🎶”𝗙𝗢𝗥𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗥 𝗖𝗛𝗘𝗠𝗜𝗖𝗔𝗟𝗦” 🎶

This song is the opening track on Placebo's eight studio album “Never let me go”, released on March 25th 2022. It was actually also the song their work on that record started with in 2016. Brian and Stefan were in the studio and Brian programmed the beat on a drum machine. On this device he was able to change it and put it on to any orchestra instrument. “So I put the drum beat on a harp and I distorted it and put some delay on it. And then you've got that loop from 'Forever Chemicals' that opens the album, and it's kind of cool [...]”, Brian explained in an interview. Stefan summarized it as an example of a “happy accident that happened in the studio” (see quotes below).

Initially the song was planned to be about police brutality. Brian tried to put himself into the mind of somebody who had lost a loved one, but several people warned him to deal with this topic. Brian: “And I'm kind of glad they did because it forced me to go into sort of a more ambiguous territory with 'Forever Chemicals'. What it's actually about, I think, is that it is up to the listener” (Maniacs, March 25th 2022).
Stefan described the track as the key point of “Never let me go” and a song with a lot of emotion in it. In his opinion it's “a great way to start off the album”(Billboard Japan, April 2022).


“Forever Chemicals” was recorded at RAK Studios in London and produced by Adam Noble. It was written by Brian, Stefan and Steve Ludwin, who is also the co-writer of Placebo's “Ashtray heart” from the album “Battle for the sun” and “Hypnotized by Jane”, a song Brian and him wrote for the German band Cinema Bizarre. Both tracks were done together with American singer-songwriter Jordan Page on a vacatation in Nicaragua.


Interesting fact: Ludwin, a “semi-retired punk musician”, (Business Insider, 2021) from Connecticut who lives in London since the 80ies is not well-known for his music but (in)famous for injecting himself with potentially deadly snake venom. He does this since 30 years, first for the supposed anti-aging effect and then also for medical research. Sounds quite crazy, doesn't it?
𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘪𝘵 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦:
👉 https://bit.ly/3Oh3uv6

Placebo at Bearded Theory 2022. Photo credit:Pete Connor

Another interesting fact is the origin of the song title. PFAS (Per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances) are often called Forever Chemicals because they hardly degrade in the natural environment and are very mobile in water, which means that they remain intact for a very long time and can be transported over long distances. PFAS are the most persistent synthetic chemicals and have been found in the blood and breastmilk of people and wildlife all around the world. The substances can be toxic.
Well, when I read the title “Forever Chemicals” that surely was not what came to mind first related to Placebo. But it perfectly fits with the theme of the album.


The shared live performance of the song was recorded at Milton Keynes, UK, on May 19th 2022. It was one of three shows that Placebo opened for My Chemical Romance (isn't the band name a strange and fitting coincidence too?) before they started their own current “Never let me go” tour.



📌 𝗕𝗥𝗜𝗔𝗡 𝗢𝗡 “𝗙𝗔𝗢𝗥𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗥 𝗖𝗛𝗘𝗠𝗜𝗖𝗔𝗟𝗦” 📌
📢 “There was something about that loop which was a real statement of intent. It’s melodic and it’s catchy, but it’s also a bit brutal. It was a ‘start as you mean to go on’ moment for us.”
(Rolling Stone UK, February 1st 2022)


📢 “Well, 'Forever Chemicals' was probably the first track on the album that we started working on, and that's probably why it's the first. In around 2016, I was sat in my studio with Stef, on the iPad, I had this drum machine, and I quickly programmed the beat, just like that. Then I realised that you could take that beat with this drum machine and put it on to any instrument from an orchestra. So I put the drum beat on a harp and I distorted it and put some delay on it. And then you've got that loop from 'Forever Chemicals' that opens the album, and it's kind of cool because it was sort of slightly reminiscent of 'Infra-Red', but more brutal kind of a statement of intent sonically, for the record, to kind of start with that and 'Forever Chemicals' is one of the songs that I rewrote over and over and over again lyrically. It started off as a song about police brutality and I tried to put myself in the heart and soul of somebody who had lost someone, uh, who'd been murdered by the police, then as I spoke to more people I was I was kind of advised not really to go there and I wondered if I was going to be inviting a great deal of aggro into my life. And I'm kind of glad they did because it forced me to go into sort of a more ambiguous territory with 'Forever Chemicals'. What it's actually about, I think, is that it is up to the listener.”
(Maniacs, March 25th 2022)

Placebo at Bearded Theory 2022. Photo credit:Pete Connor

📌 𝗦𝗧𝗘𝗙𝗔𝗡 𝗢𝗡 “𝗙𝗔𝗢𝗥𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗥 𝗖𝗛𝗘𝗠𝗜𝗖𝗔𝗟𝗦” 📌
📢 “The song 'Forever Chemicals', with its harp loop and distortion, is an example of a happy accident that happened in the studio. Our album opens with this strange-sounding song to surprise the fans as they surprised us.”
(Moustique Magazine, March 25th 2022)


𝘞𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘩 𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘬𝘦𝘺 𝘱𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘣𝘶𝘮?
📢 “I would have to say "Forever Chemicals" at the beginning of the album. It was the first song we worked on for the album, and it starts out as a weird drum loop I had on my tablet, but I had a lot of trouble finishing it. It's a song with a lot of emotion and it's a great way to start off the album.”
(Billboard Japan, April 2022)


📢 “A lot of times things don't work the way they should work. You turn on a device and it doesn't sound like it used to, and sometimes you don't know why. Or you don't have the login, or things like that. On that track the sound that opens the song was at first a drum machine, but somehow it changed to the sound of a harp and that really caught our attention and we thought it was a much more interesting sound. So we put it on a distortion machine (you know a lot of times the industrial sound comes from distortion, from a signal that's too hot and too saturated), because we've always really liked that kind of sound and our guitars are often distorted. Thus, that harp seemed to us the perfect way to start the album. We also like, speaking of equipment, to put together things that shouldn't be connected in principle (laughs). For example, a pedal board that goes to a guitar, but instead of putting everything in the right order we put it backwards. Or plugging a keyboard directly into the speaker. That kind of experimentation has always pleased us. I think since the third album we started using the studio more as part of the process of making an album.”
(Mondo Sonoro, April 2022)

Placebo at Bearded Theory 2022. Photo credit:Pete Connor

📜 𝗟𝗬𝗥𝗜𝗖𝗦
The memory drugs make memory snow
I think but I forget
My imagination doesn't know where to go
So it goes to sleep instead


The memory tapes of memory fucking
Fill me with regret
Now my memory shapes forgot their own names
And I can't get out of bed, shit


My memory body, my memory skin
I wanna kiss your pretty face
The memory drugs are a discipline
So I can know and keep my place


And it's all good, when nothing matters
It's all good, when no one cares
It's all good, when I feel nothing
It's all good, when I'm not there


And with friends like you (oh), who needs enemies?
And with friends like you (oh), who needs enemies?
With friends like you (oh), who needs enemies?
Friends like you


And it's all good, when nothing matters
It's all good, when no one cares
It's all good, when I feel nothing
It's all good, when I'm not there

Post by Silke