Brett Anderson's released his volume II of his autobiography later last year.
The book is a treasure for every Suede fan, and, I guess, a very interesting reading for anyone that fancies the inner world of 90's indie music.
Like Coal Black Mornings, this is not a book about "coke and gold discs". Brett, apologies on the beginning of the book, saying that this is the work that he said that he would never write. I disagree, Brett said that he would never write a book about his success and failures, in a kind of lists of chart performances and ugly gossip about people and experiences. AWTBD is a biography of Brett's and Suede's life during their first run, during their golden and darker years, but the writer doesn't really gives a chronological story of his life. He writes a sensitive prose, that most part of his focus are the inspirations that led him write this or that song. It's an introspective biographical romance of his life at that time, that describes what he was thinking, and how did he deal with various situations.
I guess that, the big difference about a biography and an autobiography is really seen here. A biography tends to focus on the facts, numbers, success, gossips, interviews, etc. An autobiography writes a personal vision of life, a romantic and flowery explanation, always with a internal weighting. Why did I do that and how did that situation influenced my life and my writing.
Comparing to CBM, for not English native speakers, AWTBD is more complex, more difficult to read. Most of its chapters has an introduction, that mirrors Brett's songwriting, a beautiful and detailed description of something.
I enjoyed reading the part in which Bernard Butler leaves the band. You can almost feel Brett's pain in writing that part, always very delicate in order not to be misunderstood or to be over-judging in Butler's reaction.
Also, the part when both Ricardo and Neil join Suede is a great one. Brett explains in detail the strengths and creativity of his partners, and I'm happy to say that he didn't leave compliments to say, he treated both of them with beautiful words.
I think it's also important that the writer didn't over-explored his extincted addiction problem. He talks openly about it, but he is direct and cold. We don't need to make a fantasist tale about taking drugs, and how we should avoid them. That happened, I reacted this way, it scared me, it has reflections on those songs and on those moments of my life, I regret them, end of story. As, not only a Suede fan, but also as music and poetry lover, I'm much more interested in knowing the true meanings and inspirations behind the songs, instead of a tale of struggling dependency. And that's what AWTBD is about.
The rest of the book, it's like a very long Suede song. You read typical Brett's expressions that can be heard both on his songs as well in his book, using very smart metaphors.
I doubt that there will be, soon, an autobiography part III that would cover his solo years and The Tears era. I'm not sure it it would be such a good book and it's 2 previous volumes. Maybe yes, it would be interesting to read about his feeling on reuniting with Bernard and how did his romantic life settled and how did he became a family man, while is solo career was drifting apart a little bit.
Let's wait and see!
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