(Brian Molko, Cambs E News, January 1997)
 |
| Photo credits down below |
Placebo's self-titled debut album was released 26 years ago today on June 17th 1996 and reached no. 5 in the UK Album Chart. It was recorded at Westland Studios in Dublin and is the only album that features the band's first drummer Robert Schultzberg.
“Placebo” is a very sexual record, packed full of youthful vigor and lust and it deales with sex, drugs and rock and roll. "There's a lot of me in there. They're people I've been at one point in my life or emotion that I've felt”, Brian said about the characters in the songs (see quotes below). But at the same time the album is a collection of short stories. According to Brian the band wanted to “take you on a journey, an emotional rollercoaster, with little surprises here and there, instead of just having a blanket sound”.
๐ ๐ฃ๐๐๐๐๐๐ข (๐ณ๐๐น๐น ๐ฎ๐น๐ฏ๐๐บ)
๐ต http://bit.ly/2vRWQbD ๐ต
๐ ๐ง๐ฅ๐๐๐๐๐๐ฆ๐ง
01. Come home
02. Teenage Angst
03. Bionic
04. 36 degrees
05. Hang on to your IQ
06. Nancy Boy
07. I know
08. Bruise Pristine
09. Lady of the flowers
10. Swallow
11. H.K. Farewell (hidden track)
Five singles were released from the record: “Come home“, “36 degrees“, “Teenage Angst“, “Nancy Boy“ and “Bruise Pristine“. All songs on “Placebo“ were produced by Brad Wood, except for “Nancy Boy”, which was produced and mixed by Phil Vinall. The album was remastered and reissued in 2006 for its 10th anniversary, including demos and a DVD featuring live performances and music videos.
The album cover with the boy in the red hoodie was taken by Saul Fletcher. The young guy is his cousin David Fox. In 2012 Fox sued the band because allegedly the photo was used without consent.
Read the whole story here:
๐ http://bit.ly/2v6GYBB
 |
| Photo credit unknown |
๐ข “We wrote most of the album in a council flat in Deptford. The way we sounded and looked was a reaction against the place. But also a lot of our cross-dressing and transvesticism was a political statement against the music scene at the time which was very laddish and macho. We wanted to stand up and be counted. There’s no better way to do that than by putting a bunch of slap on, wearing a skirt and fucking with people’s heads. People hated us for it and I adored that. Not getting a reaction was anathema to me at the time. When I look back at the album I see naivety, missed opportunities and mistakes. But you can get your knickers in a twist about it or you can just accept they’re part of you. I view 'Nancy Boy' in a similar way that I imagine Radiohead look at 'Creep'. I just wish the song that propelled us into the limelight had been a little bit better written. It’s the lyrics that make me cringe the most. They’re me trying to find my feet. You have to listen to the album tracks to find where I really was.”
(Kerrang, July 2009)
๐ข “I mean what’s strange about that record is that I think it was incredibly commercial.”
(MTV Supersonic, 2004)
๐ข "We didn't want to make pure punk record, we wanted to make something that was colourful. The moodswings and frissons of Placebo's songs were carefully textured, using analogue synths, and more unorthodox sounds from toy instruments and a didgeridoo."
(Air & Style, 1998)
๐ข "It's an exploration into somebody's misogyny yet heartfelt. It's angry, nasty, insulting and completely politically incorrect."
(Backbeat, March 1997)
 |
| Photo credit: Mary Scanlon |
(Real Detroit Weekly, March 18th 1999)
๐ข "There's a lot of me in there. They're people I've been at one point in my life or emotion that I've felt. A combination of me and other people or me and a little spice. But I don't talk about anything which I haven't personally felt or experienced myself. I have great affection for the characters in the songs, because to varying degrees they do have bits of me in them, and I think that the author's attitude towards his characters is not a judgmental one in any way. It's very affectionate, and it's filled with pathos. I think the album is like ten short stories, about the same thing, but from ten different points of view."
(Vox, February 1997)
๐ข "You run the risk on the first album of making a record that has one particular sound, that runs the whole way through it. And we wanted ours to be like a collection of short stories, approach every single song individually with the orchestration and vocal styles. We wanted to take you on a journey, an emotional rollercoaster, with little surprises here and there, instead of just having a blanket sound."
(Cambs E News, January 1997)
Photo credit pic 1: Cover of the album, photo credits unknown except for the black and white pics (Ian Tilton, Corinne Day) / Edit by Silke
Post by Silke
