Placebo

Meds

Written by: PP on 12/03/2006 03:46:16

Placebo has been one of Britain's biggest music exports for a long time now. Seminal releases such as "Without You I'm Nothing" and "Black Market Music" have passed by giving the band an insanely big following across the globe. "Meds" is the bands next album and not much has changed since the classics. Except that this one won't become a classic.

The strong songwriting Placebo has always been known for is still flourishing, and their indie rock/stoner rock roots are more visible than ever with songs like the title track or "Song To Say Goodbye". However, what's really missing from "Meds" are songs like "Pure Morning", "Every Me And Every You", both of which were songs that clearly defined what Placebo stood for both thematically and stylistically. Tracks like these made the band stand out from the oversaturated indie scene, and have since become the all-time fan favorites. Heck, "Meds" doesn't even have a track like "Burger Queen", even though "Drag" and "Space Monkey" come relatively close. Specially the latter song has all of the strengths of Placebo in it: the sudden tone switches in Brian's misanthropic vocal work, the hypnotic, repetetive guitar work and the soothing bass-lines that we all remember from classics such as "Pure Morning".

So where does it go wrong? "Post Blue" is a perfect example, as it boasts with bad song writing, horrible mixing and drowns Brian's vocals under a badly distorted guitar line and a boring drum beat. One bad track isn't enough to justify a bad review for an album, but when "One Of A Kind", "In The Cold Light Of The Morning" and the idiotic nearly-hip hop/rnb beat in "Infra-Red" continue on the same line with "Post Blue", it's understandable why the band doesn't receive a better review than it does. Don't get me wrong here, this is still way better than "Sleeping With Ghosts" but nowhere near the bands earlier standard.

7

Download: Drag, Space Monkey
For the fans of: Interpol, Sonic Youth
Listen: Myspace

Release date 13.03.2006
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