Suede: Head Music: Original NUDE 1999 Vinyl 2LP Ex/Ex

	£		27
	$		36

Suede: Head Music: Superb Original 1999 Nude 2LP Ex/Ex

Suede - Head Music (1999)

Original Double Vinyl album on the Nude label.

For auction, an original copy of Suede's rare (on vinyl) LP, Head Music, purchased by myself at the time of release in Dr Roberts Record Store (now sadly gone) in Belfast.

This copy of the album has been played only once over all these years, this not being my favourite Suede album, so it remains in excellent condition: only the slightest ring-wear to the outer cover, remarkable really as this was a double LP set but issued in a single album sleeve rather than a gate-fold. There is a small crease which can just be seen to the lower left side of the cover. The spine is straight and true. The two inner sleeves, illustrated in garish purple with dripping, scribbled lyrics are in excellent near-mint condition. The vinyl, as I have said, has been played only once, though it is a little dusty after all these years in storage and could probably do with attention with a record cleaning brush. There are no surface scratches - only a couple of slight scuffs and marks that are inherent to vinyl as a medium. This copy of the album also comes complete with a small pressing fault - the residue of another label on the run-out groove on Side 3 (please see photograph). This does not affect play in any way. There is very little spindle wear to the labels. I would rate the covers and both LPs as excellent.

For those who are interested, these are the matrix/stamper details:

NUDE LP 14 A

NUDE LP 14 B

NUDE LP 14 LPC-01-1-

NUDE LP 14 LPD-01-1-

The matrix numbers on Sides One and Two are inscribed, whereas those on Sides Three and Four are machine stamped - first time I've ever seen that, and possibly a production/distribution mess-up. Or vinyl was being issued in such small quantities back in 1999 that anything went on the pressing factory floor really.

I rather liked this spot on review of the bleakitude of this LP by Andy Gill in the Independent - Suede were always the Downers of Britpop:

BROADER IN musical conception than their previous albums, Head Music reflects two basic changes in Suede's working methods since Coming Up. The most obvious is the change of producer, Ed Buller being replaced here by Steve Osborne, Paul Oakenfold's partner in Perfecto, who naturally brings a more groove-oriented approach to the band's sound, which is slicker and smoother than before, and better reflects the band's "chemical generation" outlook.

It used to be the case that Brett Anderson sometimes seemed to be singing about another subculture entirely when he romanticised drug-taking, as if jealously observing the bright young things en route to their raves from his shadowy vantage point on the gloomy side of the street; certainly, Suede records were rarely heard at raves, where a more physical, less mental, response was the order of the day.

This, perhaps, is the underlying theme of Head Music - that populist, body-oriented music need not be entirely free of intelligence, that both body and mind can take nourishment from pop.

The other major change in the band is the rise of the keyboardist Neil Codling, who plays a much more defining role in the band's sound and compositions than before, offering a better equilibrium between keyboard textures and the guitars that used to dominate their sound. It's inconceivable, for instance, that Suede could have pulled off such a svelte slice of Human League-style electro-pop as "Hi-Fi" on an earlier album, or built up as dense a sound as on "Elephant Man", without recourse to string arrangements. The new balance is best displayed on the Garbage-esque "Savoir Faire", where the hormonal buzz of wah-wah guitar and pounding motorik groove combine compellingly in the manner of Bowie's Station to Station, which you suspect is right up Suede's street.

As for the lyrics, Suede's songs still deal with glamour, sex, drugs and despair in fairly equal quantities, but now there's a variability of touch that was lacking before. The evocations of teen sex, the snatched moments of bliss in suburban wastelands, and the cast of pill-popping glamour-girls and beautifully wasted boys are all present and politically incorrect, of course, but it's hard to imagine the younger, more serious Suede stooping to the Viz-comic level of the title-track's "Give me head! Give me head! Give me head music instead!"

It's not an obvious route for them to take, admittedly, but one that brings a welcome touch of truly street-level humanity to Suede's more fancifully romantic notions of life on "the street".

A rare opportunity to pick up a scarce double album by the downers of Britpop, Suede, not often seen for sale as it was pressed in such limited numbers. The album will be posted in stiff cardboards mailers to protect it in transit - don't miss the chance to add this one to your collection. As Suede re-enter the vogue of the nation due to recent attention and the looming 90s revival, this one will be a prize.