Placebo are back. After seemingly floating around in the goth-glam wilderness following the lukewarm reception to 2003’s ‘Sleeping with Ghosts’, Brian Molko & Co. have shed their skins for a fine return to form that sees them both progressing forward into uncharted territories whilst looking to their roots for inspiration.

Everything you could expect from a Placebo album is present and correct here.

Visceral, Neo-Glam anthems with edgy guitars, heat-pounding rhythms and Molko’s trademark nasal whine? Check. Dark, cold and brooding ballads that tug at the soul and pull on the heart? Check.

Yet there’s more to it than that.

Molko has done away with his morbidly fascinating, asexual tales of drug use and sodomy, preferring a more mature approach to lyrical themes that sit perfectly along side a more developed, simple-yet-sophisticated sound.

With cameos from slap-head song-smith Michael Stipe (REM) and Alison Mosshart of The Kills, ‘Meds’ shows the band at arguably their most experimental, flirting with formulas other than those that have led them to success over the last ten years or so. And at this point in their career, it’s obvious that they can afford to take such risks.

Many people however, have suggested that ‘this point in their career’, is where Placebo put out ‘Meds’ to bow out with grace and call it a day.

Yet, with an album so rich and powerful, it sounds as though, one way or another, Placebo still have plenty of life in them yet.

Recommended Links:
www.placeboworld.co.uk – Official Placebo site

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