Placebo deliver on album number five, get in your car and to HMV you should ride! (Meds - Placebo)

Member Name: DanielKemp

Product:	Meds - Placebo
Date:	03/05/09 (70 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Their most complete recording yet, a good progression of Without You I'm Nothing

Disadvantages: A couple of the singles stink bad, including Meds which was a poor opening song

Meds sees Placebo returning 3 years after their last album, Sleeping with Ghosts. This is certainly the heaviest record that Placebo has recorded and the experimentation is also their most daring and challenging to date. Obviously it isn't going to be experimental in the way that Bowie was circa 1977, but for a band that had their humble beginnings as little more than an alternative rock group, they are certainly to be commended on providing an album that is willing to go new places.

For my money this is the strongest Placebo record yet. The production is very much stylised, just as the albums before it, but the song writing seems more of a natural progression from their second LP, Without You I'm Nothing.
First single, Because I Want You, is a good example. It plays down the electronica influences of Sleeping with Ghosts and sees the band back to being a three-piece rock band, in which what you see is what you get. It reminds me of Every You, Every Me, albeit with more of a glam-rock punch to it.

It pains me to have to admit that the title track is a poor choice of opening song. Placebo albums normally start with all guitars crunching and Brian Molko cursing you to hell, but Meds is introduced by gentle acoustics and Alison Mosshart of The Kills providing the chorus. Why it was released as a single is beyond me; the music does little to excite or entertain and Molko's performance sounds over-rehearsed and tedious.
Infra-Red was another poor choice of single. The music is truly tame and without merit. It seems that when Placebo delivers with one hand they have to take with the other. Why not release an album with great singles AND great album tracks, now that would stir up interest.


Follow The Cops Back Home is a mature track that brings to mind R.E.M.'s early 1990's work. The chorus, "let's follow the cops back home... and rob their houses", is infectious and burrows itself into your subconscious.
Placebo was obviously listening to a lot of R.E.M. at this time, and if more proof was needed, Michael Stipe turns up to sing a duet on Broken Promise. The theme revolves around a relationship which has broken down due to Stipe's unfaithfulness. The looming piano notes provide the ideal backdrop to Molko's rueful lyrics. When he cries with anger, "I'll wait my turn to tear inside you", he delivers the verse with such bite that one has to be impressed.

The classic amongst the set is undoubtedly Pierrot the Clown. It is a story of domestic abuse from the perspective of the ill-treated victim. The band has a string section and even a glockenspiel at hand. Anything that involves the use of a glockenspiel has to be good, even the name makes me giddy. The vocal performance is a beauty, so I recommend that you go and have a listen for yourself.

The band has said that In the Cold Light of Morning was inspired by Leonard Cohen's early work and I would say that just about fits the bill. The track was removed upon Meds' US release as Placebo refused to censor the lyric, "Staring back from the mirror is a face that you don't recognise, It's a loser, a sinner, a cock in a dildo's disguise". Good on you Brian, FIGHT THE SYSTEM!

Song to Say Goodbye brings everything to a close and features some of the band's most malicious words. The song refers to drug addiction and in particular the use of heroin. It is a powerful addition to the album, mainly because of the weight of the lyrics, which are some of Molko's best. The hypnotic synthesizer delivers on all fronts and makes for an excellent close to a most enjoyable album.

Meds is the band's strongest work simply because it is their most consistent record. True, the singles may not be as good as some of those taken from earlier records, but as a whole it is their most cohesive LP.

I guess it's another eight then boys.

8/10

Daniel Kemp

Read more of my reviews at www.danielkempreviews.co.uk

Summary: Forget about the awful third and electronic fourth, this is where it's at, get on board!