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Armed with a brash, gender-bender of a song called "Nancy
Boy", Placebo arrived on the 1996 music scene with a
shiner and a hard-on. Right off the bat they were pegged as
a bratty, decadent band, due in large part to a lipstick-wearing,
pixie-boy of a front man who just couldn't stop talking about
his dick and his drug habit in the press. "Nancy Boy",
while an excellent slice of neo-glam pie, overshadowed what
still stands as a solid debut by any standard; an album busting
at the seams with dark, itchy songs of sexual frustration
and blurred identity. With the follow-up, 1998's Without You
I'm Nothing, the three-piece stepped up to the challenge of
documenting the inevitable downward spiral after Placebo's
manic highs and lows. Nothing was slyer, sexier, and nastier
than its predecessor, and with the addition of new drummer
Steve Hewitt, revealed a solid trio of musicians who knew
what a hangover should sound like.
But where to go from the bottom? Black Market Music, Placebo's
often-flawed, often-brilliant third album still covers the
same issues: identity, libido, drugs, more libido. Mostly,
though, Music is an album about mulling over big regrets,
making amends, and struggling to compromise a newfound responsibility
with the same old temptations. Oh, and perhaps an obsession
or two. Lifting a bass line from Pink Floyd's "Let There
Be More Light", album opener "Taste In Men"
is a driving, slightly unhinged entreaty to an ex-lover to
"come back to me a while." On its own, the song's
effect is dead-on, but as the rest of the album plays out,
it's obviously out of place in Music's line-up of contemplative,
introspective songs. "Days Before You Came" is the
true opening track, its recurring refrain of "didn't
want you want anyway" completely unconvincing on the
heels of rejection; "Special K" is a feverish ode
to a "coronary thief" and evokes the tightness-in-chest,
brain-a-blur reel of love and lust.
The literal centerpiece of the album is the astonishing "Black-Eyed".
Synths swoosh in and out of Stefan Olsdal's controlled, deceptively
simple bass line, while Hewitt employs a rolling drumbeat,
both weaving an urgent, almost earnest rhythm. The song is
at once defiant and vulnerable, seeped in regret, yet never
quite apologetic. And it's near-perfect. Brian Molko delivers
lines like "I was never grateful, that's why I spend
my days alone" from an emotional distance, relaying past
deeds with detachment before soaring into the chorus on sheer
heartbreak. "Commercial for Levi" is a rock n' roll
PSA as only Placebo could write it, with its vivid imagery
(golden showers, Valium and cherry wine) and straightforward,
stripped-down feel (is that a xylophone?). Molko advises a
young man on the dangerous line he's toeing: "I understand
the fascination," he sings, "I've even been there
once or twice or more. But if you don't change your situation,
you'll die."
And while tossing out death as an ultimatum may seem overly
dramatic, Placebo has always been at their best when plumbing
the depths. Like the Smiths, that's what makes them so appealing.
(Listen to their cover of "Bigmouth Strikes Again"
and tell me they weren't meant to cover that song.) Molko
knows we love hearing how fucked up he is. But he also knows
when subtlety is best. On "Peeping Tom", the album's
last listed track, he presents his weaknesses as if laying
card after card on a table, offering them up for examination.
"I'm weightless, I'm bare, I'm faithless, I'm scared,"
he says over a hypnotic bed of guitar and piano. It's a stark
vulnerability that is remarkably fresh and poignant here.
Black Market Music has a few missteps, notably "Blue
American", which inspires some cringe-worthy moments
lyrically - a shame, as the piano is a classy touch; and "Spite
& Malice", featuring rapper Justin Warfield. While
the rap may have been meant to add credibility to a song about
social unrest in the urban sprawl, the effect is awkward and
stifles the true star of Music: the vocals. Never has Molko's
voice sounded so complete, his nasal whine intrinsic to the
atmosphere of these songs. Hearing another voice is an intrusion,
though the effort is a noble one.
Placebo are breaking little new ground here, but their use
of electronic effects to gently accentuate certain songs is
a welcome addition to their sound, and one they'll hopefully
continue to utilize. And here's hoping they'll always be a
bit uncomfortable in their own skin, because it certainly
makes for fascinating listening.
- Heather Space
Track listing:
1. Taste In Men
2. Days Before You Came
3. Special K
4. Spite & Malice
5. Passive Aggressive
6. Black-Eyed
7. Blue American
8. Slave to the Wage
9. Commercial for Levi
10. Haemoglobin
11. Narcoleptic
12. Peeping Tom
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