There was a time before deluxe editions, when artists saved certain songs for release between albums. That was the seventies and eighties. Then the CD arrived and everyone felt compelled to fill every available minute. Now, with vinyl outselling CDs in many corners of the market, labels slip us deluxe, expanded or whatever-you-want-to-call-them editions: the same record repackaged with a live set, demos or a handful of unreleased songs. Suede have chosen the latter two to revive Antidepressants, the excellent album they released in 2025.
The vast majority of the time, the deluxe versions don't offer anything remotely interesting, but every once in a while, one comes along that does. And today we are facing one of those cases. Above all, because in this 'Antidepressants: Expanded', Suede leave us five new songs that, due to their quality, could well have entered the main album. In fact, it makes me angry that they end up here and not in a separate release. Basically, because they would have worked very well as a standalone EP. And that's how I'm going to treat it.
These five songs follow the same sonic path as Antidepressants. Suede sound entirely at ease with that arid post-punk, without abandoning their melodic instincts. The result includes several excellent songs and reinforces my view that this material deserved to stand alone as an EP. “Emotionally Unavailable” would make a perfect lead single; in fact, it is one of the best tracks they have released in years. “Overload” is another marvel, Brett Anderson leaving his voice suspended between dirty, dark guitars. “Sharpening Knives” slows the pace without sacrificing an intense, epic chorus.
I really like these Suede that do not hide their post-punk influence. In fact, if we look at “Dirty Looks”, we see that they revel in it without any type of shame. And they do well, because they manage to find a whirlwind of sound full of intense guitars that roar accompanied by a powerful rhythm section. However, in “Medication”, they opt to step on the brakes to come up with a dark song that takes us back to many of those groups that opted for this sound in the early eighties. And it works very well.
Score: 82/100