March 2005 Archives
CD, Virgin Records 2003
Track list: Bulletproof Cupid - English Summer Rain - This Picture - Sleeping with Ghosts - The Bitter End - Something Rotten - Plasticine - Special Needs - I'll Be Yours - Second Sight - Protect Me From What I Want - Centrefolds
While Bulletproof Cupid is no Pure Morning, it's still a bloody captivating start for this album ripe with great tracks. The Bitter End is, for me, the number one hit and one of the reasons that got me interested in Placebo in the beginning. English Summer Rain, This Picture, Plasticine, Second Sight, I'll Be Yours, Special Needs... One great track after another. *****
CD, Virgin Records 1996
Track list: Come Home - Teenage Angst - Bionic - 36 Degrees - Hang on to Your IQ - Nancy Boy - I Know - Bruise Pristine - Lady of the Flowers - Swallow - H.K. Farewell
Few bands are at their best on their debut albums, and neither is Placebo. It's a fine album, nonetheless, with tracks like 36 Degrees, Nancy Boy, Bruise Pristine and Teenage Angst - few albums can match those, especially Nancy Boy. The sound is rawer than on later Placebo albums, though the material isn't that different in the end. A fine, fine debut and certainly a must-have album. For me, at least! ****
CD, Devil's Shitburner Records 2005
Track list: Funeral Begin... - Mourning from the Grave - Wizard of Gore - Black Bullet - Hunters in the Night - Umbrella (Biohazard Fuckers) - Poison Gas - The End
Here's some party music for the living dead. Scarecrow plays catchy horror punk (like Devil's Whorehouse) and does it well. Fast, nice chorus lines, bloody themes, what else you need? If your concept of good fun involves skulls, gore and pathology, La Morte Vivante provides the soundtrack. ***
CD, Elevator Music 1998
Track list: Pure Morning - Brick Shithouse - You Don't Care About Us - Ask for Answers - Without You I'm Nothing - Allergic (To Thoughts of Mother Earth) - The Crawl - Every You Every Me - My Sweet Prince - Summer's Gone - Scared of Girls - Burger Queen - Evil Dildo
It must be one of the strongest album starters ever: Pure Morning. From the first guitar lines to the haunting voice and lyrics of Brian Molko. And the other track, Every You Every Me - pure brilliance. From the slow and sad to aggressive and angular, Placebo does it all to near perfection. Biggest negative of the album is the hidden track in the end of Burger Queen: just make it a separate track, for god's sake. Other than that, it's a real killer album. *****
