Afternoons with the Blinds Drawn

Reviews

Anderson writes with a combination of guarded introspection and detachment . . . he conjures a cracked and confused persona, fumbling his way through a bizarre early adulthood, by turns gleefully hedonistic and wantonly self-destructive, hardworking and profligate, egotistical and insecure, a character more likely to be seen shuffling around in a dressing-grown smoking fags and staring out the window than prancing on the stage . . . Afternoons With the Blinds Drawn is another milestone in a flourishing latterday career A compelling personal account of the dramas of a singular British band True to his word, this is another music book that steers away from the expected . . . it has a brazen confidence and it's rarely dull. As such, Afternoons With the Blinds Down is a worthy successor to Coal Black Mornings Honest and lyrical . . . Anderson, in his lyrics, has always been fantastic at capturing the sleaze of underground city living and he does the same here . . . Anderson's writing is as he is in real life: sharp, unsparing and sensitive You're unlikely to read another music autobiography quite as honestly reflective as this one Thanks to his thoughtful analysis of those wild times, Afternoons with the Blinds Drawn lets in a lot of light A refreshing corrective to the Britpop narrative . . . Reading it is a bit like being inside a Suede song itself. Which is maybe a mark of the strength of Anderson's vision . . . The pages reek of stale cigarette ash, rising damp and mouldy grouting . . . the book offers the singer's own nuanced take on pop and success The story of Suede's rise and fall, the drugs and the feuds with other bands isn't pretty, but Anderson is on typically sharp form as he tells it Anderson stopped his enchanting first memoir, Coal Black Mornings, just short of the band's brilliant early 1990s breakthrough. Here, he handles their operatic rise and fall with the same thoughtful grace, picking through the paraphernalia of addiction, fame and ego with self-lacerating honesty and a lyrical eye for time and place Poetic atmosphere (and good writing) are favoured over dirty detail Anderson maintains dignity with thoughtful prose and doesn't drop names, but after his childhood recollections in last year's Coal Black Mornings, this is the period that will fascinate fans the most Expand reviews