A New Morning

A New Morning is the fifth studio album by English alternative rock band Suede, released in September 2002. By the time the album was released, public interest in the band had waned, as shown by the poor charting of both the album and singles. Despite this, however, the album received moderate praise from critics. It is the only Suede album not to be released in the US. It was the last studio album released by the band before their seven-year hiatus and reunion in 2010. Before recording took place, keyboardist and guitarist Neil Codling left the band due to his health concern, and later was replaced by former Strangelove guitarist, Alex Lee. As Codling returned to the band for their 2010 reunion, this is their only studio album to have featured Lee.

The creation of Suede's fifth studio album A New Morning, was long and costly. Following the release of their 1999 album Head Music and subsequent tour, keyboardist Neil Codling announced his departure from the group on 23 March 2001, citing problems with Chronic fatigue syndrome. Singer Brett Anderson was furious at Codling's decision, but understood the reasons behind his departure: "He couldn't help it, I know, but I did feel aggrieved. I felt let down. But more at the universe than at Neil." Codling was replaced by former Strangelove keyboardist Alex Lee.

Anderson also had become sober for this record, overcoming his crack addiction and claiming that A New Morning was "the first ever Suede record that wasn't influenced in its making by drugs." Anderson wrote lyrics isolated in a country house in Surrey away from the rest of the band, where he immersed himself in music and literature. He read Atomised by Michel Houellebecq and books by Albert Camus, Leonard Cohen and Paul Auster. Anderson says, "I created a deliberate vacuum so all these influences would flood in. I spent a lot of time walking in the countryside, sometimes for hours and hours, fascinated by nature and its battle with concrete and steel. I was living in Concrete Island by J. G. Ballard."

"The fact that we made this album is one of the things that I regret most about Suede's career. The band would have been loved more if we had stopped making music before this. When we made it, we were very confused about what we wanted the band to be and where we wanted it to go. There was a part of me that wanted to make an electronic album and part of me that wanted to make a folk album. So we combined those elements and made a very confused record."

The band began recording demos at Stanbridge Farm Studios in West Sussex in July 2000. In October the band took a break from writing to perform their only gig of the year, which took place in Reykjavík, Iceland, where they premiered nine new songs. The group originally began working with American producer Tony Hoffer in 2001, and anticipated having a single released by Autumn. Hoffer and Anderson had originally met in a toilet at Paisley Park in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where the two hit it off, finding several common musical interests. The meeting led to Anderson asking for Hoffer's input on some of the group's recent work.

In February 2001 the band took up residency at Rockfield Studios in Monmouth, Wales for a three-week trial run with Hoffer. The band were unimpressed with the trial run, especially Simon Gilbert and Richard Oakes, who both had strong opinions on the results. Nevertheless, the band decided to record the album with Hoffer and descended on Parkgate Studios, Hastings, in May with their new member Alex Lee, following Codling's departure. Although the group recorded ten songs with Hoffer that Anderson said were the "best we've written," most of the material recorded with him producing was scrapped. In September the group recorded two songs with ex The Stone Roses producer John Leckie. The versions of "Beautiful Loser" and "Positivity" were promising; however, Leckie had other commitments, forcing Suede to reconsider their options.

The group ultimately decided to work with Stephen Street, who was known for his collaborations with The Smiths and Blur. With Street, the band recorded most of the released material in two months. All the songs from the album were produced by Street, except "Positivity" which was produced by John Leckie, and "You Belong to Me" which was produced by Dave Eringa. Recording with Street began in January 2002, with the album finally being completed on 23 March 2002. Osman stated recording with Street took eight weeks, saying: "We started every day at 11am and didn't leave until one o'clock the following morning." Anderson had high praise for the producer, saying "Stephen has just turned this whole album around, he really has. Every song he's just taken and done something special with... From the millions of other sessions we've done for this album, there's just no comparison."

Overall, seven different recording studios and four producers were used during the two-year recording span for A New Morning, and costs estimated at around £1 million. Street stated that the album was a "return to classic song construction," and bassist Mat Osman said that lyrically A New Morning is "very positive and upbeat."