Tuesday, September 13, 2022

๐ŸŸ ANNIVERSARY: ๐‹๐Ž๐”๐ƒ ๐‹๐ˆ๐Š๐„ ๐‹๐Ž๐•๐„ ๐ŸŸ 

โญ๏ธโ€œ๐‘พ๐’† ๐’“๐’†๐’‚๐’๐’๐’š ๐’๐’†๐’• ๐’•๐’‰๐’† ๐’๐’Š๐’”๐’•๐’†๐’๐’†๐’“ ๐’Š๐’๐’•๐’ ๐’˜๐’‰๐’ ๐’˜๐’† ๐’‚๐’“๐’†, ๐’˜๐’‰๐’‚๐’• ๐’๐’–๐’“ ๐’”๐’๐’–๐’ ๐’๐’๐’๐’Œ๐’” ๐’๐’Š๐’Œ๐’†, ๐’•๐’‰๐’“๐’๐’–๐’ˆ๐’‰ ๐’•๐’‰๐’†๐’”๐’† ๐’”๐’๐’๐’ˆ๐’”. ๐‘พ๐’†โ€™๐’“๐’† ๐’๐’๐’• ๐’‰๐’Š๐’…๐’Š๐’๐’ˆ ๐’ƒ๐’†๐’‰๐’Š๐’๐’… ๐’‚๐’๐’š๐’•๐’‰๐’Š๐’๐’ˆ ๐’‚๐’๐’š๐’Ž๐’๐’“๐’†.โ€ โ€“ Brian Molkoโญ๏ธ

๐ŸŸ ๐ŸŽŠPlacebo's seventh studio album ๐‹๐Ž๐”๐ƒ ๐‹๐ˆ๐Š๐„ ๐‹๐Ž๐•๐„ was released nine years ago today, on September 13th, 2013๐ŸŽŠ๐ŸŸ 
What this album is? A collection of ten songs, started with a super powerful and hopeful love anthem in ๐‹๐จ๐ฎ๐ ๐‹๐ข๐ค๐ž ๐‹๐จ๐ฏ๐ž and closed with the deepest of heartbreak and regret in ๐๐จ๐ฌ๐œ๐จ, with a full spectrum of emotions which can accompany a relationship, in between.
๐Ÿ“ข๐๐ซ๐ข๐š๐ง: โ€œItโ€™s ten songs long, about 46 minutes and itโ€™s very much sequenced like an old vinyl record โ€“ it definitely has a side A and side B. I guess itโ€™s Placeboโ€™s very personal take and exploration on the most written about subject in the history of popular song. For me, I kind of see it as a collection of ten short stories with a unifying theme that approaches the subject from ten different angles. It explores how love can be violent, brutal, and disorientating, and how the absence of it can lead people to behave in quite extreme ways. It also deals with jealousy, obsession, heartbreak and how addiction can tear relationships apart. So, itโ€™s an album about people and the way that they interact with each other โ€“ or fail to.โ€
(๐ป๐‘ข๐‘›๐‘”๐‘’๐‘Ÿ, ๐ด๐‘ข๐‘”'13)

Photo credit: Joseph Llanes, album and singles covers / edit by Olga

๐ŸŸ ๐‹๐Ž๐”๐ƒ ๐‹๐ˆ๐Š๐„ ๐‹๐Ž๐•๐„ was recorded at RAK Studios in London and produced by Adam Noble. It reached no. 13 in the UK Albums Chart.
Three singles were released from the album: ๐“๐จ๐จ ๐Œ๐š๐ง๐ฒ ๐…๐ซ๐ข๐ž๐ง๐๐ฌ, ๐‹๐จ๐ฎ๐ ๐‹๐ข๐ค๐ž ๐‹๐จ๐ฏ๐ž, and ๐€ ๐Œ๐ข๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐‹๐ข๐ญ๐ญ๐ฅ๐ž ๐๐ข๐ž๐œ๐ž๐ฌ.

๐ŸŸ The whole concept of the ๐‘จ๐‘น๐‘ป๐‘พ๐‘ถ๐‘น๐‘ฒ, including the cover, was created by ๐‘ฑ๐’–๐’๐’Š๐’‚๐’ ๐‘ฏ๐’๐’–๐’”๐’† of ๐‘ฐ๐‘ต๐‘ป๐‘น๐‘ถ ๐‘ซ๐’†๐’”๐’Š๐’ˆ๐’ ๐‘บ๐’•๐’–๐’…๐’Š๐’ while ๐‘ฑ๐’๐’”๐’†๐’‘๐’‰ ๐‘ณ๐’๐’‚๐’๐’†๐’” worked on photography for the promotional campaign.
๐Ÿ“ข๐๐ซ๐ข๐š๐ง: โ€œI think we felt that there was a certain amount of rebirth going on within the band itself, and that that should be reflected in the artwork."
(๐‘ƒ๐‘ข๐‘Ÿ๐‘’ ๐‘‰๐‘œ๐‘™๐‘ข๐‘š๐‘’, 2013)

๐ŸŸ A while ago, I have already told you about ๐‘ฑ๐’๐’”๐’†๐’‘๐’‰ ๐‘ณ๐’๐’‚๐’๐’†๐’”โ€™ ๐’‘๐’‰๐’๐’•๐’๐’”๐’‰๐’๐’๐’• with Placebo at the breathtaking location of ๐•๐š๐ฌ๐ช๐ฎ๐ž๐ณ ๐‘๐จ๐œ๐ค๐ฌ, California:
โžก๏ธ https://bit.ly/3JVvxPc

๐ŸŸ The album was available in different formats: ๐‚๐ƒ, ๐๐ž๐ฅ๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ž ๐‚๐ƒ ๐๐ข๐ ๐ข๐ฉ๐š๐œ๐ค ๐ฐ๐ข๐ญ๐ก ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ƒ๐•๐ƒ ๐‹๐ข๐ฏ๐ž ๐š๐ญ ๐‘๐€๐Š ๐’๐ญ๐ฎ๐๐ข๐จ๐ฌ, ๐›๐จ๐ฑ ๐ฌ๐ž๐ญ, and ๐Ÿ๐Ÿ" ๐ฏ๐ข๐ง๐ฒ๐ฅ, which was released three days later, on September 16th.
The Chinese version of the album contains โ€“ instead of ๐‘๐จ๐› ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐๐š๐ง๐ค โ€“ the song ๐๐ข๐ญ๐ฒ ๐๐š๐ซ๐ญ๐ฒ (๐จ๐Ÿ ๐Ž๐ง๐ž) that is also included in the box set as a bonus track.

๐ŸŸ To celebrate Loud Like Love's release, Placeboโ€™s crew came up with the idea of online TV show. On September 16th, 2013, the day when LLL was fully released worldwide in all its formats, 90-minute live show titled ๐‹๐Ž๐”๐ƒ ๐‹๐ˆ๐Š๐„ ๐‹๐Ž๐•๐„ ๐“๐• was streamed live globally from three YouTube Studios, in ๐‹๐จ๐ง๐๐จ๐ง, ๐“๐จ๐ค๐ฒ๐จ, and ๐‹๐€. It was the first YouTube live stream of its kind.
The show featured, among other unique moments, Placebo performing songs from the album and some older songs (partly chosen by the audience through online poll), band interviews and guest appearances by people who collaborated with Placebo on the making of the album.

Photo credit: Alex Weston

๐๐ฅ๐š๐œ๐ž๐›๐จ: ๐‹๐จ๐ฎ๐ ๐‹๐ข๐ค๐ž ๐‹๐จ๐ฏ๐ž ๐“๐• - ๐Ÿ๐Ÿ”.๐ŸŽ๐Ÿ—.๐Ÿ๐Ÿ‘ ๐…๐ฎ๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐’๐ก๐จ๐ฐ
โžก https://bit.ly/3QuunfZ


๐Ÿ“ข๐๐ซ๐ข๐š๐ง: โ€œIt is love, but this being Placebo World, itโ€™s not gonna be a collection of love songs in Michael Bublรฉ style. My experience with love, over the past 20 years, is what Iโ€™ve pulled on to write these novellas or small fictions. It hasnโ€™t always been about the initial rush of infatuation and that feeling of elation and euphoria that comes with falling in love. Of course, Iโ€™ve experienced that, and itโ€™s been quite mind-blowing, but sometimes you could fall in love with somebody who doesnโ€™t know you exist or doesnโ€™t see you that way, or doesnโ€™t even find you attractive, and that can be quite heartbreaking. You can force somebody to leaveโ€”inadvertentlyโ€”out of selfishness or behavior. Often, the absence of love is quite loud... as in the echo or the reverb of an empty cave, the sound of silence, or the sound of your own breathing.
(๐‘ƒ๐‘ข๐‘Ÿ๐‘’ ๐‘‰๐‘œ๐‘™๐‘ข๐‘š๐‘’, ๐‘†๐‘’๐‘'13)

๐Ÿ“ข๐๐ซ๐ข๐š๐ง: We wrote the first track on the album, "Loud Like Love," and the last one, "Bosco," at exactly the same time. They couldn't sound more different. They're basically polar opposites. "Loud Like Love" in its recorded version is a very optimistic and upbeat, enthusiastic song about unity and togetherness. "Bosco" is quite a sad story about a relationship that's been torn apart by addiction.
(๐ธ๐‘ ๐‘ž๐‘ข๐‘–๐‘Ÿ๐‘’ ๐‘‚๐‘๐‘กโ€™13)

As ๐’๐ญ๐ž๐Ÿ๐š๐ง said in an interview with Hunger in September 2013, these two songs โ€œ๐’ƒ๐’†๐’„๐’‚๐’Ž๐’† ๐’”๐’๐’“๐’• ๐’๐’‡ ๐’•๐’‰๐’† ๐’ƒ๐’๐’๐’Œ๐’†๐’๐’…๐’” ๐’‡๐’๐’“ ๐’•๐’‰๐’† ๐’‚๐’๐’ƒ๐’–๐’Ž ๐’‚๐’๐’… ๐’•๐’‰๐’† ๐’”๐’•๐’๐’“๐’š.โ€
๐๐ฅ๐š๐œ๐ž๐›๐จ - ๐‹๐จ๐ฎ๐ ๐‹๐ข๐ค๐ž ๐‹๐จ๐ฏ๐ž, ๐‘๐€๐Š ๐’๐ญ๐ฎ๐๐ข๐จ๐ฌ, ๐Ÿ๐ŸŽ๐Ÿ๐Ÿ‘
โžก https://bit.ly/3AnK6rx

๐๐ฅ๐š๐œ๐ž๐›๐จ - ๐๐จ๐ฌ๐œ๐จ (๐€๐ฅ๐ญ๐ž๐ซ๐ง๐š๐ญ๐ž ๐ƒ๐ข๐ซ๐ž๐œ๐ญ๐จ๐ซ ๐•๐ž๐ซ๐ฌ๐ข๐จ๐ง)
โžก https://bit.ly/3pmdRml

Photo credit: Getty Images

๐ŸŸ Itโ€™s interesting that some of the songs were originally written by Brian for his ๐’‘๐’๐’”๐’”๐’Š๐’ƒ๐’๐’† ๐’”๐’๐’๐’ ๐’‘๐’“๐’๐’‹๐’†๐’„๐’• which he was thinking about back at the time.

๐Ÿ“ข๐๐ซ๐ข๐š๐ง: I was working on some songs in my home studio or โ€œgarden shedโ€- every man needs a garden shed โ€“ and I was trying to write songs for me, without worrying about it having to be at a certain standard for the band. So I was playing acoustic guitars and piano and the only rule I had was that I could use regular guitars but I couldnโ€™t use any distortion. It helped me write in a different way. For example, [new song] โ€˜Scene Of The Crimeโ€™ started with an oboe sample I found on the Internet โ€“ I just found it completely wild and started writing the song around it.
(๐‘‡โ„Ž๐‘’ ๐น๐‘™๐‘ฆ, ๐ฝ๐‘ข๐‘™'13)

Then, the band went to the studio to record some singles, but they got so much inspired that - a bit unexpectedly for themselves - started working on a full record.

๐Ÿ“ข๐’๐ญ๐ž๐Ÿ๐š๐ง: For this record the hook that got me back in was when we all got together and wrote the title track [Loud Like Love]. It's the track that got us all excited.
(๐‘€๐‘ข๐‘ ๐‘–๐‘๐‘Ÿ๐‘Ž๐‘‘๐‘Ž๐‘Ÿ, ๐ด๐‘ข๐‘”'13)

๐Ÿ“ข๐’๐ญ๐ž๐Ÿ๐š๐ง: โ€œI think itโ€™s a combination of styles and leanings. [โ€ฆ] We were finally ready to explore all these emotions and soundscapes and we felt we could do them with confidence and ease, something we couldnโ€™t necessarily do in the past. I think everything weโ€™ve been through has made us stronger, you know, ๐’Ž๐’† ๐’‚๐’๐’… ๐‘ฉ๐’“๐’Š๐’‚๐’ ๐’‰๐’‚๐’—๐’† ๐’ƒ๐’†๐’†๐’ ๐’•๐’๐’ˆ๐’†๐’•๐’‰๐’†๐’“ ๐’‡๐’๐’“ ๐’•๐’˜๐’†๐’๐’•๐’š ๐’š๐’†๐’‚๐’“๐’” ๐’๐’๐’˜.โ€
(๐‘ƒ๐‘œ๐‘๐‘€๐‘Ž๐‘ก๐‘ก๐‘’๐‘Ÿ๐‘ , ๐‘๐‘œ๐‘ฃ'13)

โœจTime flies, and soon, Brian and Stefan can talk of ๐’ƒ๐’†๐’Š๐’๐’ˆ ๐’•๐’๐’ˆ๐’†๐’•๐’‰๐’†๐’“ ๐’‡๐’๐’“ ๐’•๐’‰๐’Š๐’“๐’•๐’š ๐’š๐’†๐’‚๐’“๐’”โ€ฆ And ๐๐ž๐ฏ๐ž๐ซ ๐‹๐ž๐ญ ๐Œ๐ž ๐†๐จ has been born of their life experiences from the latest decadeโ€ฆ But all the strongest emotions represented in ๐‹๐Ž๐”๐ƒ ๐‹๐ˆ๐Š๐„ ๐‹๐Ž๐•๐„ are timeless so they will stay relevant and touch peopleโ€™s souls for decades to come.

Post by Olga