Suede: Dog Man Star – 20th Anniversary Live At The Royal Albert Hall

Triumphant birthday bash gets the deluxe box-set treatment.

By Stephen Dalton
( Classic Rock )
published

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Back on thunderously good live form since returning from a lengthy sabbatical in 2010, Suede marked the 20th anniversary of their darkly operatic second album in October 2014 with an exhilarating charity show at the Royal Albert Hall.

Featuring all of Dog Man Star in sequence, plus a further full-length set of greatest hits and misses, this event has now been immortalised as a deluxe limited-edition double CD or quadruple vinyl package. Which feels a tad grandiose, even by Brett Anderson’s ostentatious standards.

Backed by an all-female string octet, album standouts like The Wild Ones, Still Life and We Are The Pigs retain their dystopian glam-punk potency. But some of the lesser tracks trundle and plod, especially during the post-album section.

Having witnessed this concert in person, the tinny and scratchy recorded sound also lacks the boomy, widescreen immersion of being there. A little underpowered in places, but still a solid record of a great show.

Stephen Dalton
Stephen Dalton

Stephen Dalton has been writing about all things rock for more than 30 years, starting in the late Eighties at the New Musical Express (RIP) when it was still an annoyingly pompous analogue weekly paper printed on dead trees and sold in actual physical shops. For the last decade or so he has been a regular contributor to Classic Rock magazine. He has also written about music and film for Uncut, Vox, Prog, The Quietus, Electronic Sound, Rolling Stone, The Times, The London Evening Standard, Wallpaper, The Film Verdict, Sight and Sound, The Hollywood Reporter and others, including some even more disreputable publications.