PLACEBO
WITHOUT YOU I'M NOTHING
by Leigh

no doubt, pure morning is prolly the first (and i daresay, the only) exposure to placebo for some people. but the more commercial tracks, including every you every me have also started to come to the fore which is good becoz its a step to showcasing the range of placebo (particularly now with their national tour and publicity shows).

fans of the aforementioned tracks would also enjoy brick shithouse, you dont care about us, and scared of girls (a great catchy tune and very much a radio-friendly *anthem* type of single). these tracks are generally faster, and more commercially viable with lotsa fuzz guitar and big vocals.

but brian molko seems to be in his element amongst the darker, seedier side of life. ask for answers, my sweet prince and without you i'm nothing are all very haunting and and shivers-inducing, if u know what i mean...

combined with the not so much monotone, but plaintive wailings of brian molko and it makes for fantastic album that may not hit you instantly but would definitely grow on you.

you know he's a man, but his voice is high enough to confuse you. in the same vein as the lead singer from violent femmes. the simplistic and plaintive, works best on a *big sound* track like pure morning. a good contrast. the physical expression of the band also reflects this ambiguity and disparity, as it has been well documented, and it makes for an absolutely intriguing and charismatic band.

track 9, my sweet prince also adds to the mystery of brian molko's gender preferences but then of course, this whole gender bending thing is so natural in britpop as even the manic street preachers song, born a man crosses the line of the machismo.

two of my favourite tracks is the crawl, a short, moody and bitterly sweet track, and my sweet prince, a deeply intimate and heart wrenching tale of love gone wrong. incidently both have the two best lines on the album, on the crawl, "dont go and lose your face at some strangers place" and on my sweet prince "never thought you'd fuck with my brain", both showcasing the bluntness of lyrics and yet again another contrast of the seemingly irreconcilable polars of very masculine manner of words with femininised content.

this album is very late 1990s. musically, it sounds like it could only have been made in this era of mysterions, and dark seedy tragic romance, and again, i have to liken it to the violent femmes, who at their best sound very 80s but manages to live on. placebo's *sound* doesnt strike me as being particularly timeless in the sense that you would not be able to distinguish what era it was composed in, for the subjects of the songs and the dark and subtle guitar-based melodies ensure that it remains true to the modern era.

however longevity will prove successful, even with a sound so firmly rooted in its time, in the sense that it will prove to be transcedental and ultimately longlasting.

 PURCHASE THIS CD @ CHAOSMUSIC - $18.22.