spans two discs and displays the band in its most prolific era. The first disc is dominated by tracks written by the Brett Anderson/Bernard Butler songwriting partnership (the exceptions are "Together," "Bentswood Boys" and "Europe is Our Playground") while the second showcases the various intra-band songwriting variations (Anderson/Richard Oakes and Anderson/Neil Codling, plus Anderson solo and compositions contributed to by the whole band) that emerged following Butler's departure and the subsequent recruiting of a new guitarist, Richard Oakes and keyboardist Neil Codling.

The album is not quite comprehensive, missing out around half a dozen exclusive songs released as B-sides by the band during the period it covers. Missing Anderson/Butler B-sides are "Painted People" (from "Animal Nitrate"), "Dolly" (from "So Young") and "This World Needs a Father" (from "The Wild Ones" Disc 1), which was the last B-side of the Butler era. Omitted Anderson solo compositions include "Asda Town" (from "The Wild Ones" Disc 2) and "Sam" (from "Beautiful Ones"). Codling's "Digging a Hole" and the band's group effort "Feel", (both from "Lazy"), were omitted from the collection. Live performances released as B-sides (on "New Generation" Disc 2 and "Filmstar" Disc 2) are also not included, neither is Suede's cover of the Pet Shop Boys' "Rent". The track "Eno's Introducing The Band" (from "The Wild Ones" Disc 2) is also not included.

Bassist Mat Osman outlined the band's reasons for the release of the collection, saying: "We had the tracks, we liked them and wanted people to hear them... We were going to release them before our last album (Coming Up in April), but that would have been backwards. Also, a load of bootlegs have begun appearing in Europe, and they cost a sum of money. These are songs we want people to hear. This tends to tie up all the loose ends."[1] The album is considered an important one for fans of the band, partially because of the wealth of material and partially as many of the songs on the compilation are considered to be as strong as or even stronger than the singles from which they came.[2] In Hindsight, in a 2016 interview with Canadian magazine Vice, Anderson revealed some regrets over the content of the collection, which he felt could have been better and possibly his favourite of all Suede albums.[3]

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[4]
Chicago Tribune[5]
Daily Mail4/5[6]
Entertainment WeeklyA[7]
NME9/10[8]
The Phoenix[9]
Pitchfork8.8/10[10]
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette[11]
Select4/5[12]
Vox[13]

The album was released to universal acclaim in the UK and US. Some of the strongest praise came from the US music press. Tom Lanham of Entertainment Weekly gave the record an A grade, writing that Anderson is a "tireless diarist, judging from this anthology of 27 U.K.-single B sides, each one—like the grim concert staple 'Killing of a Flash Boy'—as fey, somber, and solid as any album track."[7] David Daley of the Hartford Courant felt the album was akin to a "best of" release, writing: "Far from an assortment of throwaways that didn't make the albums, this essential double-disc, 27-song set contains some of Suede's strongest material... the perfect antidote to Oasis' cartoonish 'Best Band' claims."[14]

Ed Masley of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette rated the collection four stars out of four. Likewise, he also compared Suede to Oasis and admitted that Suede would always be the underdog to their Britpop rivals. However, he said that the songs on Sci-Fi Lullabies "could outshine most of their better-known UK rivals' finest gems."[11] Kurt B. Reighley of CMJ New Music Monthly found the compilation to be overlong and, in contrast to other writers, pointed to the second disc as the strongest. He conceded, however, that "there's nary a track among these 27 that wouldn't have made a worthwhile album cut, and a few that merit A-side status."[15] In a retrospective review, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic awarded it 4.5 stars out of 5 and noted that CD1 "is as strong as any of their albums," and that several tracks are "strong enough to be A-sides." Overall he said, "this is absolutely essential material, confirming the group's status as one of the '90s' greatest bands."[4]

The collection was widely praised by several notable music critics of the UK press. Mark Beaumont of NME said that while the second disc resembles a typical B-sides album, the first "stakes a formidable claim as the fourth Suede album in its own right" and is arguably superior to three acclaimed studio albums of the period: Radiohead's OK Computer, Spiritualized's Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space, and Suede's own Coming Up.[8] John Harris of Select said the album plays like "a retelling of the entire Suede movie script" and is "truly as good as most Greatest Hits albums."[12] Writing for Vox, Simon Price felt that Anderson wrote some of his funniest lyrics on CD2, on the tracks "Young Men" and "Jumble Sale Mums". Aside from "Duchess", which he called "lazy rubbish," he had strong praise for both discs.[13]

The album continued Suede's run of consecutive top ten albums, peaking at no. 9 in October 1997.[16] Despite never placing on any of Billboard's charts, Sci-Fi Lullabies had sold 19,000 units in the US by 2008, according to Nielsen SoundScan.[17]

Legacy

"We were lucky that we came a generation after The Smiths because they upped the ante. They were the first band whose singles I can remember buying for the B-sides. They made me realize that singles mattered and B-sides mattered. Our B-sides were never an afterthought, because it was all about the whole package. The single cover looked like the tracks inside and songs worked with each other. Sci-Fi Lullabies was a chance to bring together some of our favorite B-sides."

 — Mat Osman reflecting on the compilation.[18]

Keith Phipps of The A.V. Club and Scott Plagenhoef of Stylus Magazine spoke of the effort invested in Suede's B-sides, with the band discarding "failed" ideas or experiments in favour of high quality tracks.[2][19] Plagenhoef asserted: "Those early B-sides—collected on disc one of Sci-Fi Lullabies remain Suede's strongest collection of songs."[19] The album has been named as one of the finest in the B-side/rarity genre. Independent critic Simon Price hailed it as "the greatest B-sides album ever made."[20] Kevin Courtney of the Irish Times expressed similar views of the album's quality, while admitting that only The Smiths' Hatful Of Hollow could supersede it.[21] In 2017, Pitchfork ranked the record at number thirty in its list, "The 50 Best Britpop Albums."[22] The A.V. Club included the compilation in its list of 35 essential B-side/rarity/outtakes collections. The article described Sci-Fi Lullabies as being "as good as any of Suede's proper albums", and noted that the band's "pre-burnout legacy remains remarkably strong, and decidedly incomplete without such flipside classics as 'My Insatiable One' and 'The Living Dead'."[23] NME featured the compilation in their list of "30 Killer B-Side And Rarities Albums You Might've Missed", noting that Suede's B-sides "were as exciting as anything Britpop could muster."[24] The record was also included in a 2013 NME poll of the 500 greatest albums of all time, where it placed at number 448.[25] On the general quality of Suede's B-sides, the Spin Alternative Record Guide wrote: "Like the Smiths, Suede littered many of its best songs on its B-sides, a case in point being the fine 'My Insatiable One'."[26] A song covered by former Smiths singer Morrissey during his 1992 solo world tour.[27]

Live performances

The Suede B-sides have been an integral part of Suede's live shows as well as Anderson's solo performances. Favourites from disc one include "The Living Dead" and "Killing of a Flash Boy", which were performed at Suede's March 2010 reunion shows in London.[28][29] Anderson and Butler made their last TV appearance on MTV's Most Wanted in March 1994, where they performed the popular "Stay Together" B-sides "The Living Dead" and "My Dark Star". In April 1997, Suede played an entire set of B-sides at a fanclub gig at the Kentish Town Forum.[21]

Title and artwork

The title of the album was a phrase considered as a title for the band's second album, Dog Man Star, and is a phrase used in the lyrics of the song "Introducing the Band" from that album. The collection is accompanied by a 32-page, full-color lyric booklet designed by Peter Saville. The front cover, whose artistic similarities to J. G. Ballard were noted by Stephen Dowling of the BBC,[30] features a destroyed English Electric Lightning aircraft abandoned and used for target practice at the Otterburn Training Area in Northumberland.[31] It was taken by North East photographer John Kippin.

Track listing

Disc One
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."My Insatiable One"Brett Anderson, Bernard Butler2:57
2."To the Birds"Anderson, Butler5:24
3."Where the Pigs Don't Fly"Anderson, Butler5:33
4."He's Dead"Anderson, Butler5:13
5."The Big Time"Anderson, Butler4:28
6."High Rising"Anderson, Butler5:49
7."The Living Dead"Anderson, Butler2:48
8."My Dark Star"Anderson, Butler4:26
9."Killing of a Flash Boy"Anderson, Butler4:07
10."Whipsnade"Anderson, Butler4:22
11."Modern Boys"Anderson, Butler4:07
12."Together"Anderson, Richard Oakes4:29
13."Bentswood Boys"Anderson, Oakes3:15
14."Europe Is Our Playground" (New version)Anderson, Mat Osman5:39
Disc Two
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Every Monday Morning Comes"Anderson, Oakes4:28
2."Have You Ever Been This Low?"Anderson, Oakes3:52
3."Another No One"Anderson3:56
4."Young Men"Anderson, Oakes4:35
5."The Sound of the Streets"Anderson4:59
6."Money"Anderson, Oakes4:04
7."W.S.D." (full version)Anderson5:46
8."This Time"Anderson, Oakes5:46
9."Jumble Sale Mums"Anderson, Oakes4:15
10."These Are the Sad Songs"Anderson, Oakes6:20
11."Sadie"Anderson, Oakes5:24
12."Graffiti Women"Anderson4:51
13."Duchess"Anderson, Neil Codling3:55

References

  1. ↑ "POP/SNEAK PEEK : STICKMEN STAND UP FOR CREATIVITY.". Los Angeles Daily News. 28 November 1997. Retrieved 8 February 2017.
  2. 1 2 Phipps, Keith (29 March 2002). "Sci-Fi Lullabies review". The A.V. Club. Archived from the original on 2012-10-05. Retrieved 30 June 2013.
  3. ↑ Lindsay, Cam (21 January 2016). "Rank Your Records: Brett Anderson Sorts Suede's Records". Vice. Retrieved 19 December 2016.
  4. 1 2 Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Sci-Fi Lullabies Review". AllMusic. Retrieved 30 June 2013.
  5. ↑ Klein, Joshua (20 February 1998). "The London Suede Sci-Fi Lullabies (Nude/Columbia...". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on 2014-01-09. Retrieved 30 June 2013.
  6. ↑ Thrills, Adrian (17 October 1997). "An Electrifying Return". Daily Mail. Associated Newspapers.
  7. 1 2 Lanham, Tom (29 December 1997). "Music Review: The London Suede". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on 2012-10-12. Retrieved 30 June 2013.
  8. 1 2 Beaumont, Mark (4 October 1997). "Suede - Sci-Fi Lullabies". NME. Archived from the original on 16 October 2000. Retrieved 28 April 2016.
  9. ↑ Perry, Jonathan. "Boston Phoenix CD Reviews". The Phoenix. Retrieved 13 December 2016.
  10. ↑ DiCrescenzo, Brent (1 January 1998). "Suede - Sci-Fi Lullabies". Pitchfork. Archived from the original on 19 February 2003. Retrieved 24 April 2016.
  11. 1 2 Masley, Ed (5 December 1997). "For the Record". Weekend Magazine (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette). p. 116. Retrieved 23 November 2013 – via Google News Archive.
  12. 1 2 Harris, John (November 1997). "Sci-Fi Lullabies". Select. Emap (89).
  13. 1 2 Price, Simon (November 1997). "Glad to be Fey". Vox. IPC Media.
  14. ↑ Daley, David (8 January 1998). "Sci-fi Lullabies – Suede". Hartford Courant. Retrieved 6 May 2016.
  15. ↑ Reighley, Kurt B (January 1998). "Sci-Fi Lullabies". CMJ New Music Monthly (53): 43. Retrieved 2 May 2016 – via Google Books.
  16. ↑ "Artist Chart History: Suede". Official Charts Company. Archived from the original on 2013-11-04. Retrieved 30 June 2013.
  17. ↑ Caulfield, Keith. "Ask Billboard: Blue Suede Shoes". Billboard.com. 26 September 2008 Archived 10 June 2013 at the Wayback Machine.
  18. ↑ Martell, Nevin (13 April 2011). "Brett Anderson and Mat Osman on Suede's Discography". Filter. Archived from the original on 2011-12-25. Retrieved 26 July 2013.
  19. 1 2 Plagenhoef, Scott. "Modern Life is Rubbish: The Rise and Fall of Britpop". Stylus Magazine. 23 June 2003 Archived 31 March 2014 at the Wayback Machine.
  20. ↑ Price, Simon. "Suede, Royal Albert Hall, London". The Independent. 28 March 2010 Archived 7 November 2012 at the Wayback Machine.
  21. 1 2 Courtney, Kevin (17 October 1997). "Rock/Pop Suede: "Sci-Fi Lullabyes" (Nude)". Irish Times. Retrieved 1 January 2017.
  22. ↑ "The 50 Best Britpop Albums". Pitchfork. 29 March 2017. Retrieved 2 June 2017.
  23. ↑ "Odds and sods: 35 B-side/rarity/outtakes collections as essential as the 'official' albums". The A.V. Club. 22 February 2010. Retrieved 13 March 2017.
  24. ↑ Barker, Emily (7 October 2014). "30 Killer B-Side And Rarities Albums You Might've Missed". NME. Retrieved 21 March 2016.
  25. ↑ "The 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time: 500-401". NME. 21 October 2013. Archived from the original on 2013-10-27. Retrieved 16 November 2013.
  26. ↑ Weisbard, Eric; Marks, Craig, eds. (1995). Spin Alternative Record Guide. Vintage Books. p. 380. ISBN 0-679-75574-8.
  27. ↑ Daly, Steven (27 May 1993). "Suede: All That Glitters". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 14 February 2017.
  28. ↑ "Suede Concert at 100 Club, City of London, England". setlist.fm Archived 30 March 2010 at the Wayback Machine.
  29. ↑ "Suede Concert at Royal Albert Hall, London, England". setlist.fm Archived 3 December 2013 at the Wayback Machine.
  30. ↑ Dowling, Stephen (20 April 2009). "What pop music tells us about JG Ballard". BBC. Retrieved 27 January 2017.
  31. ↑ Smith, Oliver (24 February 2016). "54 locations that defined Britpop". The Telegraph. Retrieved 28 December 2016.
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