According to Brian the track was “meant to confuse”. In an interview with Rock Sound he said that they have released the single because it's “quite unrepresentative of the rest of the album and it creates an interest because people wonder what the hell the record's gonna be like."
๐ฌ ๐ง๐๐ฆ๐ง๐ ๐๐ก ๐ ๐๐ก – ๐ข๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ฉ๐๐๐๐ข
๐ต http://bit.ly/2QDs3qB ๐ต
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| Photo credit: Screenshots from the video, edit by Silke |
The clip plays a lot with Brian's androgyny and with his ambiguous sexual orientation and preferences. It shows him involved in a strange love triangle with a rowing couple but in the end everything about their encounter is questionable and you don't know if it was real.
Video director Barbara McDonough said that the band wanted a narrative video without them performing. For her, the lyrics suggested some kind of relationship and the final inspiration for the plot came from the film “L'Annรฉe derniรจre ร Marienbad” ('Last year at Marienbad').
In retrospect she said that Brian, Stefan and Steve were all lovely to work with on the set. “The band was good natured and Brian was a real trooper. But we filmed the bed scene last and I'm sure by that point he was thrilled to be curled up in bed”.
Asked about his fragile appearance in “Taste in men” Brian said that it was his “anorexic period.” He also revealed that the he likes this video clip very much because “I think my hair looks extremely good in it” (“Once more with feeling” DVD). I personally loved this specific look and goth-like style but how about you?
๐ฌ ๐๐ก๐ง๐๐ฅ๐ฉ๐๐๐ช ๐๐๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐ง๐๐ฆ๐ง๐ ๐๐ก ๐ ๐๐ก
▪ http://bit.ly/334yh7q ▪
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| Photo credit: Screenshot from the video |
The character of the song is actually prepared to accept any kind of relationship with this person that they have lost and would do anything to get them back. On any terms, whatsoever, which is not a healthy state of mind at all.
Brian made clear that “Taste in men” is a simple "come-back-to-me-I-love-you' song that's applicable to any sexuality. The desperation and the pain needed to be reflected in the sonics of the song, so the band tried to make it “as hard as the 'Broken' EP by Nine Inch Nails, blisteringly nasty”, as Brian told a journalist of LA Weekly in May 2001.
Up to now the song has been played live 472 times, which makes it no. 7 of the most often played songs at Placebo concerts. The first performance was on July 20th 2000 at The Zodiac in England, the last one took place on July 5th 2012 in Madrid, Spain.
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| Photo credit: Screenshot from the video |
๐ข "It's a "come-back-to-me-I-love-you' song. But the person who lives inside of it wants to know "What's wrong with me? Why has the person I love deserted me?“ It's not a very healthy state of mind. The pain has to be reflected because the lyrics are so simple. It started out sounding quite a lot more dancey, but we made it more fierce and harsh because it needed to be."
(Morning Call, May 19th 2001)
๐ข "A song called "Wish" off the "Broken EP" by NIN was a bit of an influence. We listened to that while we were doing "Taste in Men", going, "Let's make it that nasty, let's make it that unlistenable."
(Melody Maker, October 20th 2000)
๐ข “It can be applicable to anybody and it's a very universal song. It's just 'You dumped me, come back.' That's all it is. It doesn't matter who you are. It's happened to all of us.“
(Vox Online, 2001)
๐ข “We just love to put people on the wrong track, one of our specialties. If people just listen to "Taste in men," they get the completely wrong impression of what the album is like, and it serves them right. Listen to the whole thing, get a taste of it. I never liked people who just listen to the opener or a single track and then decide if they like the album or not. Don't nibble; take a huge bite! But we're not pussying out on our third record, definitely not, not a chance.“
(NYRock, Aprilt 2001)
Post by Silke
