⭐𝐀 𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐄 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐔𝐒 𝐓𝐎 𝐃𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐌: 𝟓𝐓𝐇 𝐀𝐍𝐍𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐀𝐑𝐘⭐

A retrospective album 𝐀 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐔𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐃𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦 was released exactly 5 years ago, on October 7th, 2016, as part of Placebo’s 20th anniversary celebrations. It consists of 36 tracks, including songs off albums, single versions, radio edits, live performances and redux editions of previously released songs, as well as the 2016 single Jesus' Son. The compilation includes all Placebo songs that have been released as singles, apart from "Burger Queen Français", "Twenty Years" and "The Never-Ending Why".
The compilation album reached no. 21 in the UK Albums Chart.

Photo credit: album cover; Placebo IG; Olga / edit by Olga

𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐛𝐨 - 𝐀 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐔𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐃𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦 𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐫
 https://bit.ly/392e7Pf

📍As you know, "𝑨 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒖𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒅𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒎" is a lyric from the song 𝐍𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐜 from Placebo's third record, 𝐁𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭 𝐌𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐜.
📍The 𝒂𝒍𝒃𝒖𝒎 𝒄𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓 is an iconic photo of a couple kissing at the 2011 Vancouver Stanley Cup riot.

⭐𝐁𝐑𝐈𝐀𝐍 𝐎𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐀𝐋𝐁𝐔𝐌 𝐂𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐑⭐
📢 "That was very much out of the time, there were disturbances in London… The point of the cover is about beauty amongst chaos, it’s about love amongst violence and anger and that kind of dichotomy. I mean what’s really important to stress is that this is a real photograph, it’s an amazing piece of photojournalism and that is the first time that the couple met and they are still together."
(𝐵𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑛 𝑀𝑜𝑙𝑘𝑜 𝐼𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑖𝑒𝑤, 𝑀2 𝑃𝑒𝑡𝑜̋𝑓𝑖, 𝑁𝑎𝑝𝑖 𝑑𝑢𝑟𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑎́𝑠, 𝐻𝑢𝑛𝑔𝑎𝑟𝑦, 2016)
The album was released as double CD, digital download and vinyl box set.

📍The 𝑱𝒂𝒑𝒂𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒆 𝒆𝒅𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 also includes Live at Akasaka Blitz, Tokyo, Japan - March 6th, 2010, on the third bonus CD.
📍The 𝒃𝒐𝒙 𝒔𝒆𝒕 contains 4 180 GSM heavyweight vinyl LPs and a 𝟐𝟒-𝐩𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐩𝐡𝐨𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 of rare, previously unseen Placebo pictures curated by Brian and Stefan from their private collections. The images from the different times of the bands career were treated in the style of a pop art, glam scrapbook.
𝑱𝒖𝒍𝒊𝒂𝒏 𝑯𝒐𝒖𝒔𝒆 of London-based independent creative agency 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐨 was responsible for the artwork on the release: besides designing a photo book, he produced other collage images for the vinyl LP covers, themed around youth surviving apocalyptic events. By the way, Intro agency and particularly Julian House have also worked with Placebo on 𝐋𝐨𝐮𝐝 𝐋𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞 album artwork.
📍For all the “vinyl freaks” out there, A Place for Us to Dream has also been released as a 𝒑𝒊𝒏𝒌 𝒗𝒊𝒏𝒚𝒍 𝒅𝒆𝒍𝒖𝒙𝒆 𝒃𝒐𝒙 𝒔𝒆𝒕

Photo credit unknown

⭐In the 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐕𝐈𝐄𝐖 with 𝐡𝐦𝐯.𝐜𝐨𝐦, Stefan opened up on how the album came into being.
𝑯𝒐𝒘 𝒅𝒊𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒂 𝒕𝒐 𝒅𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒄𝒐𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕?
📢 “We’re stretching the 20th anniversary of Placebo over quite a long time. We started all that in 2014 because that was 20 years since we formed and we’re going until this year because that’s when the first album came out. This feels like a good time to do a proper respective, our last one was all singles and this time we wanted to do a mixture of the songs that have been the most commercially successful and the ones we feel have most artistic merit. It’s not a Greatest Hits.”

𝑾𝒂𝒔 𝒊𝒕 𝒅𝒊𝒇𝒇𝒊𝒄𝒖𝒍𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒄𝒉𝒐𝒐𝒔𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒄𝒉 𝒔𝒐𝒏𝒈𝒔 𝒎𝒂𝒅𝒆 𝒊𝒕 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒄𝒉 𝒅𝒊𝒅𝒏’𝒕?
📢 “It was difficult. Placing songs from 1996 next to songs from 2016 is a big leap when it comes to Placebo, but there is a thread. We wanted to start on a high and end on a high and then it goes up and down in between. It’s a journey with a lot of despair, but a bit of hope.”

𝑾𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒚 𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒌𝒔 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒖𝒍𝒂𝒓𝒍𝒚 𝒔𝒐𝒓𝒓𝒚 𝒕𝒐 𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒐𝒇𝒇?
📢 “We’ve not included ‘20 Years’, which I think is a classic Placebo track. We had to be a bit cruel this time.”

𝒀𝒐𝒖’𝒗𝒆 𝒈𝒐𝒕 𝒂 𝒏𝒆𝒘 𝒔𝒐𝒏𝒈 𝒄𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒅 ‘𝑱𝒆𝒔𝒖𝒔’ 𝑺𝒐𝒏’ 𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒐𝒐...
📢 “There are some new versions on there too. We’ve re-recorded ‘36 Degrees’ for this, it’s us covering ourselves, just a little something for the fans.”
(ℎ𝑚𝑣, 𝑂𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑏𝑒𝑟 6𝑡ℎ, 2016)

To finish this anniversary post, I want to share 𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒏’𝒔 𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒆𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒅 to A Place For Us To Dream photo book. I think it’s wonderful and gives you if not an info then rather a feeling of what the album is about...

“Ladies and Gentlemen, and those of you who find yourselves in-between.
There’s a story in here somewhere, though I’m still not sure what it’s about. It’s a long movie that jumps forwards and backwards in time. There are two main characters, a very important supporting role, and guys who hit objects for a living who come and go.
Every now and then there’s a glorious cameo.
I don’t know what it all means, even though I’m the one who edited the film. I still haven’t watched it back all way through. Please have the courage to do what I can’t. Watch it from beginning to end. Take one long deep breath, allowing it all into your body as a whole and recognise the sensation in your soul. I’m still too afraid to do so.
This album is for you, not for me.
Dream of a place where we all belong.
I hope to meet you there one day.
With love,
Brian Molko
Ibiza, June 2016”

Post by Olga