Having been happily convinced by PLACEBO'S tuneful androgyny circa albums one and two, your reviewer rather felt they'd lost the plot with "Black Market Music", yawned and tuned out.
"The Bitter End", however - trailer single for new album "Sleeping With Ghosts" would seem to signal something of a return to form. Strangely, though - despite the pre-release blurb of electronica entering the equation etc - it seems new producer Jim Abbiss (The Music, UNKLE) has brought the best out of PLACEBO by presenting them relatively unadorned. Indeed, "The Bitter End" sounds gimmick-free, mainlining instead on urgency and nagging, new wave chords. Brian Molko's voice has also improved considerably, with assurance replacing that sometimes irritating whine he was previously guilty of.
Sadly the same can't really be said of Placebo's mystifying attamept at covering Boney M's "Daddy Cool." They've enlisted in demand producer/ programmer Dimitri Tikovoi (last heard tinkering with Gary Numan's back catalogue on "Hybrid") and produced a dry, obvious facsimile of the original which both wears thin rapidly and merely provokes the question: "Why?"
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All is not lost, though, as the "piano version" of long-established favourite "Teenage Angst" pulls PLACEBO up by the bootstraps. Your reviewer was aware they'd been doing this live, and in this stripped-down, bare sensurround with brushed drums and what sounds like cello swooping in, the song's melody truly aches. Something of a gem, all told.
It seems to have become something of a trend in the press to dismiss Placebo of late, but "The Bitter End" suggests a rebirth rather than a burial. See you at the new album's christening?
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