The British group Suede was blessed (or cursed) with next-big-thing status before they'd barely started. Now, three albums into their career, the hoopla has long since settled, but bassist Mat Osman says he's uncertain whether that's good or bad.

He appreciates the fact that the focus is now on Suede's music, rather than singer Brett Anderson's latest outrage. But he also wonders if perhaps the group isn't one great song away from again grabbing the public's attention.

"A great record is like a disease. You just catch it," says Osman from Italy, on tour in support of Suede's latest great record, Coming Up -- a campaign that brings them to Barrymore's tonight.

"If you make the greatest record of all time, people will be talking about it. I have no cynicism about that. You cannot keep a good record down. It is actually physically impossible.

"Great records come from nowhere and everywhere. It's what makes making music worthwhile. So, at the end of the day, you can become cynical and bitter about the whole thing.

"And then you turn on the radio and you hear this piece of magic from out of nowhere and you remember what it is all about. It's magic. I totally believe that."

Isn't Osman saying that if Suede doesn't get played on the radio (and over here, that's certainly the case), it's the band's fault?

"Yeah, in a way," he says. "People didn't get to hear (Suede's second album) Dog Man Star. I think it is a great record but it is not a pop record. It fits its role as a cult classic better than the role of a pop record, a record for the world. It is pretty introverted. I love it, but if I didn't think we could do something 20 times as good, I wouldn't be here."

After the release of Dog Man Star in 1994, even Suede's legendary self-belief was tested. Original guitarist Bernard Butler -- widely credited with defining the Suede sound, with his layers of fiery guitar and uncanny ear for melody -- left the band in a swirl of acrimony. He was replaced by youthful guitarist Richard Oakes (who had never even visited Suede's hometown, London) and keyboardist Neil Codling. Despite predictions Suede were over without Butler, they stormed back with the spirited, accessible Coming Up.

"When we made the first record, the only people listening were in London, virtually. When we were making this record, I think we were very conscious of the fact that people all over the world were listening.

"There's a realization that you are making records that are being heard in the far-flung corners of the world, and I think we wanted to write something that was very simple and direct and very comprehensive."

So was that a reaction to suggestions that Suede are just "too English" for North American ears?

"I never thought of us as being that English. It wasn't until we came to America that it became an issue. I thought we sounded pretty universal.

"I mean, I think we're great. So I always find it strange when you find people who don't."