Suede - Lost In TV DVD

Lost In TV is a complete collection of Suede's music videos, arranged in chronological order. It reveals a band that has fallen repeatedly in and out of love with the video medium over the course of four albums. It begins with a low-budget performance clip for their first single, "The Drowners", in which all Suede's members are clearly, and rather endearingly, putting on poses they've been rehearsing and imagining for years. And it ends with "Can't Get Enough", which they couldn't rouse themselves to turn up for, instead allowing the song to soundtrack a short, though... undeniably amusing, film about revenge. In between the quality varies with Suede's enthusiasm. Some of the videos here are every bit as awful as the band think, especially the altogether bewildering "Stay Together". Others they should give themselves more credit for "The Wild Ones", for example, retains a haunting quality that was worth any amount of plodding around a freezing Dartmoor. On the DVD: Lost in TV is a comprehensive lesson in how it should be done, exploring all the possibilities of this new technology, rather than taking the usual approach of releasing what is basically a video, adding some desultory, pointless interview footage and charging 10 quid extra for it. Extra features are: a collection of live performances, television appearances and sundry recordings from around the world, among them the version of Elvis Costello's "Shipbuilding" Suede donated to the "War Child" benefit album; a fine new song, "Simon", exclusive to the DVD; a karaoke opportunity featuring the videos with subtitled words but no vocals; and, best of all, the chance to watch all the videos with Suede themselves providing commentary as they go along. Given that Suede seem to regard their videos with much the same horrified embarrassment as viewing an old school photograph, this is richly entertaining, though best avoided by those who prefer their artists to maintain their facades or who are overly sensitive to bad language. Sound options include surround and Dolby Digital. --Andrew Mueller [show more]

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