WORTH A LOOK?: ****

Suede haven’t released 2 songs in a row this thrilling since the double-punch of the classic Trash and Beautiful Ones in 1996.

• Read on for reasons including how to see Suede live in Europe between August and October 2022

Whisper it but 15 Again has the gothic guitar hook of something as unfashionable as The Cult’s She Sells Sanctuary but it’s the sentiment of the lyric – a song lead singer Brett Anderson describes as ‘about falling in love with life for the first time’ – that has a universality that can’t help but strike a chord.

Who can’t help but imagine Brett and friends tottering about their parental homes and then ‘sitting in the bathroom in kitten heels’ or ‘afternoons in bedrooms with TV meals’?

Don’t ever underestimate the power of the backing vocal ‘ooohs’ which lend a pop drama to the overwrought dark theatricality of the muscular guitar riffs.

15 Again follows She Leads Me On – a song of the month for us in June – of which we said: ‘If the lead-off single is any indication, it’s an album that could be amongst the band’s very best since their 90s heyday.’

It’s a prediction underlined by 15 Again and we’re buoyed by Anderson’s recent interview with The Times in which he said: ‘The new album, Autofiction, is an attempt to capture what it is like to be 54 years old, but without becoming a grumpy old man singing about my aching back.’

It was also recorded live, mistakes and all, and feels from what we’ve heard so far exactly the sort of experience that fans who cherish the band’s electrifying gig performances – we’ve seen them more than 10 times since 1993 including our favourite ever gig in Portsmouth and Barcelona earlier this year – would wish for.

We see them next by the sea at Southsea’s glorious Victorious Festival later this month and at a special gig in a Kingston nightclub in September at around the time of Autofiction‘s release.

• Main picture by Dean Chalkley via Facebook courtesy Suede Tickets
• Have you heard any of these songs or seen any of these shows? Let us know what you thought in the comments below
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