Pleasure feat. Brett Anderson

Since the dissolution of Suede, Brett Anderson has been trying different avenues to maintain the glory of his band's heyday. Actually, that's not entirely true. Ever since Suede's 1999 album Head Music (which is being generous since 1996's Coming Up was the band¹s last great record), Brett Anderson has been trying desperately to rekindle the magic of his past band¹s early years. Breaking up Suede and forming the Tears with former songwriting partner Bernard Butler didn't live up to the hype, nor did the announcement of a short-lived original Suede line-up reunion. But nothing could quite match the disappointment of his "dull" and "self-indulgent" solo album, which currently sits on Metacritic with an embarrassing 51 percent rating. Knowing all of this made this single, a collaboration with Norwegian electro pop producer Bertine Zetlitz (aka Pleasure), all the more unexpected and enjoyable. Originally featured on a follow-up EP, this version of "Back To You" (found on Pleasure's Pleasure 2) re-imagines and refines Anderson¹s discouraged ballad as a spacey slice of ambient pop, replete with acoustic "Space Oddity" guitars, campy interstellar synths and one magical sax that delivers the money shot full-on towards its ending. Zetlitz evokes the nocturnal grace of Air's Moon Safari, but best of all though is how vital the ex-androgynine singer sounds. It's the closes this moody, nasally siren has been to fulfilling his Bowie worship in a decade and a half. Heartfelt, gorgeous and affecting, it's a shame Brett can't do more of this because this is easily the best thing he's done since "She's In Fashion" and a memorable moment in 2007.