The London Suede Night Thoughts

After ending an 11-year studio hiatus with 2013’s Bloodsports, the glam-ish Brit-poppers of (The London) Suede return yet again with a giant album primped and waiting to be an event. You know a band is serious when it only lets the press stream a record in one, unbroken track. (“This is a work, not a collection of singles, dammit!”) Night Thoughts is also being issued with a feature film, about a drowning man fighting for his life as it flashes before his eyes. It’s all terribly, horribly serious. I know it’s not entirely fair to compare a band to its former self, but since arriving in 1993 with a self-titled debut that was irresistibly kinky and glam, The London Suede has slowly streamlined itself into something way less fun—a pretentious and heavy-hearted arena-rock band, not unlike Coldplay with a death wish. The London Suede can still knock out an above-average jam (only a curmudgeon could deny the overgrown teenage-kicks of “Outsiders” and “When You Are Young”), but I can’t help missing The London Suede of yore, the Brett Anderson who sang, “He writes the line/Wrote right down my spine/It says ‘Oh, do you believe in love there?’” Oh, well. Maybe I need to grow up.