Dog Man Star is the second album by English alternative rock 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 the last Suede album to feature guitarist Bernard Butler; growing tensions between him and singer Brett Anderson ended with Butler leaving the band before recording was complete. As a result, some tracks on the album had to be finished with the assistance of session musicians.
In contrast to their debut album Suede, which exhibited the influences of David Bowie and the Smiths, Dog Man Star exhibits a more varied aesthetic and draws from a wider range of influences. Although it did not sell on the same scale as its predecessor, it reached number three on the UK Albums Chart and was certified as gold by the BPI in November 1994. Described by Rolling Stone as "one of the most pretentious albums ever released by a major label," the record was released in a different UK musical climate to their hitherto discography. Out-of-step with the mainstream music scene, it featured the band diverting away from the "Britpop pack" of bands.
While Dog Man Star was acclaimed by many reviewers as a masterpiece, the trend towards "lad pop" saw its chart and sales success obscured. It was generally overlooked at the time, and it polarised American critics, some labelling it as pretentious. The album has over time garnered wider acclaim from critics. In the decade between Suede's 2003 separation and the release of Bloodsports, Dog Man Star steadily gained a strong following as a classic rock record. In October 2013, NME magazine placed the album at number 31 in its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
Background In early 1994, when Suede were about to release the standalone single "Stay Together", the morale within the group was at an all-time low. Butler's father had died just as the band were about to begin their second American tour. The first week of the tour was cancelled, and Suede flew back to London from New York. When the tour did resume, Butler—not only recently bereaved but now engaged to his fiancée Elisa—distanced himself from the rest of the band far more than before. According to Butler, "they got really resentful of the fact that they were on tour with someone who didn't want to party". He even travelled separately, either alone, by taxi, or on the tour bus of support act the Cranberries. Then, in Atlanta, Suede suffered the ignominy of having to open for the Cranberries, who had become a bigger draw, thanks to their recent hit "Linger". The band agreed to let the Cranberries go on last in three places, given that they were picking up airplay; Anderson said the "whole rivalry thing was blown out of all proportion." By the time of their arrival in New York, Suede had enough, and the last few dates were cancelled. According to drummer Simon Gilbert, Butler was becoming intolerable and impossible to work with, and the band could not function together any longer. To record Suede's next album Anderson moved to Highgate, north London, and began to write lyrics while living in a secluded flat; a time which is detailed in the band biography Love and Poison.
The album was later described by writer Nick Duerden as "the most pompous, overblown British rock record of the decade". Anderson has said that its overblown sound was down to his use of psychedelic drugs: "I was doing an awful lot of acid at the time, and I think it was this that gave us the confidence to push boundaries." He has also said that he thrived on the surreal environment he lived in at the time; next door were a sect known as the Mennonites, who would often sing hymns during Anderson's drug binges. After the success of their debut album, Suede were hailed as the inventors of Britpop, something they were proud of for a short while. However, Britpop started to be dominated by the other bands, notably Blur, Oasis and Pulp. This disgusted Anderson, who called Britpop "a musical Carry On film." Fearing he was on a collision course of becoming a celebrity, Anderson deliberately distanced himself from the scene, which prompted his relocation to Highgate. "We could not have been more uninterested in that whole boozy, cartoon-like, fake working-class thing", the singer said in 2008. "As soon as we became aware of it, we went away and wrote Dog Man Star. You could not find a less Britpop record. It's tortured, epic, extremely sexual and personal. None of those things apply to Britpop."
Recording and production The album was recorded between 22 March and 26 July 1994 at Master Rock Studios, Kilburn, London. The rehearsals were very tense and would inevitably split the band into two separate camps. Butler had his own agenda, and he frequently clashed with the rest of the band and producer Ed Buller, over whom he had concerns during the recording of the first album. According to Buller, Butler and the rest of the band were not in the studio together once during recording, perhaps only for a matter of hours.
Buller has stated that the recording process had some "happy accidents" during recording. Butler recorded separately from the rest of the band in a purpose-built lounge. There was a TV in the lounge and Butler can be heard tuning the TV at the beginning of "The Asphalt World". At the end of the song, Butler can be heard changing channels and picking up a section of dialogue from Lauren Bacall from the film Woman's World. Buller also talked of the impromptu recording of Butler playing the intro to "The Wild Ones" on a dobro outside as he sat on the roof of his car.
Butler seemed to antagonise his bandmates when he appeared on the front cover of Vox magazine under the tag line "Brett drives me insane." In a rare interview, in that he only ever would do press interviews on the pretext it was about guitars, he said of Anderson: "He's not a musician at all. It's very difficult for him to get around anything that isn't ABC." A despondent Anderson remembers reading the article the same morning he was recording the vocals for "The Asphalt World": "I remember trying to channel all this hurt that I was feeling and the iciness I was feeling into the vocal." Butler later apologised to Anderson over the incident.
Musical differences arose over "The Asphalt World". The final version on the album has a duration of 9:25, edited from a much longer recording. According to bass player Mat Osman, Butler's initial creation was a 25-minute piece with an eight-minute guitar solo. However, according to Anderson, the composition was 18 minutes long, and was a pre-production recording featuring only guitar and drums, that was intended to be edited down.
At the time, Butler had been writing additional complex arrangements, was interested in progressive rock, and appeared in a BBC programme about Pink Floyd. The extended "The Asphalt World" and the experimental ending for "The Wild Ones" were borne out of this affinity.
Osman later expressed he felt Butler's compositions were too experimental: "Lots of the musical ideas were too much. They were being rude to the listener: it was expecting too much of people to listen to them." The arguments over "The Asphalt World" spilled over on to the rest of the album, as Butler became progressively more dissatisfied with Ed Buller's production. In a 2005 interview, the guitarist maintained his position on the matter, stating that Buller "made a terrible shoddy job of it". Butler wanted Buller dismissed, allowing him to produce the record by himself.
It was later revealed that Butler had recommended Chris Thomas as their producer. Thomas was more experienced and had previously worked with punk rock bands The Pretenders and the Sex Pistols; however, Suede's label Nude Records dismissed the idea, saying he was too expensive. Nude's owner Saul Galpern claimed that the guitarist became impossible to reason with, and also made threats to him and Buller. Buller claims he received phone calls where he heard something akin to scratching knives.
Butler issued the band and their management an ultimatum: either they sacked Buller, or he would walk out. The rest of the band refused to comply with Butler's demands, and decided to let him walk out before the record was finished. Butler insisted he was kicked out of the band, for he turned up to the studio one day to find he was not allowed in. He went back the next day to pick up his guitar, and was told through the intercom that his guitar would be left in the street for him (Buller disputes this, stating that the guitars were left at the studio reception desk for collection).Ed Buller on producing Suede: "All these awful stories came out that are completely untrue", Alice Gustafson, Headliner Magazine, 7 February 2022 Suede's manager Charlie Charlton made a final attempt to reach consensus between the two parties; however, during a tense phone conversation the final words Butler uttered to Anderson were along the lines of "you're a fucking cunt".
Butler left the sessions on 8 July, leaving Dog Man Star some distance from completion. Anderson had recorded little more than a string of guide vocals; several songs did not have titles; much of the music was still to be completed with overdubs. Butler had exited before recording his guitar part for "The Power"; a session guitarist was invited to record the part, replicating Butler's demo recording. Anderson offered to play acoustic guitar.
Buller and the remaining members succeeded in completing the record. Butler did finish some of his guitar parts; however, he refused to do it at Master Rock and instead used another studio where he could work on his own. This is where he made a contractual contribution to "Black or Blue". Anderson discovered a covert backing vocal on the song, which he recalled: "I can't remember the exact words but it sounded vaguely threatening."
As recorded with Butler, "The Wild Ones" originally featured a four-minute extended coda. This was cut from the final version and the ending reworked. Extended mixes of both this and The Asphalt World, restoring cut sections of the original recordings, were eventually released on the 2011 expanded edition.
Butler became a harsh critic of the album's production and overall musicianship. He cites lack of commitment in the studio and the band's unwillingness to embrace his elaborate ideas as his main criticism: "I just heard too many times, 'No, you can't do that'. I was sick to death of it. I think it's a good record, but it could have been much better."
Butler also later criticised the final orchestral arrangement for "Still Life". Osman and Buller share similar views on the final album. Buller described "Still Life" as being "over-the-top"; he said "New Generation" was in the wrong key, and that its drums and mix were "appalling". Osman stated that he regretted the addition of the orchestra on "Still Life" but understood the appeal of it; and he criticised the production of "New Generation", saying the song "suffers from the murkiness of the mix".
Influences and themes