🟧▪𝐍𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑 𝐋𝐄𝐓 𝐌𝐄 𝐆𝐎 𝐛𝐲 𝐊𝐀𝐙𝐔𝐎 𝐈𝐒𝐇𝐈𝐆𝐔𝐑𝐎: 𝐚 𝐧𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐠𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐛𝐨’𝐬 𝐚𝐥𝐛𝐮𝐦▪🟧

📢𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧: "Never Let Me Go", I think it's a very Placebo title. "Without You I'm Nothing", "A Place For Us To Dream", "Never Let Me Go", it's a very human title and it's inspired by one of my favourite books by Kazuo Ishiguro, it's a book about clones. It's really a book I recommend. That's the inspiration for the title."
(𝑂𝑈𝐼 𝐹𝑀, 𝐴𝑝𝑟𝑖𝑙 22𝑛𝑑, 2022)

📢𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐟𝐚𝐧: "I think it's hard not to be impressed by what's going on around us, but we liked the idea of giving the album 𝒂 𝒔𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒍 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒐𝒑𝒆𝒏 𝒏𝒂𝒎𝒆."
(𝐶𝑜𝑟𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑟𝑒, 𝐴𝑝𝑟𝑖𝑙 9𝑡ℎ, 2022)

Photo credit: screenshot from Rock am Ring 2022 interview; book cover / edit by Olga

🟧With most of their previous albums, Brian and Stefan remembered searching for the title at the very last moment, when everything else about the record was already done. As we know, they reversed the whole process with 𝑵𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝑳𝒆𝒕 𝑴𝒆 𝑮𝒐, so that applied to the title as well. Not only they were keeping it in mind but they got the words written in front of their eyes while working on the songs at the studio. The phrase, as well as the image chosen as a cover, was leading them throughout the whole creative way…

𝐏𝐢𝐨𝐭𝐫 𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐦𝐚𝐜𝐡: […] Never Let Me Go – I think it’s one of the most popular phrases in pop music.
📢𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐟𝐚𝐧: It could be. It’s certainly one that describes something romantic, enormously desperate, it’s just four little words. It was a phrase that kind of grabbed us for a long time. I have it written on a piece of paper at the studio where I am now. I think we wrote it down and it kind of stared at us for all the time we created the album. 𝑰𝒕’𝒔 𝒂𝒍𝒔𝒐 𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒐𝒑𝒆𝒏 𝒕𝒊𝒕𝒍𝒆, 𝒊𝒕 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒃𝒆 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒊𝒏 𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒚 𝒅𝒊𝒇𝒇𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒚𝒔. Even right now, I can think of many fast interpretations.
𝐏𝐢𝐨𝐭𝐫 𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐦𝐚𝐜𝐡: It’s positive…
📢𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐟𝐚𝐧: Yeah, it’s surely a dramatic phrase.
𝐏𝐢𝐨𝐭𝐫 𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐦𝐚𝐜𝐡: I said positive…
📢𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐟𝐚𝐧: Well, yeah, we can say so. Such a love pleading, it could be applied to, you know, heavenly bodies as well as human bodies.
(𝑅𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑜 357, 𝑁𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 9𝑡ℎ, 2021)


🟧And here, at the point of 𝑰𝑵𝑻𝑬𝑹𝑷𝑹𝑬𝑻𝑨𝑻𝑰𝑶𝑵, starts one of the basic connections between Kazuo Ishiguro’s book and Placebo’s album.

In the novel, one of the main characters, Kathy, used to listen to the song “Never Let Me Go” on a tape, one of a few precious objects she owned in her childhood. The girl listened to the song on repeat when she felt lonely, dancing and singing along the chorus lines, "𝑶𝒉 𝒃𝒂𝒃𝒚, 𝒃𝒂𝒃𝒚, 𝒏𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒍𝒆𝒕 𝒎𝒆 𝒈𝒐." What Kathy imagined, was a woman keeping her beloved child close to her heart and asking to never let her go. 𝑨𝒍𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉 𝑲𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒚 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒛𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒍𝒚𝒓𝒊𝒄𝒔 𝒉𝒂𝒅 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒃𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒚 𝒂 𝒕𝒐𝒕𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒅𝒊𝒇𝒇𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒎𝒆𝒂𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈, 𝒔𝒉𝒆 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒅 𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒐𝒘𝒏 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒎𝒂𝒅𝒆 𝒔𝒆𝒏𝒔𝒆 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒕𝒐 𝒉𝒆𝒓, 𝒊𝒏 𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒆 𝒔𝒊𝒕𝒖𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏.

That was the first moment that literally stroke me while reading the novel and clearly reminded some Brian and Stefan’s quotes.
📢For 𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧, “it remains imperative that each listener discovers 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒊𝒓 𝒐𝒘𝒏 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒍 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒚 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒔𝒐𝒏𝒈𝒔 – I really don’t want to tell anyone how to feel”.
(𝑆𝑝𝑒𝑎𝑘𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑦, 𝑀𝑎𝑟𝑐ℎ 15, 2022)

Photo credit: Mads Perch

That’s what 𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧 recalls from his own childhood when he could escape into his imagination through music and create his personal universes within songs…
📢𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧: I’m nostalgic for that period in music [the 80s] because I think we’re given too much information today, so there’s less capacity for us to create those personal universes through somebody else’s work. 𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒏𝒆𝒆𝒅𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆 𝒆𝒏𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉 𝒂𝒎𝒃𝒊𝒈𝒖𝒊𝒕𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒊𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒍 𝒕𝒐 𝒆𝒂𝒄𝒉 𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒆𝒓. […] I could leave the drudgery of my everyday life and my family situation and escape into my imagination – that’s still what I look for today in music.
(𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐺𝑢𝑎𝑟𝑑𝑖𝑎𝑛, 𝐽𝑢𝑙𝑦 1𝑠𝑡 2022)

📢𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧: When you go to watch a Steven Spielberg movie, especially with the music, you see Spielberg's hand always pushing a button. "Okay now you're going to feel like that. Now you're going to feel like this and now you're going to feel like this". 𝑰 𝒅𝒐𝒏'𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒅𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒑𝒆𝒐𝒑𝒍𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒏 𝒕𝒐 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒎𝒖𝒔𝒊𝒄. 𝑰 𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒇𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒊𝒓 𝒐𝒘𝒏 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏. 𝑻𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒚, 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒐𝒏𝒈 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒍𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒎𝒖𝒄𝒉 𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒓 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒊𝒓 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕.
(𝑅𝑇𝐿2, 𝐿𝑒𝐷𝑟𝑖𝑣𝑒, 𝑀𝑎𝑟𝑐ℎ 25𝑡ℎ, 2022)

📢𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐟𝐚𝐧: We're not here to try to tell people what to think or to feel. All we can do is express our truth and narratives that do in some ways come from personal experiences. As soon as the record comes out, the listener will make of each song what they want, and that is absolutely fine, as the music is not really ours to begin with. We serve the song and not the other way around.
(𝑅𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ 𝑇𝑟𝑎𝑑𝑒, 𝑀𝑎𝑟𝑐ℎ 24𝑡ℎ, 2022)

📢𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐟𝐚𝐧: I believe the themes a little bit more difficult, the complicated and dark ones, have always been a side of Placebo. And on this album there are still a lot of those themes. But at the same time we have never tried to be a band that wanted to tell the listener what to feel or what to think. So far I've met a lot of people who have taken parts of lyrics and given them positive energy and optimism.
(𝑀𝑜𝑛𝑑𝑜𝑆𝑜𝑛𝑜𝑟𝑜, 𝑖𝑠𝑠𝑢𝑒 305, 𝐴𝑝𝑟𝑖𝑙 1𝑠𝑡, 2022)

📢𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐟𝐚𝐧: Placebo never wrote songs to tell people how they should think or react. We are musicians and creators, Never Let Me Go reflects how we felt when we recorded it over two years ago. It's a snapshot. Today, it no longer belongs to us. In the light of the pandemic, what is happening in Ukraine or their own experience, people will interpret it differently. We have to accept it.
(𝑀𝑜𝑢𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑞𝑢𝑒 𝑚𝑎𝑔𝑎𝑧𝑖𝑛𝑒, 𝑀𝑎𝑟𝑐ℎ 25𝑡ℎ, 2022)

That’s what happened in the novel too: another character, Madame, interpreted the scene of Kathy listening to the song in a completely different way, though her personal experience: the lady is overwhelmed by guilt and sadness because of what they were doing to the children, the clones…

☑️“I saw a new world coming rapidly. More scientific, efficient, yes. More cures for the old sicknesses. Very good. But a harsh, cruel, world. And I saw a little girl, her eyes tightly closed, holding to her breast the old kind world, one that she knew in her heart could not remain, and she was holding it and pleading, never to let her go.” (Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go)

Photo credit: Pete Connor

🟧So, 𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑪𝑳𝑶𝑵𝑬𝑺…
We should not forget that 𝐍𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐋𝐞𝐭 𝐌𝐞 𝐆𝐨 is a dystopian science fiction novel that takes place in an alternate reality of England during the 1990s. By that time, human cloning was authorized and performed. Human beings are reared for the purposes of harvesting their organs once they reach adulthood; afterwards, they “complete”, or simply, die.

🟨𝑨 𝒇𝒆𝒘 𝒇𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒔 𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒐𝒐𝒌🟨
▪Never Let Me Go (2005) by British author Kazuo Ishiguro was shortlisted for the 2005 Booker Prize; Time magazine named it the best novel of 2005 and included the novel in its "100 Best English-language novels published since 1923—the beginning of TIME".
▪A film adaptation directed by Mark Romanek was released in 2010; a Japanese television drama aired in 2016.

It’s not the first time when we can see an influence of 𝒔𝒄𝒊-𝒇𝒊 𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒎𝒐𝒗𝒊𝒆𝒔 in Placebo’s songs and videos. Brian has always been interested in that kind of stuff.

📢"While writing the album, Molko returned to the sci-fi films he had loved as a child – psychedelic ruminations on technology and power from the 1970s. […] “I’m very interested in creating, with each song, an alternative universe where the laws of physics don’t necessarily apply,” he says. “Each song really does exist in its little parallel universe. If we’re not tied down to the laws of physics that are generally accepted in the universe we see, then certainly emotion will follow. Certainly anything is possible in another reality. It allows me to speak freely about what bothers me. I try to exaggerate things to increase dramatic effect, to highlight how ridiculous our reality is.”
(𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐺𝑢𝑎𝑟𝑑𝑖𝑎𝑛, 𝑁𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 12𝑡ℎ, 2021)

It’s VERY hard for me to talk to you about the book yet avoid spoilers. I really want you to read the novel and make your own impression. With the following 𝑸𝑼𝑶𝑻𝑬𝑺 (and my thoughts on them), I’m just trying to give you some taste of the story, the reason why you should definitely reach for it one day.

Photo credit: Yussel Flores

☑️“I keep thinking about this river somewhere, with the water moving really fast. And these two people in the water, trying to hold onto each other, holding on as hard as they can, but in the end it's just too much. The current's too strong. They've got to let go, drift apart.”

☑️“The problem, as I see it, is that you've been told and not told. You've been told, but none of you really understand, and I dare say, some people are quite happy to leave it that way.”

☑️“All children have to be deceived if they are to grow up without trauma.”
These two latter quotes make me think of 𝐁𝐞𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐉𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬.
𝑰 𝒅𝒐𝒏'𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒏𝒂 𝒘𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖
𝑻𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉 𝑰 𝒎𝒂𝒚 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒕𝒐
𝑰 𝒎𝒂𝒚 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒕𝒐…

☑️As for connections to Placebo songs, Madame seems to be scared of the children, the clones, the same way as one can be scared of huge 𝒔𝒑𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒔. In 𝐖𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐌𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠, multiple fears and insecurities are described as spiders crashing from the sky.

The title, Never Let Me Go, shows Kathy’s 𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒖𝒈𝒈𝒍𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒕𝒘𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒔𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒉𝒐𝒍𝒅 𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒐 𝒊𝒏 𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒔𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒍𝒆𝒕 𝒈𝒐 𝒐𝒇. In the end, Kathy “never let go” of her memories.
☑️“Memories, even your most precious ones, fade surprisingly quickly. But I don’t go along with that. The memories I value most, I don’t ever see them fading.”

To me, the book is a harsh, ruthlessly honest reflection on a moment which is given to us as our lifetime… The only difference is that in clones’ case, this period is ‘compressed’ to the extreme measure.
☑️“What I'm not sure about, is if our lives have been so different from the lives of the people we save. 𝑾𝒆 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒑𝒍𝒆𝒕𝒆. 𝑴𝒂𝒚𝒃𝒆 𝒏𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒖𝒔 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒘𝒆'𝒗𝒆 𝒍𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉, 𝒐𝒓 𝒇𝒆𝒆𝒍 𝒘𝒆'𝒗𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒅 𝒆𝒏𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆.”

Post by Olga