Suede - Sci-Fi Lullabies (Nude) The most exquisite chroniclers of British suburban misery since The Smiths, Suede deliver what from most bands would be a brazen rip-off: an album of B-sides.
That the record does not have a second of padding in its two hours-plus is testimony to the strength of the songs - which would not have made bad A-sides.
My Dark Star and Money would be the pick were it not for the caustic despair of Another No One, and especially the overtones of Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd which make To the Birds fly.
The harsh poetry of Brett Anderson's lyrics helps to elevate Suede above the merely accomplished. There is an uncomfortable realism to his treatment of life on the dole, drugs and fighting in clubs that makes you wonder how much of his youth was misspent.
Its effect is unsettling, and faithful to the Suede oeuvre: their subjects have never been pretty.
The danger with Sci-Fi Lullabies (a line from second album Dog Man Star) is that, as a 27-track double CD set, it will be seen as a fans' preserve. That would be a waste.
But it will have Morrissey's approval: he was so impressed with My Insatiable One (1992) he took to covering it in his live shows. Which brings us back to The Smiths.
