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| Photo: Michael Bond |
Rank Your Records: Brian Molko Skeptically Rates Placebo’s Eight LPs
As the band celebrates 20 years of releasing records, Molko looks back at his output.
In Rank Your Records, we talk to members of bands who have amassed substantial discographies over the years and ask them to rate their releases in order of personal preference.
Some musicians don't want to rank their records because they're not music critics: it's not always so easy to admit one is better than the other. It's an issue that comes up an awful lot before conducting these interviews. Brian Molko is one of these skeptical musicians, but he's willing to play along without much of a protest. His band Placebo is in the midst of celebrating 20 years of releasing records, and although going into it he doesn't think he's capable, he is.
"I don't really look at it that way," Molko admits. "To me, they feel like standalone bodies of work that are all different from each other. I've tried to play the game. I have made a list for you. The experience of making the record has to a degree influenced my choices. I'm willing to roll with it. I've never done this before so it's a bit of a step into uncertainty. I would never have done it if you hadn't asked me to."
To go along with Placebo's eight albums (including a pivotal MTV Unpluggedsession), the alt-rockers are celebrating their 20 Years Tour with a new EP titled Life's What You Make It and a complementary double album, A Place For Us To Dream, featuring their best work from the last two decades. For Molko and fellow co-founder/bassist Stefan Olsdal, it's a time to celebrate, but also a time to be grateful.
"I've been doing this for my entire adult life, and I don't really know how to do anything else," says Molko. "It's very precious to me. I did everything for that to be the case. Somewhere within all of it, we've managed to keep the band relevant. I don't know how, but I know that because every time we go out on tour, the first five rows is filled with a new set of teenagers. The people that have grown up with the band are still there, they're just closer to the bar at the back. How two guys in their forties can keep doing that, I don't know. Perhaps we're just immature. I'm happy to continue following my instincts, and see where they take me."
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| Photo: Michael Bond |
Noisey: Why is this your least favorite?
Brian Molko: I guess I put it there because I think it's the record that suffers most from having a blanket sound. We do our best to not make records that do that. It's part of our modus operandi. But it also happens to be the first time we also had a number one album, and in typical Brian Molko style, I put it at the bottom. [Laughs] I think it's a real somber record, so it doesn't really conjure up euphoria, which I suppose is what I look for in music. It was recorded during the height of our party phase, and once we had recorded all of our instruments, we had turned the studio into a place to have guests. So we spent a lot of time entertaining people while our producer spent a lot of time working on the album alone. I think if we'd been a little more involved, then perhaps there would be a little more light and color. It's quite a monochrome album for me. It's a very deep wood color, with stripes of gunmetal grey when I picture it.
You can see that in the album cover.
Yeah, and perhaps that's it. Perhaps the whole package is a little too gothic for me. I like to try and make an album with light and shade, and this one has the least. Maybe that's why it's last.
Sources: noisey.vice.com / http://bit.ly/2jLTPxI
Photos: Michael Bond
