I've been 18 for a month and a half now, and have visited a few different clubs. Outside of those clubs that do not require ID to get into them, that is.
Travelling to a club is nothing new to me. I'd been in several before reaching that magical age at which you can start to drink legally and not feel guilty about breaking the law (pahaha! Like hell anyone ever does!) when doing it. And I enjoy waddling out on to the dancefloor to "get my groove on" (even if my dancing style is, as Pete calls it, "a good impression of a person having an epileptic fit". Possibly the only reference I will ever get that links me to Ian Curtis).
We all know what's irritating though:
Not being able to hear yourself fucking think.
I'm a fervent supporter of good, loud music shattering your eardrums into the early hours of the morning, mind you. But it's the muffled feeling you get in the hours that ensue that frustrates me most. I just got back from a club in Brentwood, and the tapping away at the keyboard resembles the sounds you hear in slow motion.
No, I haven't taken anything, geez! You take me for your common junkie? Would a junkie have their own blog? Hmm, maybe they would...but all the articles would look like this:
"Need a fix. Need a fix. Got a fix. Need another fix." "Stole a car radio to get a fix today. Now I wish I'd stolen it from someone else's car." "Need a fix. Dealer didn't have the hash today. So I kicked the crap out of him, and checked his pockets. Yeah, he didn't have any hash on him..." "Need a fix. NEED a fix."
Et cetera, et cetera. Why am I complaining about this? To be honest, it doesn't bother me a great deal at all. And I wouldn't stop club crawling because of it. I'm just an imbittered old man *sarcasm*! Plus, I feel greatly indebted to Kavi; I've owed him some sort of blog post for months now! And this doesn't even fit the bill! Don't worry, Mr. P, your delivery has been held up at customs. Something about a mysterious ticking noise...and one lazy-ass Chris.
Title obvious. A special edition of Fiveplay, focused entirely on the musical genius that is the alternative (though, ironically, alternative is the norm nowadays) band, Placebo.
Now, I'm not a music buff. Not by a long shot, and I never will be. I'll leave the technical analysis of any given song to people who possess the appropriate skills and expertise to evaluate things like ambition in terms of structure, blah blah, to people like George, who is has it in his capacities to do such a thing. And I know Matt and Shakeel have their own music blog, so this, not intending to challenge the status quo whereby I completely concentrate on music in my own, is simply a filler. I don't write them very often, and that is how it shall remain.
Finally, I'd like to add that this is nothing in depth; just a glance at some of the wonderful album tracks and many, many b-sides Placebo have inundated the world with (and I mean inundated; Placebo rarities not found on their albums are substantial in number). Enjoy!
1) Bionic- Placebo (from the album Placebo, 1996)
Placebo's eponymous debut album was outstanding! Not only was it (and still is) their strongest release in regards to replayability, but it is considered one of the best albums of all-time. A truly spectacular first release, with stand-out singles such as Nancy Boy providing them with unmitigated success. So, with any great album, you'd expect a horde of top quality accompanying tracks to the single releases. And given the high standard set, choosing one was no easy task. I admit that Brian Molko can at times be somewhat apathetic when writing out his lyrics, and more often than not, downright lazy. Whilst some songs carry bagfuls of emotional content, others sound as though Molko has placed himself in front of a sheet of paper, written one verse and a chorus, then succumbed to writer's block and ambled off elsewhere. Bionic definitely falls into the latter category, and at 5 minutes in length, word repetition starts to drain you. Only 11 different words are spoken during this song! 11! Shocking, isn't it? Fortunately, emphasis is transferred across to a relaxed bassline and allows Molko to show off by guitaring all over the place. And yes, I was also reminded of Daft Punk's Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger. Remember, this wasn't first heard until 2001! "None of you can make the grade." Rating: **** (4 stars)
2) My Sweet Prince- Placebo (from the album Without You I'm Nothing, 1998)
With such a sudden burst into affluence with Placebo, rewarding the aforementioned with an eternally reserved place on the mantlepiece, it was always going to be a struggle to live up to the hype surrounding that sophomore album. I'll start of by saying thatWithout You I'm Nothing didn't fall horribly short of the precedent, since it outsold its predecessor to go platinum, but this increment can largely be attributed to the country's awareness of the band's existence. Response to the album was far more mixed, and, unsurprisingly, its long term remembrance prospects appeared far bleaker than those of Placebo. I struggled to enjoy the album, and found precious little in this to motivate me to listen to it repeatedly. Pure Morning was an exceptional inclusion, and Every You Every Me had its moments, but the remaining singles were lacklustre. The intensity of knowing you're listening to something unique, something uncorrupted, that came in tow with Placebo had gone; the novelty had worn off before this even hit the shelves, and we were left with a lot of average material to sift through. Which made the decision here a simple one. My Sweet Prince was originally the sole reason I permitted myself to bother with this album again after the first time. Those eerie distorted keyboards in the background dug their hooks into me, and wouldn't let me go. In reality, the track is flat, incredibly dull after 3 minutes (that's just over half the song), and probably doesn't deserve the 4 stars I've given it, but it's because it drew me in the first time I heard it, and I was let down by most of the other tracks (Brick Shithouse made me question whether there was something wrong with my mind on an initial playing for the first 20 seconds), that I've listed it here. "Never thought I'd fill with desire. Never thought I'd feel so ashamed." Rating: **** (4 stars)
3) Days Before You Came- Placebo (from the album Black Market Music, 2000)
The "dark" album of the avid Placebo fan's collection, it's evident that this album was supposed to reflect the malign side of Molko's personality, and his tussle with inner demons. Black Market Music apparently took 9 months to complete, conveying a sense of real meaning and emotion being poured into over that time. Placebo's traditional sound certainly changed a bit between this album and the previous one. Taste In Men is quite experimental, and has a charming "grubby" underground club edge to go with it, introduced in no small part thanks to the trance synthesizer. Most tracks are quite echoey, allowing meaning to resonate throughout your skull. I got the impression that Black Market Music was very black and white with its meaning; everything slung in front of you is exactly what it is; Black-Eyed talks about children enduring violent upbringings, Slave To The Wage refers to the tedium of working a conventional job in the modern world. Days Before You Came is the only track on the album you can really bang your head to. But in it lurks the underlying misery; the archetypal party addicts wear their masks and cause havoc just to further their own pleasure, regardless of whether it is injurious to themselves, indifferent to the destruction they cause to others, and stumbling through a life devoid of value or meaning. And that's exactly the way things shall stay. "Days before you came, thunderbolts and lightning; each day a brand new vein, each tourniquet colliding." Rating: ****^ (4.5 stars)
4) Protect Me From What I Want- Placebo (from the album Sleeping With Ghosts, 2003)
A heavy emphasis on electronic music bubbling under the surface, Placebo returned to roughly the forefront of the British rock music industry, after a 3 year absence, with Sleeping With Ghosts. No, wait, that's not the case at all. This was their lowest charting album; it seemed as though the British public had shunned Placebo in preference of music reality television contestants, a couple of quasi-lesbian Russian schoolgirls and a whole lot of American hip-hop. However, though there was not enough solid content on it to qualify the claim that is a classic, Sleeping With Ghosts played host to some very impressive songs; The Bitter End, Special Needs, English Summer Rain, Bulletproof Cupid, etc. The big problem with Sleeping With Ghosts was how erratic it was. No matter how much you loved The Bitter End and it's killer "descending a staircase" bassline, you could only be infuriated by how repulsive Something Rotten is (quite an apt name, I might say; but my ears, not my taste buds, were offended). And again, lyrics are stuck in the starting blocks every now and again. Amusingly, Molko highlights his laze in Second Sight with the line "Third verse, same as the first", either acknowledging the innate flaw he has an adaptable lyricist or proving he feels that lyrics do not need to be complex to make a point. There is just something immensely appealing about Protect Me From What I Want that I can't put my finger on. Perhaps I've been seduced by the keyboard that opens, the gurgling, distorted guitar riff close to the end, the vivid images it creates in my mind of a snowy winter's evening on the streets of London, or maybe just the mention of catching a night bus home. "We open the latch on the gate of the hole that we call our home." Rating: ****^ (4.5 stars)
5) Follow The Cops Back Home- Placebo (from the album Meds, 2006)
Ten years after the distribution of their debut album, came their fifth: Meds. Now I'm going to admit straight away that I haven't listened to this album all the way through. In fact, I'm only truly familiar with about two of its tracks, both of them being single releases: Because I Want You and title track Meds. I skimmed through all the others, but I have adjudged it to be acceptable. I'm a sucker for melodic tracks. And bearing that in mind, Follow The Cops Back Home leapt out at me instantaneously. And it's one of the first times that Molko has bothered to write a whole song! A guitar that pings then fades away, and a layered vocal performance on the chorus? I couldn't help but adore it. "Let's take a dive, swim right through sophisticated points of view." Rating: **** (4 stars)
