Animal Nitrate

I've always thought this was about a gay relationship between an older man and an under-age man gone bad. Amyl nitrate, "over 21" etc all point to this. I shouldn't have said it was about being raped by his dad though - that line could just as easily mean that his father suspects that he's gay and (being a Suede song) thinks it sordid.

Like all good songs though, this could mean anything to anyone and is, basically, about the more sordid aspects of working class life.

I absolutely LOVED this when I was 13 or 14, I thought it was sooo sexy. Oh, it turned me on, oh oh oh, etc. 15 or so years later though, and actually reading/comprehending the lyrics... jesus.

Brett Anderson wrote a lot of songs about Justine Frischmann (his ex-girlfriend who went off with Blur's Damon Albarn) but he tended to change the lyrics to make it sound like he is singing about a homosexual experience. This was probably to try and make it less obvious that was writing about Frischmann but also to emphasise his Bowie-influenced adrogyny, which helped give him more of an identity over other artists.

The line "Now you're over 21?" is significant in that, at the time of writing, it was the age of consent for gay male sex in the UK. So, it's largely about underage gay sex. Amyl Nitrate - poppers? Foul stuff, makes your ears go red and gives you a headache..

I used to think its the only good song of them! I was really obssesed with it for about a month and thoughet it was somthing blur about sexuallity and being in a gay relationship, but then I red one of the interpetetion here said brett himself ment for a specific case of this father abused his kid who adventually couldn't get turned on by anyone else.. sadly, this interpetation ruined all my feelings for this amazing song! wish I'd never read it :(

So many of you are not getting the point. This is not about abuse, but aftermath. The predator/animal is gone, and if you've been in that situation, the hard question is "what turns you on?" (now) and the irony is that you're no longer wanted, but you're not supposed to like being left alone. Something is supposed to turn you on, but it doesn't.

Ups! sorry, I posted in the wrong song, my interpretation is for ''animal lover''

This song's about rolls people take in sexual relationships. Some people discover they are submissive with certain partners and visa-versa.... The loss of the dominant partner can leave the more submissive party needing crueler and crueler partners to continue to feed their urge. The pattern formed by some abuse victims is definitley in there as well. It could easily be talking about a guy who was abused as child by the father or father figure and grew up to seek out abusive sexual partners.

Dark and divine stuff from Brett and the boys.

Well the title refers to amyl nitrate, which is not really used as a drug, the one used as a "popper" is the amyl nitrite. But; as we have Brett's accent; he pronounces the "a" in nitrate pretty much like an "i", so there we go with the popper theory.

Well, here's what Brett said himself.

Brett Anderson explained the story behind the song to NME May 11, 2013: "The idea for 'Animal Nitrate' came when I was going through a period when drugs were taking the place of people. Sex was just a hollow, vacuous thing which was made full and three-dimensional by the fact that I was taking a huge amount of drugs. It wasn't actually anything to do with amyl nitrate, it was other sorts of drugs - coke, ecstasy. My mind was in a stormy period, I was going quite insane. "It definitely has a veneer (of gay sex) but there's a very sad undertone," he added. "People think about gay sex and never really think about it romantically. They see sadness, romance and loss as purely a hetrosexual thing. There's a definite domestic violence feel to 'Animal Nitrate.' But behind that there's a real sadness."

So yeah.

Dad raping his son, drugs, gay sex (like his dad you know that he's had animal nitrate in mind / now you're over 21), dad beating his son. Voilà.

This song is about the drug amyl nitrate, aka butyl or isobutyl nitrate in the States, a drug available at "head shops" and used as an inhalant, commonly by the male gay community-- think of laughing gas that lasts for a minute (I read that somewhere!! I swear!!)