''Bloodsports'' is the sixth studio album by English

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...

band

Suede Suede (pronounced ) is a type of leather with a fuzzy, napped finish, commonly used for jackets, shoes, fabrics, purses, furniture, and other items. The term comes from the French , which literally means "gloves from Sweden". The term was fir ...

. It was released on 18 March 2013, via

Warner Bros. Records Warner Records Inc. (formerly Warner Bros. Records Inc.) is an American record label. A subsidiary of the Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division of the ...

. It is their first studio album since ''

A New Morning ''A New Morning'' is the fifth studio album by English alternative rock band Suede, released in September 2002. By the time the album was released, public interest in the band had waned, as shown by the poor charting of both the album and single ...

'' in 2002. The album was the first since '' Coming Up'' to be produced by their longtime producer

Ed Buller Edmund Wilbur Hudson "Ed" Buller (born 9 August 1962 in Reigate, Surrey) is an English record producer and former musician. He has primarily worked with English bands including Suede, Pulp, The Raincoats and The Courteeners. Biography Buller fir ...

, and also the first album to feature keyboardist

Neil Codling Neil John Codling (born 5 December 1973) is an English musician and songwriter, best known as the keyboardist, rhythm guitarist, backing vocalist and co-songwriter for the alternative rock band Suede. Early life Neil Codling was raised in Str ...

since his departure in 2001.

Background and production

Frontman

Brett Anderson Brett Lewis Anderson (born 29 September 1967) is an English singer best known as the lead vocalist and primary lyricist of the band Suede. After Suede disbanded in 2003, he fronted The Tears with former Suede guitarist Bernard Butler in 2004- ...

commented that the album would sound like a cross between ''

Dog Man Star ''Dog Man Star'' is the second album by English alternative rock band Suede (band), Suede, released in October 1994 on Nude Records. The album was recorded in London at Master Rock studios in early 1994, and was produced by Ed Buller. It was th ...

'' and '' Coming Up''. He stated that ''Bloodsports'' is "about lust, it's about the chase, it's about the endless carnal game of love. It was possibly the hardest we've ever made but certainly the most satisfying". The band performed new material in 2011, most of which got scrapped when they went into the studio with

, the producer of their first three albums.Neighbour, Flora
"Suede Ditch All Material Recorded for New Album"
Gigwise. 11 May 2012.

Release

In January 2013, Suede released a free download of opening track "Barriers". The lead single, "It Starts and Ends with You", followed in February. Second single "Hit Me" was released 27 May. Third single "For the Strangers" was released in October on the same day the band released ''The Vinyl Collection'', a box set of the band's six studio albums and b-side collection on vinyl. ''Bloodsports'' debuted on the Official

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...

at number 10, on first-week sales of 10,453 copies. It went on to sell 22,410 units after 12 weeks. A 7-inch double a-side of "Barriers"/"

Animal Nitrate "Animal Nitrate" is the third single by English rock band Suede, released through Nude Records on 22 February 1993 and later included on the band's debut album ''Suede''. It charted at 7 on the UK Singles Chart, making it the highest-charting ...

" was released 20 April on

Record Store Day Record Store Day is an annual event inaugurated in 2007 and held on one Saturday (typically the third) every April and every Black Friday in November to "celebrate the culture of the independently owned record store". The day brings together fa ...

Critical reception

''Bloodsports'' has been very well received by critics, their most acclaimed album since '' Coming Up'' in 1996. At Metacritic, which assigns a rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 80, based on 29 reviews, indicating "generally favourable reviews."

Year-end lists

''Bloodsports'' has been included in many Best Albums of 2013 lists including:

Track listing

Personnel

Suede *

– vocals * Richard Oakes – guitars * Simon Gilbert – drums *

Mat Osman Mathew David Osman (born 9 October 1967) is an English musician and author, best known as the bassist in the rock band Suede. Osman and singer Brett Anderson are the only remaining founding members left in Suede, and along with the drummer Si ...

– electric bass *

– synthesisers, guitars Technical *

– production, engineering *Andy Hughes – engineering *Paul-Édouard Laurendeau – engineering *Joel M. Peters – engineering assistance * Andy Wallace – mixing *Paul Suarez –

Pro Tools Pro Tools is a digital audio workstation (DAW) developed and released by Avid Technology (formerly Digidesign) for Microsoft Windows and macOS. It is used for music creation and production, sound for picture (sound design, audio post-productio ...

engineering *

Howie Weinberg Howie Weinberg is an American audio mastering engineer with over 2,257 mastering credits, three TEC Awards, 21 Grammy Awards, two Juno Awards, and one Mercury Prize. Career Weinberg mastered Herbie Hancock's 1983 album ''Future Shock''. Other m ...

– mastering *Dan Gerbarg – mastering Artwork *Jonathan Baron – cover *Matthew Holroyd – cover *Brett Anderson – cover *Mat Osman – cover *Blommers/Schumm – artwork photography *Roger Sargent – band photography *Studio-Baron – design

Charts

References

External links

''Bloodsports''
at

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(streamed copy where licensed) * * {{Authority control 2013 albums Suede (band) albums Albums produced by Ed Buller Warner Records albums