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| Photo credit: Corinne Day (album cover, booklet), unknown (2) / edit by Marti |
๐ธ⭐๐ธ
Today, 23 years ago - 12.10.1998 the album ๐ธ"๐๐ข๐ญ๐ก๐จ๐ฎ๐ญ ๐๐จ๐ฎ ๐'๐ฆ ๐๐จ๐ญ๐ก๐ข๐ง๐ "๐ธ was born.
An album that can be called simply - ๐ ๐ฆ๐๐ฌ๐ญ๐๐ซ๐ฉ๐ข๐๐๐⭐.
⭐๐ช๐ถ๐๐ต๐ผ๐๐ ๐ฌ๐ผ๐ ๐'๐บ ๐ก๐ผ๐๐ต๐ถ๐ป๐ด, ๐ฃ๐น๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ฒ๐ฏ๐ผ'๐ ๐๐ฒ๐ฐ๐ผ๐ป๐ฑ ๐๐๐๐ฑ๐ถ๐ผ ๐ฎ๐น๐ฏ๐๐บ, was released by record labels Hut, Virgin Records and Elevator Music and is probably the most admired album by fans and critics to date. This album which produced 5 singles, including "Pure Morning" and "You don't care about us", was peaking at number seven in the UK Albums Chart and at number 20 on the US Billboard Heatseekers Albums chart. Without You I'm Nothing went platinum in the UK and gold in France and has been sold over one million copies to date.
It is full of gems in which each of us will find the story of our lives.
Can you admit which song from this album you like the most and what memories connect you to it?
๐ธ"๐๐ข๐ญ๐ก๐จ๐ฎ๐ญ ๐๐จ๐ฎ ๐'๐ฆ ๐๐จ๐ญ๐ก๐ข๐ง๐ " - ๐๐๐๐ข๐๐ข๐๐ฅ ๐๐ฎ๐๐ข๐จ๐ธ
https://bit.ly/3FDgYxi
๐๐ก๐ ๐๐ง๐ญ๐ข๐ซ๐ ๐๐ฅ๐๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐๐ฌ ๐ฉ๐ซ๐จ๐๐ฎ๐๐๐ ๐๐ฒ ๐๐ญ๐๐ฏ๐ ๐๐ฌ๐๐จ๐ซ๐ง๐, ๐๐ฑ๐๐๐ฉ๐ญ ๐๐จ๐ซ ๐จ๐ง๐ ๐ฌ๐จ๐ง๐ - ๐๐ฎ๐ซ๐ ๐๐จ๐ซ๐ง๐ข๐ง๐ . ๐๐ซ๐ข๐๐ง ๐ฌ๐ญ๐๐ญ๐๐ ๐๐จ๐ซ ๐๐ข๐๐ ๐ฆ๐๐ ๐๐ณ๐ข๐ง๐ ๐ข๐ง ๐๐๐๐:
๐ธ"I guess we were still learning how to use the studio, and we were looking to flesh out our sound beyond the power trio format. But it was a difficult record to make because we had a very dysfunctional relationship with our producer [Steve Osborne]. By the end of it, we weren't even talking. And it wasn't as if we'd had any major arguments. We started off not talking much anyway, and then as the months went by, it became less until there was no talking. It was such a strange atmosphere. The breakthrough track was "Pure Morning," and we didn't record that until our work with Steve was done. We recorded that during a B-side session with a different producer, Phil Vinall. That was like we were kids in a candy shop. It was borne out of chaos, because the pressure was off. So we just started playing around with all of these different sounds and that song was the result."๐ธ
We don't have to discuss at all how big a creative shift has been since the debut album in 1996.
However, the cover was also exceptional, on which we see two women, twins, sitting at a table facing each other, with a yellow background. Do you remember?
๐ธ๐ป๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐บ๐จ๐น๐จ๐ฏ ๐ฑ. ๐ฌ๐ซ๐พ๐จ๐น๐ซ๐บ + ๐บ๐จ๐ณ๐ณ๐ ๐จ. ๐ฌ๐ซ๐พ๐จ๐น๐ซ๐บ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ช๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ซ๐๐. ๐ป๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐, ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ผ๐ฒ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ 90๐.
“From their teens to early 20’s, Sally and Sarah maintained jobs in the music industry. Sally was one of the industry’s youngest female television pluggers. At 21, she independently represented several musicians, plus all Grand Royal Records artists for Beastie Boys. Her plugging efforts landed debut and some of the most infamous television appearances for musicians including At The Drive-In, Placebo and The Pharcyde to name a few.”
If you want to read more about the very interesting life of these two models, I definitely recommend their web Blag magazine.๐ธ
https://www.blagmagazine.com/biography
๐ธ⭐๐ธ
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| Photo credit: David Tonge |
In 2018, Stefan Olsdal gave many interviews on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the release of this album. I will take this opportunity to share one of them with you. Let's move together to the time when this album was created and how the boys experienced it then.
I wish you a beautiful reading and look forward to sharing your own feelings, because for me personally, this album was an ignition of a huge flame of interest and love, as well as passion.
⭐๐จ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐'๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ฐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐'๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐.:
๐ธ Every You Every Me (Werchter 2001)
https://bit.ly/3mBFy92
๐ธ The Crawl (Glastonbury 1998)
https://bit.ly/3v39j6v
๐ธ Allergic (To Thoughts of Mother Earth) Bizarre Festival 2000
https://bit.ly/3lqWcZz
๐ธ You Don't Care About Us (Brixton Academy 1998)
https://bit.ly/3DA9b1r
๐ธ My Sweet Prince (Brixton Academy 2001)
https://bit.ly/2YILfdo
๐๐๐ข๐ญ๐ก๐จ๐ฎ๐ญ ๐๐จ๐ฎ ๐'๐ฆ ๐๐จ๐ญ๐ก๐ข๐ง๐ : ๐๐๐ฅ๐๐๐ซ๐๐ญ๐ข๐ง๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐๐ฅ๐๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ญ๐ก๐๐ญ ๐ฆ๐๐๐ ๐๐ฅ๐๐๐๐๐จ ๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ฉ๐๐ซ๐ฌ๐ญ๐๐ซ๐ฌ
๐๐ฒ ๐๐ซ๐ข๐จ๐ง๐ฒ ๐๐๐ฐ๐๐ซ๐๐ฌ, ๐๐๐ญ๐จ๐๐๐ซ ๐๐๐๐
๐ธIf the musical landscape of late 90s Britain seemed almost tailor-made for Placebo’s curiously sleazy outsider sound, it’s because they pretty much created it themselves. While the band had enjoyed some success with their 1996 self-titled debut, its follow-up Without You I’m Nothing captured the imagination of a legion of music fans who found themselves at odds with the “straight lads from the pub” culture that came to dominate alternative music as the 90s drew to a close. “There wasn't really a scene for us,” the band’s co-founder, Stefan Olsdal, tells Louder. He’s joined us via telephone from a bustling cafe in London to discuss the album’s 20th anniversary, which falls almost to the day of our conversation. “We didn't really know where we fitted in that current music scene.” /.../
๐ธThe result was an album Olsdal describes as having “much more depth and width than the first.” Where Placebo had been a scrappy, tongue-in-cheek exploration of sexuality and gender – or “a high-octane celebration of being in your early 20s and taking life by the balls” – WYIN turned Placebo’s sound inwards, tightening and refining it. And while the success of their debut had opened more doors for the band – “touring, success, the lifestyle” – it hadn’t come without a price. “When it came to the second album, it was a bit like, 'Holy shit what just happened?!'” says Olsdal. “We were having some bad days and didn't realise why we were feeling that, or how to process our emotions. Couple that with a windowless basement studio, and I think some of the tracks became more introspective, and started to delve a little bit further into the darker recesses of human emotions.”
๐ธTheir darker sound ended up paying dividends: forget not being part of any scene, with WYIN, Placebo single-handedly carved out a space entirely their own. “I think we were just wanting to prove ourselves still,” says Olsdal. “I think at that time we still felt that people weren't really getting us, even though we had some success, commercially and artistically. We wanted to just show what we were, in terms of us as people, as lyricists and as musicians.”
They succeeded, and suddenly, the band were embraced by thousands of young people struggling to find their place in the world.
๐ธThe band hadn’t realised – nor were they fully mentally prepared for – the album to take off like it did. “Mentally we were in that basement studio, you know? That's where our heads were at – our real heads were there,” says Olsdal. “But we were arrogant little pricks as well, so we thought everything we did was amazing. This whole enabling machine was kicking in and our egos were quite inflated. We were in our early 20s, and in your early 20s you're immortal, you're like Superman. We were sort of embodying its success with our mouths and our egos for sure. So I guess we were like, 'Yeah, we fucking deserve this' [laughs]. So as it was happening we were lapping it up. But did we expect it? Yeah, I think a part of us was thinking that we were the bee's knees. And I think if any band tells you that they don't want to be the biggest band in the world, then they're kind of lying.” /.../
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| Photocredit: Muinomede |
๐ธ“It felt like two very separate worlds. I remember walking around in Manhattan and the cover of WYIN was just plastered in shop windows and Tower Records, but I just felt this extreme disconnection with it. So it was like, 'Yeah, this it's happening, but I am so not there’. Because I was just this lost kid, it was just overwhelming.
So a lot of it I couldn't enjoy because I was just trying to deal with all this stuff – my own stuff – and it was just blowing up on the outside, being faced with microphones every day. Most days I just dreaded it, because I just did not know what I wanted to say to the world. The only place I was comfortable was making the music in this kind of womb-like situation that me and Brian created back in his council flat in London back in ’94."
๐ธUltimately, relief came from the support Olsdal and his bandmate Brian Molko were able to offer each other. “It was blowing up and I just remember telling myself 'Okay, Stef, you might not be appreciating this now and you might be going through some shit. But this is fucking amazing. Stick with it – this too shall pass’. And some days I was just thinking 'I don't want all this, I don't want all this!' you know? But I stuck with it, held on to Brian for dear life – kind of held on to each other for dear life. We weathered the storm, together.”
๐ธ“It was the madness of it all – which, like I said before, we devoured. We loved it. But at the same time, it was this mixed bag of how to remain sane this in the madness of it all, and at this point we really held onto each other. Hard. We had to remain true to our art and true to ourselves and sometimes that's hard. It's trying to figure out what your identity is and then having the strength to fight for it on a daily basis.”
๐ธTheir dedication to sticking up for their identity, no matter how ‘weird’ it might have seemed, or how difficult it was for them as people, cemented their devoted fanbase. “We were very vulnerable and honest in our lyrics and in the way we spoke about ourselves and what we felt was important – be true to yourself, try to stand up for who you are, even though you might get knocked down for it,” says Olsdal. “What happened was that Placebo concerts became like a congregation of outsiders, these cute misfits that just didn't know where else to go, and they came to a place where there was misfits on stage. Me and Brian grew up in our bedrooms, trying to learn our instruments and didn't really have any friends, so I guess that was the beauty of it.”
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| Photo credit: Franck Courtรจs |
๐ธBut the album also provided the band with countless happy moments; dozens of the kind of experience which might come to define your entire life, not just your career. Collaborating with David Bowie on a version of the album’s title track was one of them. “We had the amazing opportunity to be boosted by the legend that is David Bowie,” says Olsdal. “He phoned up about a month [after the album was released] and basically says that he'd fallen in love with one of the tracks. He said 'Either I cover this myself, or you let me come and sing on it’. And we were like 'Er, no, that's alright David, you can come and sing on our version, you don't have to do your own recording!' So in New York we got together with Tony Visconti, his longtime producer, and David and he got to sing his part on this track. We were just these wide-eyed fanboys drooling every time he approached.
๐ธ“It was just one of those surreal moments where I was just looking down to make sure my feet were on the ground. So there was this confirmation that what was happening and what we were doing was the right thing. Just the validation of, 'You're not shit!”
๐ธAnother of the album’s most curious stories comes from one of its stand-out hits – the clanging, confrontational opener Pure Morning. Originally recorded as part of the album’s b-side sessions, if the band had had their way, it never would’ve made the album at all. “I remember going into our label and playing them the b-sides that we just recorded,” Olsdal recalls. “We loved those b-side sessions because we could just go in and let our hair down, be experimental, bring out the toy instruments and the talking parrot and saxophone. We wrote Pure Morning in a day [during those sessions], thinking nothing of it.
๐ธ“Then we took it to the label and they just flipped over it and said 'This has to be on the album'. We're like 'No fucking way!' The album was five it a chance, it might just do something for you.' Then that became a bit of an albatross around our neck, because we didn't really think of it much on its artistic merit, but it's one of those things where songs have their own lives and you just have to let them free. It served us well, but it was just one of those flukes that then became an quite an important one for the band.
๐ธ“I look at it for its production values, and I listen to the lyrics and they make me chuckle. I think about the people who were around us at that time, and it's from a time and a place. It's just moronic the way it starts, out – it's such a simple song, but you can't knock it. Sometimes two chords is all you need.”
๐ธAfter 20 years of reflection, Olsdal accepts the album as a document of a wonderful, if complicated, part of his life. “I can't really listen to it, I'll only hear the flaws,” he laughs. “But I think it gets easier with time to get some kind of perspective on what kind of impact, and what kind of role it had. It felt like the right time to [celebrate it] and give fans especially another chance to relive it, share memories and tell their stories.
๐ธ⭐๐ธ
Post by Marti
