🌏⭐️𝐓𝐑𝐘 𝐁𝐄𝐓𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐍𝐄𝐗𝐓 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄: 𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓’𝐒 𝐁𝐄𝐘𝐎𝐍𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐄𝐍𝐕𝐈𝐑𝐎𝐍𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐀𝐋 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐌𝐄?⭐️🌏

Placebo always meant their songs to be quite ambiguous, Brian stressed he wanted his lyrics to get a personal meaning for everyone based on their own feelings and experiences. However, it was almost always possible to find out a main theme, a leitmotif, at least, analyzing Brian’s statements on the song and the lyrics directly.

What I noticed with 𝐍𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐋𝐞𝐭 𝐌𝐞 𝐆𝐨, is that I’m struggling to even put all my reflections on a certain song in one post!
In most of the songs, there are definitely more than one theme touched, and each of them deserves a profound discussion. (That happened when I wrote about 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐈𝐬 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐖𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐝 admitting that I was only talking of one side of its meaning – and you kindly suggested your other opinions).
Today, I want to talk to you about a song which clearly leads us two different directions – connected, of course, but still divided between the verses.

🌏It’s 𝐓𝐑𝐘 𝐁𝐄𝐓𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐍𝐄𝐗𝐓 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄.
I remember this song being simplified by the reviewer to something like “the song about the animals dancing in the forest” …
Well… The 𝒆𝒏𝒗𝒊𝒓𝒐𝒏𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒍 𝒕𝒐𝒑𝒊𝒄 seems to be a primary one here, and it certainly is.
▪ ▪ ▪A joyful atmosphere – underlined with an upbeat melody - is broken with a warning of a disaster being foreseen.

𝑺𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒍𝒂𝒖𝒈𝒉 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒅𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒂𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅 𝒎𝒂𝒉𝒐𝒈𝒂𝒏𝒚 𝒕𝒓𝒆𝒆𝒔
𝑪𝒐𝒎𝒑𝒍𝒆𝒕𝒆𝒍𝒚 𝒖𝒏𝒂𝒘𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚’𝒓𝒆 𝒈𝒐𝒏𝒏𝒂 𝒆𝒏𝒅 𝒖𝒑 𝒂𝒔 𝒎𝒆𝒂𝒕
𝑨𝒏𝒅 𝒏𝒐𝒃𝒐𝒅𝒚'𝒔 𝒘𝒂𝒕𝒄𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈

📢𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧: Try Better Next Time for me is very much my song about the environment. You know, it's a disillusioned, disappointed song. It’s very disappointed in humanity. It's basically saying, good riddance, humanity, try better next time, you know, next time you come back and get a chance to live on this beautiful planet, you know, try better. It's a story about people who live underground, about growing fins and going back to the water. It's a very disillusioned song about the climate disaster presented in a sort of three minute Weezer-ish kind of pop-punk thing. If you dig deeper, it's one of the more disturbing songs because it's talking about an extinction event next, you know, the extinction of human beings, but is presented in an extremely jolly, upbeat happy, catchy way which is something that we do quite well, present something quite depressing in an upbeat fashion.
(𝑀𝑎𝑛𝑖𝑎𝑐𝑠 𝑂𝑛𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑒, 𝑀𝑒𝑟𝑐ℎ 25𝑡ℎ, 2022)

Photo credit: Mads Perch

▪ ▪ ▪But then comes the second verse…
𝑺𝒐, 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒎𝒆
𝑼𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒎𝒆
𝑰𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒌?
𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆𝒏'𝒕 𝒎𝒆𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒘𝒂𝒌𝒆𝒔 𝒖𝒑 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝑰 𝒅𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒌

Doesn’t that remind you anything?
"𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒘𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒎𝒆 𝒊𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒌𝒏𝒆𝒘 𝒎𝒆 ..."


The whole quote is from 2009 and speaks about the peak of addiction problems around the Meds time…
📢𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧: After so many gigs being drunk or high, I realize how much I disrespected the public. Today, all that I feel on stage is true, while until now all my emotions were distorted by what I was taking ... It exacerbated my discomfort: I was on stage, in front of dozens of people with my face on their T-shirt, who were screaming "I love you" while I hated myself. I wanted to shout to them: "You would not like me if you knew me ..."
(𝐿𝑒𝑠 𝐼𝑛𝑟𝑜𝑐𝑘𝑢𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑏𝑙𝑒𝑠, 𝑀𝑎𝑦 2009)

Photo credit: Henry Ruggeri

💫Brian’s good in “letters to himself”: “Try better next time” [𝑡𝑜 𝑑𝑒𝑎𝑙 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑎𝑑𝑑𝑖𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛?] …

A painful confession is immediately followed by the attempts to justify such a behavior with being unable to cope with moments of hopelessness and helplessness.
𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒅𝒅𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒔𝒆 𝒆𝒏𝒗𝒊𝒓𝒐𝒏𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒍 𝒊𝒔𝒔𝒖𝒆𝒔 𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒚𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒑𝒊𝒂𝒏 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒂𝒅𝒅𝒊𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝑻𝒓𝒚 𝑩𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝑵𝒆𝒙𝒕 𝑻𝑰𝒎𝒆...
📢𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧: Like the other tracks, I wanted to express myself more honestly about what I think of the world today. I wanted to capture all the confusion that surrounds it. This song is based on the theory of evolution. An animal or an insect adapts to its environment, while a human being adapts it according to his moods. What is implicit in this, even beyond what my lyrics or the cover of this record suggest, is that nature will always eventually take over. The world we destroy day after day will return to its wild state when we disappear, which at this rate may happen sooner than expected. How can I not get the Monday blues when I think about this? (laughs)
(𝑀𝑦 𝑅𝑜𝑐𝑘 #74, 𝑀𝑎𝑟𝑐ℎ 2022)

A bitter laugh though…


▪ ▪ ▪The third verse brings us back to the post-apocalyptic story.

📢Brian delivers an equally open broadside on the environment crisis, on the scathingly titled, ‘Try Better Next Time’ – obviously, there will be no second chances after planetary destruction. “It talks about growing fins, and going back to the water,” he says, “which is also a nod to Captain Beefheart’s ‘The Spotlight Kid’ obviously.”
He believes that our reckless attitude towards our own living space is simply an extension of our insubstantial culture. “I wonder how disposable everything is going to become until essentially the next disposable thing is us,” he muses. “Is there another species on this planet that deserves an extinction event more than humans? Just look at the way we behave and what we’ve done to our climate. Shouldn’t Mother Nature just wipe us out and give our planet back to the animals?” He smiles.
(𝑆𝑝𝑒𝑎𝑘𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑦, 𝑀𝑎𝑟𝑐ℎ 15, 2022)

Photo credit: Ana Garcia

📢“It’s overgrown with nature and animals have come back,” Molko elaborates, as he sits with his legs crossed, a cigarette balanced elegantly between two fingers, as it has been in press shots since the mid-90s. “Why? Because humans aren’t there. That’s my vision for millennia from now — a planet where animals can thrive again, because we’re continuously destroying it in the name of profit.”
(𝑅𝑜𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑆𝑡𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑈𝐾, 𝐹𝑒𝑏𝑟𝑢𝑎𝑟𝑦 1𝑠𝑡, 2022)


💫“𝑩𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒉𝒖𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒔 𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒏’𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆” ➡ “𝑰'𝒎 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒎𝒆𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆”

An overwhelming awareness of the global crisis, the feeling of some kind of personal responsibility for the consequences of humankind actions become unbearable.


𝑰 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒃𝒐𝒓𝒏 𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆
𝑰'𝒎 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒎𝒆𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆
𝑾𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒆𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒍𝒅
𝑨𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒆𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒂 𝒕𝒆𝒂𝒓
𝑨𝒓𝒆 𝒆𝒙𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒍𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒂𝒎𝒆

💫To me, these lines feel strongly connected to the ones from 𝐇𝐨𝐥𝐝 𝐎𝐧 𝐓𝐨 𝐌𝐞.

𝑰 𝒂𝒎 𝒂 𝒔𝒎𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒈𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒍𝒆 𝒎𝒂𝒏
𝑾𝒉𝒐 𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒍𝒅 𝒖𝒑𝒐𝒏 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒔𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒔

⭐️The video I’m sharing with you tonight was recorded at the 𝐌𝐢𝐥𝐭𝐨𝐧 𝐊𝐞𝐲𝐧𝐞𝐬 concert on 𝐌𝐚𝐲 𝟐𝟏𝐬𝐭, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟐. Don’t forget to comment if you’ve been there.

Video by Dave And Ames
Post by Olga