- Artists:
- Placebo »
- Label:
- PIAS Recordings »
Placebo have been kicking about for 13 years – whether that’s lucky or unlucky will depend on your musical persuasion. By my reckoning, that either makes them absolute fucking legends or those twats who crash your party and refuse to leave. Personally, I’d like to think it’s the former.
By nature of my age I love a bit of ‘old school’, and I count Placebo’s first three albums among my all time favourites. So, flying in the face of all prevailing indie wisdom, I was damn well determined to love Battle For The Sun.
Sadly, it is tripe.
Proud proclamations in the press release namedrop producer Dave Bottrill (chosen for his work with Tool), and Alan Moulder on mixing duties, credited with working for My Bloody Valentine, Smashing Pumpkins and Nine Inch Nails. Presumably this is to fool us into thinking there’s an ounce of grit on the album, because I sure as heck can’t hear any.
Opening with the relatively solid 'Kitty Litter', we get drums, we get bass and we get Molko’s warbling whines at their most abrasive. If you’re not a fan of his vocals, this will get the hate-o-meter going. But it’s nothing spectacular. So far, so generic. Then the pop-punk cheerlead chants of 'Ashtray Heart' kick in and mark the beginning of the end.
Historically, Placebo have a murky reputation - sexual deviance and self harming as a starter for ten. In short, they were a goth’s emo dream. Placebo, Black Market Music and Without You I’m Nothing are dark, brutal albums with underlying intellect and subtle references to be found within mindfully-crafted packages. The band had something to say and you weren’t meant to like it. While Sleeping With Ghosts and Meds took a more mainstream electronic turn, their fundamental messages remained, and songs still drew distinctly ‘Placebo’ images.
In contrast, Battle For The Sun feels hazy, lazy and lost – a muggy summer afternoon. Predictable lyrics grate awkwardly like manufactured pop-factory produce, while a ‘nice’ helping of sunshine-synth and sighs paint a chirpy celebration of life and all its hand-clappy beauty. Meh.
Certainly, (bar a drummer change) this is the same band - with Molko on vocals you could never mistake it for any other - and naturally some songs stand out more than others. Singles 'Battle For The Sun' and 'For What It’s Worth' are unsurprisingly strong runners, commercially speaking, although the latter reveals a disappointing penchant for female backing singers oohing and ahhing. Double meh.
Set against this new sunny scene, Molko’s once sinister words seem insincere and forced. When would Molko ever have written “So many people I’ve annoyed” or “Acting like you don’t give a toss”? Never, is the answer – Bloody never. He’d have said a naughty swear or something shudderingly crude/drug related.
Oh, Brian. You’ve changed.
'Bright Lights' (by far the worst offender) acts as cathartic confessional describing a sickly journey - “cast your mind back to the days/when I’d pretend I was okay/I had so very much to say/About my crazy living” - but sounds like a Kelly Perry-Simpson-Clarkson song. Bleurgh. Meanwhile 'Speak In Tongues' tragically misses the party political broadcast gig with what would have been a chorus par excellence: “we can build our new tomorrow today”. 'Devil In The Details' and 'Never Ending Why' are just there to be arena-tour epic. They just don’t really say anything.
'Julian's refrain mildly echoes the Placebo of old: “find a friend in whom you can confide/Julian, you’re a slow-motion suicide” – albeit accompanied by offensive oompahs, orchestral manoeuvres and another example of the trusted ‘repeat to fade’ structure.
Apparently international bright young thing drummer Steve Forrest was chosen for sticks duty in the hopes that his age and enthusiasm would counteract Olsdal and Molko’s 'jadedness'. “We’ve made a record about choosing life... stepping out of the darkness and into the light” says Molko. So in that sense, Battle For The Sun is a success.
It just hurts my soul to think such a great band have gone ‘a little bit gay’(as my flatmate somewhat ironically puts it). Don’t get me wrong, if Brian Molko’s happy, then I’m happy. It’s just a shame it seems the best music really does come from turmoil and pain.
All this said, with familiarity and realigned expectations comes some acceptance. Battle For The Sun works, technically speaking. The songs build in all the right places and the unexciting lyrics loop and loop until lodged in your head. They just won’t change your life.
Placebo
Hmm
I'm disappointed, but not entirely surprised by this review. I thought 'Meds' was a massively underappreciated album, but I had a feeling that they were running out of ideas, and certainly the title track of this new album, which they released as a free download, was totally uninspiring.
That said, I'll still probably be down the front at Reading, if only to hear all the old classics.
actually Claire, you are bang wrong
Never is this a 4/10 album. By no means perfect, it's still consistently better than Meds (which has some outstanding moments, but a lot of filler).
Also, any reviewer that uses 'Meh' shows someone devoid of any creativity in their writing.
I'd give it a solid 7.5/10
perspectives
I'm sorry, am I the only one happy in the Epic-ness of a song like Kings Of Medicine? fine, a single song cannot save the fate an entire album, but also, am I the only one noticing how there are clearly 2 different moods, one for the first half of the album, one for the second?
This reviewer needs to work on her tone...
"Meh", "Bleurgh", "gone 'a little bit gay'" etc. It just reads really badly.
^ this
poorly written review.
I quite liked 'Meds', and 'Sleeping With Ghosts' is one of my favourites.
“Sadly, it is tripe.”
Ouch.
QED
QED...
Tough crowd
I still find it a bit weird that everyone reviews the review. I thought this one read well and made good points. The "bleurgh" schtick was hooky and the disappointed fan angle provoked some empathy. The negative comments down here, on the other hand, were trite and jejune when they weren't unintentionally piss-funny. You sound like Comic Book Guy.
ha ha
a joke, surely..?
it's just riled Placebo partisans coming out of the woodwork
though BulletproofCupid is either a joke or needs to read... well, anything, really.
stop bleurgh-ing and meh-ing and double-meh-ing, PAH-LEAASE.
Ya know, I just find the album okay, if not even towards great.
I actually love the fact that they haven't changed, cause in most cases when bands renew their musical direction and style they tend to go waay over the top.
I personally like Battle for the sun, Bright lights, Happy you're gone, Speak in tongues and Breathe underwater; from all of the songs on the record, I tend to say that For What It's Worth is the most tough (in a bad way).
I don't see what's the big fuss about those lyrics; if you're emo and you know it, clap your hands and stop bleurgh-ing. Those are starting to be optimistic points of view and I guess that it shows they've grown up and out of bad habits and gloomy moods. Way to go, guys. Don't listen to bad people.
Ive not heard this album,
and nor am I likely to - I lost interest in this band aeons ago - but i'd be super-shocked if it was anything as bad as this dismally written review. Go and develop some talent you silly little girl, or forever banish yourself to farting stupidity on the social board.
This album....
Has split a lot of people's opinions. My mates who were 'for' Placebo agreed it was the best thing the band have done in ages, the 'against' Placebo corner said that if Molko didn't open his mouth it would be a good album.
If Nancy Boy hadn't had shot them through the roof, we might have had a few albums that were less pop-orientated and the bands experimental side may have reigned over the music. Even on WYIM there was some inventive shit going on, but as the band went global it seeed to dilute more and more with each consecutive release.
Nevertheless, I think the album is cracking - If you liked the first two albums - track down the Jap bonus track 'In A Funk' - much more like the band you knew and loved.
yes and no
at the beginning, i didn't liked "battle for the sun" either, so i can understand until a certain point your dissapointment. if one would have ask me to write a review right after the first listening of this album, i'd probably write the same things as you, basically.
yeah, lyrically, molko wasn't quite inspired, that was my first impression too. and i still think that songs as "battle for the sun", "bright lights" or "for what it's worth" don't have very interesting lyrics. HOWEVER...
without trying to make a comparison, let's think at songs as "bionic" or "nancy boy" and judge. what makes their lyrics so awesome and cool? let's think a little... oh yeah, could it be... THE SEXUAL CONTENT? so that's what it makes placebo so special in the first place? the fact that they dare to speak about drag queens in their songs?! or, as you said, "a naughty swear or something shudderingly crude/drug related"??? that's all that placebo means to you? well then i'm sorry, i think that you missed the whole point.
i don't think a person like brian molko can write about things he doesn't FEEL anymore. i don't think it would have been a problem for him to write about dark stuff (see "julien" - "now that is snowing in your brain"; by the way, did you knew that this phrase is a metaphor for cocaine? uninteresting lyrics indeed...) but that are things that don't suit him anymore; as a proof, he didn't wrote about the drug abuse at the first person.
personally i like those simple and sincere lyrics from this album (as those from "happy you're gone" or "bright lights") and i think that he intended to make them sound that way; it wouldn't have been that difficult for him to write only poetical, sad and complicated lyrics (as one can see from "julien", "kings of medicine" or the bonus track "the movie on your eyelids"). but this album was ment to reflect his thoughts from the present, not his thoughts from the past.
oh, and this album is just FANTASTIC, musically speaking. i think it has some of the most great instrumentals placebo had in their career; even simple songs as "battle for the sun" are saved by these instrumentals (when i heard for the first time "battle for the sun", i knew immediately that i will like it).
so, as a conclusion, placebo is not just about drugs or about alcohol or about sex, or about sadness. placebo is about a state of mind, or, better said, about different states of mind. if that state of mind doesn't suit you, that's okay - but don't blame the guys for that.
p.s. broken182: you say that steve has zero creativity or talent? did you ever paid attention to the instrumentals? have you any idea how difficult is the drum part on this song (that was just one example)
oh, and i wonder if you ever saw a gig with the band after they released "battle for the sun". if you didn't, then you don't even have the right to speak about steve's lack of talent.
* "this song" was actually the title track, "battle for the sun" - forgot to mention it, haha.
Deflated...
That's how I felt when I first listened to the new album - yes, it gets a bit better the more you play it, but it doesn't even sound like the dark, edgy, esoteric and melodic Placebo I knew and loved. It seems to me like Brian Molko is going soft at his old age. Some of the songs actually sound like britpop, which, ironically, is what the band detested being called earlier in their career! Also, where are the melodies? Is this the same band who did Hang On To Your IQ, The Crawl and Sleeping with Ghosts? There doesn't seem to be a song in this album where Brian isn't shouting at the chorus - and his amazing nasal voice sounds a bit too husky (probably from too many Marlboro Lights?)
I thought Without You I'm Nothing (both album and song) were just perfect - and I'm not the only one, am I? Perhaps they should listen to their own perfect album to remind themselves of the calible that they're capable of producing. Compared with that, Battle For The Sun is like an Accessorise ring inside Tiffany's.
it's really strange...
...to read the comments i wrote back in 2009. without completely denying my previous statements, i must say that this album definitely doesn't give the same awesome feeling as the previous ones. while still appreciating the vibe of sincerity on this release, i must say that lyrically speaking this album is a real disappointment, especially if we compare it with their other albums. sure, it has its moments of inspiration, but overall it lacks the sparkling. yeah, the instrumentals are awesome; however, they were never the main reason i fell in love with placebo.
now i have mixed feelings towards this release, which is strange considering the fact that from what i saw and read, "battle for the sun" seems to be the either-love-it-or-hate-it type of album.
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