Placebo
Meds

THE REVIEW

It will be released in March. However, as already mentioned by others before me, this new Placebo album is already online and we can already enjoy its songs. Enjoy, indeed... sometimes get bored... and that's the peculiarity of this band, which in my opinion alternates too often between brand new tracks and ones that are really unbearable and disarmingly boring.

With this album, Placebo at least on first listen find a compromise between an acidic rock that brings back the glory of the past to episodes that draw heavily from the band's latest works. So it's a record that pleases both old and new fans. However, those expecting an album without electronics will be disappointed... it is present, although to a small extent.

The album opens with the title track that brings to mind the guitar intro of "Every You Every Me," but the track has its own identity, an interesting lyric, and a small participation (really slight and barely noticeable) of VV from the Kills. The second track, "Infra-red," is an interesting piece, with a rock pace but original by "Placebo standards." "Drag," on the other hand, could be the usual track in the style of Molko and his associates. An excellent novelty can be found in "Space Monkey." A truly fascinating song, an excellent Molko able to move with his voice, so far staying within the group's standards. The atmosphere returns to Placebo-esque shores with "Follow The Cops Back Home." A pleasant song, very much so, but it's the usual slow jam that Placebo has accustomed us to. The situation gets aggressive with "Post Blue," but here too we face standards and things we've more or less already heard from the British trio, just like the excellent "Because I Want You," which, as beautiful as it is, nods to Placebo's past. And then I listen to track 7 and I light up: "Blind," in my opinion, is perhaps the truly deserving track of the whole album. In this little masterpiece, everything is perfect: the electronics present but not annoying, the lyrics, the guitars, and Brian's desperate yet sweet voice. The situation, however, plummets with "Pierrot The Clown"... on first listen it seemed like "Black Market Blood,"... it's better, but this slow piece I compare to a nice lullaby... And what to say about "Broken Promise"? The duet with Stipe of REM left me puzzled. The track begins wonderfully... takes off... but doesn't fully soar and remains beautiful but not exceptional as I hoped. "One of a Kind" vaguely reminds me of "Black Eyed" in the chorus... and so we return to a song that doesn't add anything new to Placebo's sound. "In The Cold Light of the Morning" is a slow piece quite distressing and so I count it among the tracks to absolutely listen to... but onwards in the listens, it reminds me of "The Crawl." At the end, there’s perhaps the least fitting song to close but one of the most successful: "Song To Say Goodbye" is an excellent piece. Fast and sweet at the same time, excellent vocal performance from Brian, excellent lyrics.

In conclusion: this album represents the sum of the previous four albums: it has the rage of "Placebo," the melancholy of "Without You I'm Nothing," the flaws of "Black Market Music," and the right experimentation of "Sleeping with Ghosts." Even the songs take a bit from here and there, resulting in contradictorily original yet always in the usual style and sound of the band.

A good album, not a masterpiece, a right collection of what Placebo has done in the past and an example of what they will continue to do in the future.