✨𝐀𝐍𝐍𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐀𝐑𝐘: 𝐓𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐄 𝐈𝐍 𝐌𝐄𝐍✨

💫“𝑰𝒕'𝒔 𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒆 𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒔, 𝒚𝒆𝒕 𝑴𝒐𝒍𝒌𝒐 𝒎𝒂𝒌𝒆𝒔 𝒊𝒕 𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒂𝒌 𝒗𝒐𝒍𝒖𝒎𝒆𝒔.”💫

Another 𝐀𝐍𝐍𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐀𝐑𝐘 is here: 𝐓𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐄 𝐈𝐍 𝐌𝐄𝐍, the lead single from Placebo’s third studio album 𝐁𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭 𝐌𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐜, was released 22 years ago today, on July 17th, 2000.

Photo credit: screenshots from the official video; single cover / edit by Olga

🔸𝑹𝑬𝑽𝑰𝑬𝑾𝑺🔸
★Gigwise ranked the track as Placebo's greatest hit, describing it as "bubbling, space-age blast of howling, claustrophobic electro-rock." (𝐺𝑖𝑔𝑤𝑖𝑠𝑒, 𝐴𝑢𝑔𝑢𝑠𝑡 6𝑡ℎ, 2015)
★“…the thunderous "Taste in Men," "Black Market Music's" dark, surly, and diseased lead-off track. It's only nine lines, yet Molko makes it speak volumes.” (𝑀𝑜𝑟𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐶𝑎𝑙𝑙, 𝑀𝑎𝑦'01)
★“…he [Brian Molko] acquits himself well on Taste in Men […], where he sounds like he's king of the world.” (𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐺𝑢𝑎𝑟𝑑𝑖𝑎𝑛, 𝑂𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑏𝑒𝑟 2000)

🔸𝑺𝑶𝑵𝑮 𝑭𝑨𝑪𝑻𝑺🔸
★The song reached number 16 in the UK Singles Chart.
★Album version of the song features guest vocals by 𝑺𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝑳𝒐𝒓𝒆𝒏 (aka 𝑪𝒂𝒓𝒐𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒆 𝑭𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒉), the lead singer/guitarist of the band Linoleum that supported Placebo on tour in 1996. Currently, she works as a sound artist / composer under the name 𝑪𝒂𝒓𝒐𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒆 𝑫𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒏𝒆.
★The phrase "come back to me awhile" is taken from the 𝐒𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐜 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐡 song "Catholic Block", found on their album Sister.
★According to Brian, the band was influenced by the industrial rock band 𝐍𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐈𝐧𝐜𝐡 𝐍𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐬 during the recording of the song: "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)

Indeed, this unusual combination of tunes could have seemed to be quite surprising, not even easy understandable for the listeners at first. Obviously, that was the band’s exact intention while recording. Moreover, such an “unlistenable” track was chosen to be a single – the lead single! – off then upcoming album. Brave enough!

Photo credit: Screenshot from the video

📢 𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧: “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, 𝐴𝑝𝑟𝑖𝑙 2001)

That is quite similar to what Placebo have done with 𝐒𝐮𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐁𝐲 𝐒𝐩𝐢𝐞𝐬 (the second single, though) from their new album, don’t you think? “Completely wrong impression of what the album is like”. Be honest, who’s been slightly confused?
Can you compare it to the feeling when you’ve heard Taste In Men for the first time? Or are you the type who falls in love with uniqueness of the sound immediately?
★★★ 

🔸Taste In Men single was released on 𝐂𝐃 (𝐃𝐨𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐂𝐃 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐛𝐨𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐒𝐥𝐞𝐞𝐯𝐞 𝐂𝐃 𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬) 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝟏𝟐” 𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐲𝐥 (out a few months later, on October 8th, 2000).
𝑲𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒏 𝑾𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒃𝒆𝒓𝒈 was responsible for the photography and cover artwork for the single.

Photo credit: Screenshot from the video

🔸𝐂𝐃𝟏
Taste in Men (Radio edit)
Theme from Funky Reverend
Taste in Men (Alpinestars Kamikaze Skimix)
👉  https://bit.ly/3y4xovI

🔸𝐂𝐃𝟐
Taste in Men (Album version)
Johnny and Mary
Taste in Men (Adrian Sherwood Go Go dub mix)
👉  https://bit.ly/3yuiSP6
★★★

Those “nine lines” which Brian makes “speak volumes” tell a classic story of love lost yet in Placebo’s typical ambiguous style.

📢 𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧: "I guess it's quite a sonically complicated song, but lyrically it's very simple-being the classic old story of love lost. The person in the song is suffering from this obsessional pining and feeling of torment that follows you from the moment you wake up to the very moment you go to sleep. It's ever present, it's right in your face and affects your ability to function or do anything properly. It's a kind of pain that absorbs every aspect of your personality and every molecule in your body and the person is so desperate that they are willing to do anything possible, or change themselves in any way to win this person back, which is obviously a very unhealthy state of mind and being, emotionally. Sonically I think the sound reflects the pain."
(𝑈𝑛𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤𝑛 𝑚𝑎𝑔𝑎𝑧𝑖𝑛𝑒, 2000)

📢 𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧: "It's a "come-back-to-me-I-love-you' song," he [Brian Molko] says. "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'01)

Photo credit: Screenshot from the video

𝐁𝐑𝐈𝐀𝐍 𝐌𝐎𝐋𝐊𝐎 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐕𝐈𝐄𝐖 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐓𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐄 𝐈𝐍 𝐌𝐄𝐍
👉  http://bit.ly/334yh7q

🔸𝑶𝑭𝑭𝑰𝑪𝑰𝑨𝑳 𝑴𝑼𝑺𝑰𝑪 𝑽𝑰𝑫𝑬𝑶🔸
👉  https://bit.ly/3yu3Jx9

I’m re-watching the video on repeat in between writing this post... and inviting you to do the same now when you’re reading it. Watch carefully, shot by shot, to catch every single Brian’s facial expression – oh, his time at the drama school wasn’t wasted!

The video, directed by 𝑩𝒂𝒓𝒃𝒂𝒓𝒂 𝑴𝒄𝑫𝒐𝒏𝒐𝒈𝒉, was filmed in the 𝑪𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒍 𝑳𝒐𝒏𝒅𝒐𝒏 𝑹𝒆𝒈𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒐𝒇𝒇𝒊𝒄𝒆 (the one where John Lennon and Yoko Ono got married, by the way).

📢 𝐁𝐚𝐫𝐛𝐚𝐫𝐚 𝐌𝐜𝐃𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐠𝐡: "[…] I spent days and days searching for a hotel that would allow us to shoot. But given the fact most hotels don't want to disrupt paying guests, none were too keen to let a film crew take over. And we were on a modest budget, so there wasn't much to close the deal for those few hotels that might have been swayed to close off a floor. So the location scout suggested we try the registry office during a day it was closed. (If I recall it was some kind of government holiday when we shot). It had a look that could be set-dressed to pass as an older hotel so it was the most promising option.
[…] Well, the band wanted a narrative video (without them performing) and the lyrics suggested some kind of relationship. The label brief asked for something that played on Brian's androgyny. So that's how the duality of the couples in the video came to be. I got the sense Brian enjoyed keeping his fans wondering and confronted gender-bending in a playful way."
★★★

The video shows Brian involved in a bizarre love triangle with a rowing couple. Barbara recalled that both the plot and shooting style was inspired by the 1961 French-Italian movie.

Photo credit: Screenshot from the video

📢 𝐁𝐚𝐫𝐛𝐚𝐫𝐚 𝐌𝐜𝐃𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐠𝐡: "…I took inspiration from a film I love, L'Année dernière à Marienbad ('Last Year at Marienbad'). Not only was the film's enigmatic narrative structure helpful to look at when creating an ambiguous love affair, but the sort of cyclical quality of the track mirrored this kind of repetitive film device. The video had layers of questionable events - did any of it actually happen and if so, with which one. This kind of fragmented reality was a direct nod to that film but something that I thought fit with the band's image of ambiguity at that time."
★★★

A couple of years later, commenting on Placebo’s videos for 𝐎𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐅𝐞𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐃𝐕𝐃 (𝟐𝟎𝟎𝟒), Brian said that he liked the video for Taste In Men very much: “I think my hair looks extremely good in it.”
What 𝑩𝒂𝒓𝒃𝒂𝒓𝒂 specifically noted, was Brian’s coat: “the zippers sparkled in the light beautifully in places, and he looks fantastic in it.”
★★★

Although the whole recording process was pretty exhausting due to the limited time, both the band and the crew handled it great.

Photo credit: Screenshot from the video

📢 𝐁𝐚𝐫𝐛𝐚𝐫𝐚 𝐌𝐜𝐃𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐠𝐡: "The guys were all lovely to work with on set. We only had the location available for the one day the Registry was closed, so our original 2 day shoot became one long day… 21 hours by the time the crew pulled out of the parking lot. But the band was good natured and Brian was a real trooper. We filmed the bed scene last and I'm sure by that point Brian was thrilled to be curled up in bed."
(𝐵𝑎𝑟𝑏𝑎𝑟𝑎 𝑀𝑐𝐷𝑜𝑛𝑜𝑔ℎ'𝑠 𝑞𝑢𝑜𝑡𝑒𝑠 - 𝑃𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑒𝑏𝑜 𝑆𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑦 𝑃𝑟𝑜𝑗𝑒𝑐𝑡)

🔸𝑳𝑰𝑽𝑬 𝑯𝑰𝑺𝑻𝑶𝑹𝒀🔸
With 478 confirmed live performances, Taste In Men belongs to the 𝐭𝐨𝐩 𝟏𝟎 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐨𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐧 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐞𝐝 𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐬 by Placebo. For the first time it was brought on stage on July 20th, 2000, at The Zodiac in Oxford, England and the latest performance to date took place on July 5th, 2012, at Joy Eslava in Madrid, Spain.
The song was a staple of the Black Market Music and Sleeping With Ghosts tours. Despite not appearing during the initial legs of the tour, it reappeared for the winter 2006 leg of the Meds tour and remained until the conclusion of the tour. It was the closing song for all shows on the Battle For The Sun tour. The song also appeared during the 2012 tour as the concluding song for all shows, but was dropped at the start of the Summer Festivals leg.

Post by Olga