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''Head Music'' is the fourth album by English alternative rock band Suede, released by Nude Records in May 1999. Produced and mixed by Steve Osborne, ''Head Music'' features a more electronic sound, which was a new approach for the band. The recording of ''Head Music'' was plagued with difficulties such as singer Brett Anderson's addiction to crack, and keyboardist Neil Codling's struggle with chronic fatigue syndrome. Although the album still went to number 1 on the UK Albums Chart, making it the band's third and final chart-topping album. Overall, the album received generally favourable reviews from critics although it did have some detractors. ==Background and recording== After the release of the B-sides compilation ''Sci-Fi Lullabies'', Suede decided to put themselves out of the limelight for over a year. Neil Codling spent most of the year in bed due to his illness and at the same time Anderson's drug abuse was becoming a cause for concern. Anderson began to associate himself with people without the band, who Mat Osman, seemed to dislike. "More than anything there started to be a whole load of people he was associating with who I just couldn't stand. They had nothing to do with the band, nothing to do with anything but drugs. They were drug buddies."〔Barnett, p. 219〕 Suede decided to move on from Ed Buller as their producer. After demoing 15 songs with three different producers,〔Author unknown. ("Coming Up? Suede's Fourth Album" ). nme.com. 14 January 1999.〕 wanting to go in a more produced, electronic-sounding direction, the group chose Steve Osborne to produce the album.〔Flint, Tom. ("Recording Suede's 'She's in Fashion'" ). ''Sound on Sound'' August 2000.〕 According to Anderson, ''Head Music'' was Suede's most experimental album,〔Author unknown. ("Loops, Upside Your Head" ). nme.com. 14 February 1999.〕 and Osborne's role played into the group's experimentation, "Steve was responsible for a hell of a lot of this album's sound. We chose him first of all because he did this fucking brilliant job on 'Savoir Faire'... It just sounded really exciting and unusual."〔 Osborne's involvement sparked rumours of Suede going in a dancier direction, which the band strongly denied.〔 Osborne was initially hired for one week of trial-run recording at Mayfair Studios, just to see how the process was going to work, or indeed if the two parties could work together.〔 Suede's biographer David Barnett remembers the day when they did a test-run of "Savoir Faire" with Osborne at the trial sessions. He recalls being offered a crack pipe by two of Anderson's friends. "Naively assuming it to be a hash pipe, I took them up on the offer and was surprised to experience a sensation akin to inhaling several bottles of poppers at the same time. This was my first and last personal encounter with crack."〔Barnett, David. ("Suede: Love & Poison" ). ''The Observer''. 19 October 2003〕 Anderson was addicted to the drug for two and a half years, but stopped in late 1999 when somebody very close to him became ill. He has been clean since.〔 ''Head Music'' was recorded between August 1998 and February 1999, several studios were used including, Eastcote, Sarm Hook End, Master Rock and Eden Studios.〔 For guitarist Richard Oakes, the rehearsals for ''Head Music'' were unpleasant. Faced with Anderson's hedonistic lifestyle, Oakes began to drink more to make rehearsing more endurable. As he recalls: "I remember for quite a few of them, having to make sure that I was semi drunk just in order to turn up."〔Barnett, p. 220〕 Oakes also found his contributions being regularly knocked back in favour of Anderson and Codling's electronic experiments.〔Barnett, p. 223〕 Anderson felt that his spiralling drug use and Codling's illness made Oakes become more isolated from the group; and that the only people who were still getting on well were Osman and drummer Simon Gilbert.〔Barnett, p. 222〕 At one point relationships became so strained that Anderson demanded future member Alex Lee to be summoned to the studio presumably because no one else was willing to turn up.〔Barnett, p. 224〕 The album is notable for being the first Suede album to have a title track. "Head Music" was one of Anderson's personal offerings, which Nude's Saul Galpern insisted should not go on the album. Osborne actually refused to record it, instead they got Arthur Baker to do a version, however they disliked it.〔Barnett, p. 225〕 Osborne eventually relented, but was not so flexible when it came Codling's next offering. "Elephant Man", which is the only song on a Suede album not written or co-written by Anderson. It was recorded, mixed and engineered by Bruce Lampcov.〔Barnett, p. 225-226〕 Codling contributed a greater amount of material to ''Head Music'' than ''Coming Up'', receiving writing credits on six songs. Anderson has said the album was influenced by Asian Dub Foundation, Audioweb, Tricky, Prince and Lee "Scratch" Perry.〔Author unknown. ("Suede's 13" ). nme.com. 14 February 1999〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Head Music」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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