Album Review: Placebo - "Never Let Me Go"

 

It's been a long time since I listened to Placebo. Like a seriously long time. I first got into the band through their Teenage Angst single (still their best moment to these ears) and their self-titled debut album. Unfortunately I drifted away around the time of their second album Without You I'm Nothing (the group had sort of teetered on the brink of being too overblown on their debut but on their sophomore they very much blundered well over the wrong side of it). Their third, Black Market Music, was a little better but a bit too inconsistent to really hit home while their fourth, Sleeping With Ghosts, was probably their best since their debut. And that's about where I kind of lost track of 'em.

Listening to them again nearly twenty years later on Never Let Me Go, it seems that not much has really changed in the world of Brian Molko and co with opener Forever Chemicals being the usual tales of narcotics and sex but at least they pack in a suitably crushing riff to make it enjoyable. Similarly, Hugz bristles with paranoia and self-loathing and former single Happy Birthday In The Sky skitters through on a creepy skeletal guitar line. There's dabblings into trip-hop here as well on tunes like Surrounded By Spies and Went Missing but again, that's been something the group have been adding to their sound ever since the days of Pure Morning arguably.

There's the odd twist on the formula here and there such as the string-drenched The Prodigal (which is oddly reminiscent of late-'90s Manics) and Sad White Reggae's excursion into dub (which actually works better than it really should) but these are very much the exceptions rather than the rule. But even if it's arguably a bit of a predictable album, Placebo are at least doing what they do well here as evidenced on the driving Try Better Next Time or the panicky Twin Demons and Chemtrails (possibly the best two songs on here). The stark piano balladry of This Is What You Wanted shows that they can still handle the sinister slow songs as well.

So not a lot in the way of surprises and very much business as usual for Placebo here then. But then as I'm sure a lot of their fans would argue, that's far better than no business at all. If you weren't a fan of the band to begin with then Never Let Me Go isn't gonna be the album to change your mind but for what it is, it isn't bad and I'm sure the group's still-impressively-large fanbase will be more than happy with it.

NITE SONGS RATING: 🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌑🌑🌑 (7/10)