Placebo is an aptly named band for the music the English trio has created in the past 16 years. At first it comes across as a soothing balm for what ails alternative rock \u2014 Brian Molko\u2019s nasal-toned delivery sounds fresh and snide, a winning combination. But midway through every Placebo album this sense of ingenuity wears off, and what remains is rather ordinary indie rock backed by a voice that suddenly borders on the annoying.<\/p>\n
It certainly doesn\u2019t make you feel any better.<\/p>\n
Maybe it\u2019s an issue of editing, lord knows it\u2019s tough finding 10 to 12 songs to make a dent in the public\u2019s collective conscious. It\u2019s this that makes B3, a five-song LP offering from the band, an imaginative choice for Molko and company. It\u2019s been three years since the band\u2019s disappointing Battle for the Sun, and instead of ramping up in grand manner, the band went smaller and tighter.<\/p>\n
The stealth works.<\/p>\n
Throw out the cover of Minxus\u2019 \u201cI Know You Want To Stop\u201d (why there\u2019s a cover here is anyone\u2019s guess, someone in the band must have it hard for forgotten bands of the mid-90s), and you\u2019re left with four varied pieces. \u201cB3\u201d opens the LP and captures aPlacebo from a decade ago, a fuzzy synth gives way to a powerful Molko vocal performance amidst sterling guitar play. Yes, it\u2019s a bit of a Muse rip off, but the band is having fun here, so you have to let it go.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Extra\u201d takes it down a notch or five \u2013 it has nice touches but feels unfinished. The backing piano wanders, strings drift in and out, and Molko\u2019s lyrics are unenthusiastic. Not the best of efforts.<\/p>\n
This is evident by the LP\u2019s final two tracks, a pair of promising efforts which expose the troubles with the two previous tracks. \u201cI.K.W.Y.L.\u201d (which stands for I Know Where You Live, which has me wondering \u2013 why not just call the song I Know Where You Live?) showcases drummer Steve Forrest\u2019s hook-making ability, making this the album\u2019s liveliest track. Molko does sound out of his element, though, as he knows he has to accede to the grinding beat but isn\u2019t quite sure how.<\/p>\n
\u201cTime Is Money\u201d ends B3 with a flourish \u2013 a slow burn (perhaps too slow at more than seven minutes) which works to a frenzy a song\u2019s end. It\u2019s the most genuine of the lot, showing a profound musical path the band might be headed in.<\/p>\n
Whether or not Placebo can fully find the path is a question worth asking \u2013 after all the band waited three years to release four new songs and at this rate won\u2019t have a full album for another decade. But then again that could be the point \u2013 Placebo\u2019s own cure is not quantity but quality.<\/p>\n
Or not. And that\u2019s the problem with Placebo \u2014 you really never know what you\u2019re getting until it\u2019s too late.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Placebo is an aptly named band for the music the English trio has created in the past 16 years. At first it comes across as a soothing balm for what ails alternative rock \u2014 Brian Molko\u2019s nasal-toned delivery sounds fresh and snide, a winning combination. But midway through every Placebo album this sense of ingenuity […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1392,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[417,416],"class_list":["post-1391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-review","tag-b3","tag-placebo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1391"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1391\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1393,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1391\/revisions\/1393"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}