Placebo

Placebo – Collapse Into Never: Live In Europe 2023 (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:32:03 minutes | 1,17 GB | Genre: Alternative Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © So Recordings

Placebo announce their first ever live album, Collapse Into Never: Placebo Live In Europe 2023.

Remarkably, more than 25 years in their career, the set includes the first live album that band have ever released – Collapse Into Never: Placebo Live In Europe 2023.

This also marks the first time that any live performances from the band have been made available on vinyl. Across the whole collection, vinyl, Blu-Ray and CD formats are catered to from three special live sets titled Collapse Into Never, This Is What You Wanted and Live From The White Room. Each was recorded in the last year and a half as the band toured the world in support of new album Never Let Me Go.

Collapse Into Never, recorded live at Low Festival in Spain, comes as a clear double-vinyl gatefold. This Is What You Wanted was recorded live in Mexico City and the extended set is included here on Blu-Ray. Live From The White Room, recorded at Studio 1 Twickenham Studios, brings seven songs from the band’s acclaimed new album Never Let Me Go to life and is presented in a softpak gatefold CD.

The box set features songs from their eponymous debut Placebo, Black Market Music, Sleeping With Ghosts, Battle For The Sun, and Loud Like Love. Beloved fan-favourite covers such as Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” and Tears For Fears’ “Shout” also feature.

(more…)

Read more

Placebo – Collapse Into Never (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:32:03 minutes | 1,17 GB | Genre: Pop, Rock, Alternatif et Indé
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover

(more…)

Read more

Placebo – Never Let Me Go (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 57:42 minutes | 741 MB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © So Recordings

After nearly a decade between studio full-lengths, Placebo returned with one of the strongest efforts in their catalog, 2022’s excellent Never Let Me Go. Recording as a duo, the core songwriting pair of founders Brian Molko and Stefan Olsdal benefits from this focused perspective, delivering a reliably artsy and stylish set of songs that longtime fans would expect — urgent alt-rock fortified with electrified glam fuzz — that somehow manages to revive the darkest ’90s alternative energy while remaining thoroughly contemporary with impeccable production quality. Three decades on, and Molko and Olsdal are also older and wiser, the hedonistic anthems of their youth giving way to intense existential ruminations, fear and panic, and just a brief suggestion of hope for a thoroughly broken world. One of the most distinctive vocalists of his time, Molko remains the main draw, whether he’s unleashing his angst and frustration on tracks such as the chaotic “Hugz” and churning “Twin Demons,” or wringing the only drops of optimism from the bittersweet, string-drenched “The Prodigal.” He delves into paranoia on “Surrounded by Spies” — whose creeping synths and claustrophobic atmospherics recall late-’90s Depeche Mode — and mourns our planet on the deceptively peppy “Try Better Next Time,” a sardonic dose of resignation about the world’s end. Meanwhile, Olsdal’s backing elevates the entirety of Never Let Me Go, from the intergalactic post-punk gallop of “Chemtrails” and the infectious groove of the scuzzed-out “Sad White Reggae” to the pensive, piano-driven “This Is What You Wanted” and the hypnotic Cure-meets-Depeche-Mode closer “Fix Yourself.” Additional highlights on this flawless set include the opening run of the clanging “Forever Chemicals” — a showcase of guitar distortion, pounding percussion, and digitized sci-fi unease — and standout single “Beautiful James,” a soaring moment of tenderness that swells atop squiggling synths and a wave of riffs. Despite the overwhelming emotions, Never Let Me Go is an exercise in control and expert execution that finds Placebo on another level of songwriting and point of view, a welcome surprise at this stage in their careers. – Neil Z. Yeung
(more…)

Read more

Placebo – A Place for Us to Dream: 20 Years Of Placebo (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 02:16:18 minutes | 1,62 GB | Genre: Alternative, Indie
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Universal Music

A Place for Us to Dream: 20 Years of Placebo celebrates the nihilistic English alt-rock veterans’ first two decades via a handsome two-disc set that also boasts a 32-page book of pictures curated by co-founders Brian Molko and Stefan Olsdal. Opening with the band’s propulsive 1998 hit “Pure Morning,” the perfect distillation of Placebo’s seedy Suede-meets-Harvey Danger brand of goth and Brit-pop-tinged glam rock, A Place for Us to Dream drops a little fan bait early on via the soaring new single “Jesus’ Son.” Less sordid than live staples like “Nancy Boy,” “Taste in Men,” and “The Bitter End,” all three of which are included here, it retains the group’s nervy energy, but leans harder on the anthemic side of things. Obviously, the collection’s biggest selling point over 2004’s Once More with Feeling: Singles 1996-2004, is the inclusion of post-Sleeping with Ghosts gems like “Meds,” “Infra Red,” “Too Many Friends,” and Molko and Olsdal’s brooding rendering of Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill.” Placebo have always been a solid singles band, and A Place for Us to Dream delivers the kind of easy, bullet point retrospective that newbies and casual fans can get behind. Longtime listeners will already have these songs — “Jesus’ Son” also appears on the 2016 Life’s What You Make It EP — but between the booklet and the nice mix of radio and album edits, there’s plenty here for even the most ardent Placebo follower to sink their teeth into. – James Christopher Monger

(more…)

Read more