Another ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ is here: ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐, the lead single from Placebo’s third studio album ๐๐ฅ๐๐๐ค ๐๐๐ซ๐ค๐๐ญ ๐๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ข๐, was released 22 years ago today, on July 17th, 2000.
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| Photo credit: screenshots from the official video; single cover / edit by Olga |
★Gigwise ranked the track as Placebo's greatest hit, describing it as "bubbling, space-age blast of howling, claustrophobic electro-rock." (๐บ๐๐๐ค๐๐ ๐, ๐ด๐ข๐๐ข๐ ๐ก 6๐กโ, 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.” (๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ถ๐๐๐, ๐๐๐ฆ'01)
★“…he [Brian Molko] acquits himself well on Taste in Men […], where he sounds like he's king of the world.” (๐โ๐ ๐บ๐ข๐๐๐๐๐๐, ๐๐๐ก๐๐๐๐ 2000)
๐ธ๐บ๐ถ๐ต๐ฎ ๐ญ๐จ๐ช๐ป๐บ๐ธ
★The song reached number 16 in the UK Singles Chart.
★Album version of the song features guest vocals by ๐บ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ณ๐๐๐๐ (aka ๐ช๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ญ๐๐๐๐), 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 ๐ช๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ซ๐๐๐๐๐.
★The phrase "come back to me awhile" is taken from the ๐๐จ๐ง๐ข๐ ๐๐จ๐ฎ๐ญ๐ก song "Catholic Block", found on their album Sister.
★According to Brian, the band was influenced by the industrial rock band ๐๐ข๐ง๐ ๐๐ง๐๐ก ๐๐๐ข๐ฅ๐ฌ 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."
(๐๐๐๐๐๐ฆ ๐๐๐๐๐, ๐๐๐ก๐๐๐๐ 20๐กโ 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!
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| Photo credit: Screenshot from the video |
(๐๐๐ ๐๐๐, ๐ด๐๐๐๐ 2001)
That is quite similar to what Placebo have done with ๐๐ฎ๐ซ๐ซ๐จ๐ฎ๐ง๐๐๐ ๐๐ฒ ๐๐ฉ๐ข๐๐ฌ (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?
★★★
๐ธTaste In Men single was released on ๐๐ (๐๐จ๐ฎ๐๐ฅ๐ ๐๐ ๐๐ง๐ ๐๐๐ซ๐๐๐จ๐๐ซ๐ ๐๐ฅ๐๐๐ฏ๐ ๐๐ ๐ฏ๐๐ซ๐ฌ๐ข๐จ๐ง๐ฌ) ๐๐ง๐ ๐๐” ๐ฏ๐ข๐ง๐ฒ๐ฅ (out a few months later, on October 8th, 2000).
๐ฒ๐๐๐๐ ๐พ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ was responsible for the photography and cover artwork for the single.
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| Photo credit: Screenshot from the video |
Taste in Men (Radio edit)
Theme from Funky Reverend
Taste in Men (Alpinestars Kamikaze Skimix)
๐ https://bit.ly/3y4xovI
๐ธ๐๐๐
Taste in Men (Album version)
Johnny and Mary
Taste in Men (Adrian Sherwood Go Go dub mix)
๐ 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.
๐ข ๐๐ซ๐ข๐๐ง: "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."
(๐๐๐๐๐๐ค๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ง๐๐๐, 2000)
๐ข ๐๐ซ๐ข๐๐ง: "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."
(๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ถ๐๐๐, ๐๐๐ฆ'01)
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| Photo credit: Screenshot from the video |
๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐จ๐ฎ๐ญ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐
๐ http://bit.ly/334yh7q
๐ธ๐ถ๐ญ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ช๐ฐ๐จ๐ณ ๐ด๐ผ๐บ๐ฐ๐ช ๐ฝ๐ฐ๐ซ๐ฌ๐ถ๐ธ
๐ 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 ๐ฉ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ด๐๐ซ๐๐๐๐๐, was filmed in the ๐ช๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ณ๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐น๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ (the one where John Lennon and Yoko Ono got married, by the way).
๐ข ๐๐๐ซ๐๐๐ซ๐ ๐๐๐๐จ๐ง๐จ๐ ๐ก: "[…] 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.
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| Photo credit: Screenshot from the video |
★★★
A couple of years later, commenting on Placebo’s videos for ๐๐ง๐๐ ๐๐จ๐ซ๐ ๐๐ข๐ญ๐ก ๐ ๐๐๐ฅ๐ข๐ง๐ ๐๐๐ (๐๐๐๐), Brian said that he liked the video for Taste In Men very much: “I think my hair looks extremely good in it.”
What ๐ฉ๐๐๐๐๐๐ 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.
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| Photo credit: Screenshot from the video |
๐ข ๐๐๐ซ๐๐๐ซ๐ ๐๐๐๐จ๐ง๐จ๐ ๐ก: "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."
(๐ต๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ท๐๐๐๐โ'๐ ๐๐ข๐๐ก๐๐ - ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ก๐๐๐ฆ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ก)
๐ธ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฝ๐ฌ ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐บ๐ป๐ถ๐น๐๐ธ
With 478 confirmed live performances, Taste In Men belongs to the ๐ญ๐จ๐ฉ ๐๐ ๐จ๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐ฆ๐จ๐ฌ๐ญ ๐จ๐๐ญ๐๐ง ๐ฉ๐ฅ๐๐ฒ๐๐ ๐ฌ๐จ๐ง๐ ๐ฌ 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
(๐ต๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ท๐๐๐๐โ'๐ ๐๐ข๐๐ก๐๐ - ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ก๐๐๐ฆ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ก)
๐ธ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฝ๐ฌ ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐บ๐ป๐ถ๐น๐๐ธ
With 478 confirmed live performances, Taste In Men belongs to the ๐ญ๐จ๐ฉ ๐๐ ๐จ๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐ฆ๐จ๐ฌ๐ญ ๐จ๐๐ญ๐๐ง ๐ฉ๐ฅ๐๐ฒ๐๐ ๐ฌ๐จ๐ง๐ ๐ฌ 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
