🌛◾ℙ𝕃𝔸ℂ𝔼𝔹𝕆 𝕃𝕌𝕃𝕃𝔸𝔹𝕀𝔼𝕊 - 𝕡𝕒𝕣𝕥 𝕏𝕍𝕀𝕀.◾🌜

🌹𝐃𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐬,🌹
tonight we're going to enjoy another evening with Placebo lullabies.

I have prepared for you 𝒕𝒘𝒐 𝒂𝒃𝒔𝒐𝒍𝒖𝒕𝒆𝒍𝒚 𝒈𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕 𝒔𝒐𝒏𝒈𝒔 that were originally recorded in a fast version and then slowed down after a few years for the 2010 album ⭐"𝐁𝐀𝐓𝐓𝐋𝐄 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐔𝐍 𝐑𝐄𝐃𝐔𝐗 𝐄𝐃𝐈𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝐁𝐨𝐧𝐮𝐬 𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐜"⭐.
The release of this special edition was proudly announced by the band:
🔹💬“𝑊ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝑎𝑛 𝑢𝑛𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑒𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑎 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑐𝑒𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑑 𝑏𝑦 𝑃𝐿𝐴𝐶𝐸𝐵𝑂, 𝑖𝑡 𝑠𝑒𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑑 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑓𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑙𝑦 𝑛𝑎𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑎𝑙 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑤𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑏𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑖𝑟𝑠𝑡 𝑏𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑙𝑜𝑣𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑙𝑦 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑒 𝑎𝑛 𝑎𝑙𝑏𝑢𝑚 𝑤ℎ𝑖𝑐ℎ 𝑔𝑜𝑒𝑠 𝑤𝑎𝑦 𝑏𝑒𝑦𝑜𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑛𝑜𝑟𝑚𝑎𝑙 𝑖𝑚𝑎𝑔𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑐𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠, 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑏𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑣𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑜𝑢𝑠 𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑚𝑎𝑘𝑒 𝑎 𝑛𝑒𝑤 𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑖𝑠 𝑑𝑒𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑒𝑙𝑦 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑒𝑥𝑡𝑟𝑎 𝑏𝑖𝑡 𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑖𝑎𝑙.
𝑇ℎ𝑜𝑠𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑤ℎ𝑜 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑒 𝑎𝑡 ℎ𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑚𝑎𝑦 𝑎𝑙𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑦 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑎𝑛 𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑎 𝑤ℎ𝑖𝑐ℎ 𝑡𝑤𝑜 𝑎𝑚𝑎𝑧𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑘𝑠 𝑤𝑒 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑏𝑒 𝑡𝑎𝑙𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑡𝑜𝑑𝑎𝑦."

Photo credit:  Benni Valsson

𝐈. ⭐𝐒𝐎𝐔𝐋𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐒⭐
To avoid confusion, I should put everything about this song in perspective:
𝐒𝐎𝐔𝐋𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐒 is a rockier, more guitar driven version of the studio song 𝐒𝐥𝐞𝐞𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐆𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐬 from the 2003 same-titled album.
This heavier version was released first as the 𝐛-𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐞 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐏𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 in 2003, and then also on the album 𝐒𝐥𝐞𝐞𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐆𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐬 𝐁-𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐢𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐥𝐛𝐮𝐦 𝐀 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐅𝐨𝐫 𝐔𝐬 𝐓𝐨 𝐃𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦, 𝐛𝐨𝐭𝐡 𝐢𝐧 𝟐𝟎𝟏𝟔.
However, we all know this version from concerts, because Placebo included it in the setlist instead of the original Sleeping With Ghosts.

Another difference is that “Soulmates” was recorded at Livingstone Studios in London and produced by Dimitri Tikovoi while “Sleeping with ghosts” was recorded at The Townhouse Studios (also located in London) and produced by Jim Abbiss.

🔹🎶𝐒𝐎𝐔𝐋𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐒 - 𝐎𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐀𝐮𝐝𝐢𝐨
https://bit.ly/3Eaw1iH


🔹💬𝗕𝗥𝗜𝗔𝗡 𝗢𝗡 “𝗦𝗢𝗨𝗟𝗠𝗔𝗧𝗘𝗦“ 
"𝘐 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘱 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘺. 𝘈𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘶𝘴 𝘴𝘭𝘦𝘦𝘱 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘨𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘵𝘴 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘢𝘴𝘵, 𝘸𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘶𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘢 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘦𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘤𝘵 𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘥𝘢𝘪𝘭𝘺 𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘴. 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘦 𝘨𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘵𝘴 𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘰𝘥𝘺 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘸𝘦 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘥, 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘴, 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘥 𝘶𝘴. 𝘞𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘦 𝘢 𝘭𝘰𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘱𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮, 𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘤."
(𝙻𝚎𝚜 𝙸𝚗𝚛𝚘𝚌𝚔𝚞𝚙𝚝𝚒𝚋𝚕𝚎𝚜 𝙽°𝟹𝟾𝟸, 𝙼𝚊𝚌𝚑-𝙰𝚙𝚛𝚒𝚕 𝟸00𝟹)

Photo credit: Thomas Rabsch

Okay, but we're here today for the 🌛𝐒𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐥𝐮𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐛𝐲🌜 that the guys created for the "𝐁𝐀𝐓𝐓𝐋𝐄 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐔𝐍 𝐑𝐄𝐃𝐔𝐗 𝐄𝐃𝐈𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍" and I'm very grateful for that.
Brian changed the order of the verses in the chorus a little bit to make this lullaby absolutely perfect.

At the beginning there are only simple piano notes... After a while, Brian's voice joins in, full of tenderness and so vulnerable...
🔹"𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘢'𝘴 𝘦𝘷𝘢𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 ...𝘛𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘪𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘴 𝘯𝘰 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘦...
𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘦 𝘤𝘭𝘰𝘶𝘥𝘴 𝘸𝘦'𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨... 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘺'𝘳𝘦 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘬𝘺...
𝘐𝘵 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘮𝘴 𝘪𝘵'𝘴 𝘸𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘯... 𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘸𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘯'𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦...
𝘏𝘶𝘴𝘩... 𝘐𝘵'𝘴 𝘰𝘬𝘢𝘺...
...𝘋𝘳𝘺 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘦𝘺𝘦
...𝘋𝘳𝘺 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘦𝘺𝘦"🔹

In the second verse, Brian's voice is joined by the sound of bells and violin, which is soft at first and gradually becomes more and more insistent...

🔹"𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥 𝘷𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯... 𝘛𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘴 𝘶𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘦...
𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥'𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘪𝘰𝘯... 𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘪𝘵'𝘴 𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘱𝘪𝘴𝘦...
𝘋𝘢𝘮𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵... 𝘋𝘢𝘮𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘬𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨... 𝘋𝘢𝘮𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘴...
𝘏𝘶𝘴𝘩... 𝘐𝘵'𝘴 𝘰𝘬𝘢𝘺...
...𝘋𝘳𝘺 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘦𝘺𝘦
...𝘋𝘳𝘺 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘦𝘺𝘦"🔹

Brian repeats these lines very gently a few times before he concludes

🔹"'𝘊𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘴 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘥𝘪𝘦...
...𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘥𝘪𝘦...
...𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘴 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘥𝘪𝘦... ...𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘥𝘪𝘦..."🔹

Listening to this version, you will simply melt away, overwhelmed by your love of Placebo's music. Plus, the lyrics remind me that now more than ever, this song sadly fits the events of this time... when none of us know what tomorrow will bring, as the powers of this world play dice with our lives...
𝐋𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐲 𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐧𝐨𝐰:

🔹🎶𝐒𝐎𝐔𝐋𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐒 - 𝐑𝐄𝐃𝐔𝐗 𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧
https://bit.ly/40ScRbn

Today's second lullaby is just as beautiful as the first.
It comes from a song that in its fast, I would say almost rock punk form, reminds me of Placebo from the first album...

Photo credit:  Joseph Llanes

𝐈𝐈. 🌛𝐁𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐔𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐑𝐖𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐑🌜
- 11. track from the album Battle For The Sun form 2009.

🔹🎶𝐎𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐀𝐮𝐝𝐢𝐨
https://bit.ly/3lHelFi

As I wrote above - this song was also reworked into a slower version for the "𝐁𝐀𝐓𝐓𝐋𝐄 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐔𝐍 𝐑𝐄𝐃𝐔𝐗 𝐄𝐃𝐈𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍" in 2010:

🔹💬" 𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒’𝑠 𝑎 𝑠𝑜𝑛𝑔 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑙𝑎𝑠𝑡 𝑎𝑙𝑏𝑢𝑚, 𝑐𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑑 𝐵𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑈𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑤𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟, 𝑤ℎ𝑖𝑐ℎ 𝑤𝑒’𝑟𝑒 𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑦𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑎𝑠 𝑤𝑒𝑙𝑙, 𝑤ℎ𝑖𝑐ℎ ℎ𝑎𝑠 𝑔𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑏𝑒𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎 𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑓𝑎𝑠𝑡, 𝑒𝑥𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑙𝑦 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑡𝑖𝑐 𝑝𝑢𝑛𝑘𝑦 𝑠𝑜𝑛𝑔, 𝑡𝑜 𝑎 𝑝𝑖𝑎𝑛𝑜-𝑑𝑟𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑛 𝑏𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑎𝑑 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑡𝑜𝑜 𝑑𝑖𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑖𝑛 𝑚𝑜𝑜𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝐵𝑜𝑠𝑐𝑜. ”
(𝙱𝚛𝚒𝚊𝚗 𝙼𝚘𝚕𝚔𝚘 - 𝚅𝚊𝚗𝚢𝚊𝚕𝚊𝚗𝚍, 𝟸0𝟷𝟹)


The prominent noisy guitars were swapped for piano and this again made space for Brian's even more challenging voice, turning the starkly punk version into a breathtaking confession of his desire for life change.

There is so much truth in those verses that touches me personally so I always feel very moved when I listen to this song.
You can read the lyrics to the song here:

🔹𝐁𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐔𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐑𝐖𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐑 - 𝐋𝐘𝐑𝐈𝐂𝐒🔹
https://bit.ly/3YJeuGm

𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐠𝐞𝐦 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐞𝐝 𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐚 𝐬𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐰𝐨 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐘𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐂𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐋𝐨𝐬 𝐀𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐬, 𝐔𝐒𝐀 𝐢𝐧 𝐎𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝟐𝟎𝟏𝟑.
Lucky those who were there...
Here's a mention of this song from a review of a concert at Terminal 5, New York City:

🔹💬"𝘈𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘩𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘢𝘯𝘥’𝘴 𝘴𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘥-𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘧 “𝘉𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘜𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘸𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳” 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘬𝘴 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘦. 𝘐 𝘧𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘵 𝘢𝘣𝘴𝘰𝘭𝘶𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘧𝘭𝘢𝘸𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴, 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘦 𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘤𝘬𝘦𝘥."
(𝑀𝑐𝑃ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑜𝑛 𝑆𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑙, 𝑂𝑐𝑡 17, 2013, 𝑟𝑒𝑣𝑖𝑒𝑤 𝑏𝑦 𝐾𝑦𝑙𝑒 𝐷𝑜𝑤𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔)

That evening, it was introduced by 𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧 saying "𝑾𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝑰 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒌 𝒐𝒇 𝒂 𝒔𝒐𝒏𝒈 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒕𝒉𝒆 80'𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒘𝒆 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒄𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓, 𝒘𝒆 𝒐𝒇𝒕𝒆𝒏 𝒅𝒐 𝒂 𝒄𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒐𝒇 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒐𝒘𝒏 𝒔𝒐𝒏𝒈𝒔."

And today you can watch this breathtaking version that I uploaded for you.
Take a moment for yourself and share your open hearts with me.💖

Post by Marti

🌛◾ℙ𝕃𝔸ℂ𝔼𝔹𝕆 𝕃𝕌𝕃𝕃𝔸𝔹𝕀𝔼𝕊 𝕡𝕒𝕣𝕥 𝕏.◾🌜

Hi friends,
today we are going back to lullabies.
Did you miss them? Are you looking forward to today's episode?
Let's do it, I believe you won't regret it.

Photo credit: Carole Epinette

𝘐 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘦𝘭𝘵 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘤𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘪𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘣𝘰𝘥𝘺 𝘵𝘰𝘥𝘢𝘺, 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘦𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘓𝘌𝘌𝘗𝘐𝘕𝘎 𝘞𝘐𝘛𝘏 𝘎𝘏𝘖𝘚𝘛𝘚 𝘢𝘭𝘣𝘶𝘮.

🔹𝐁𝐑𝐈𝐀𝐍 𝐎𝐍 „𝐒𝐋𝐄𝐄𝐏𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇 𝐆𝐇𝐎𝐒𝐓𝐒“𝐚𝐥𝐛𝐮𝐦:🔹
"Although we have kept our rage, it's a very sentimental and melancholic record. An analytical summary of emotions we have felt in the last three years.“
(𝙸𝚗𝚛𝚘𝚌𝚔𝚜 𝟸00𝟹)

These three gems I want to talk about are unique because of Brian's talent, where he uses his singing in just the right way to elevate each of these songs to the highest level. Plus, we have two songs that are recorded in two versions, which is just something that pleases my ears again.
𝐓𝐨𝐝𝐚𝐲'𝐬 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐥𝐮𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐛𝐲, 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐜𝐡 𝐈 𝐛𝐮𝐫𝐧 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐞 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞.


🎶🔹„ℙ𝕃𝔸𝕊𝕋𝕀ℂ𝕀ℕ𝔼“🔹🎶

🔹𝐁𝐑𝐈𝐀𝐍 𝐎𝐍 '𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐈𝐍𝐄':🔹
“The one song that doesn’t fit into the relationships theme. A classic Placebo song with a classic Placebo theme – individuality.“
(𝚁𝚘𝚌𝚔 𝚂𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚍, 𝙰𝚙𝚛𝚒𝚕 𝟸00𝟹)

📌𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐈𝐍𝐄 𝐚𝐥𝐛𝐮𝐦 𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘑𝘪𝘮 𝘈𝘣𝘣𝘪𝘴𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘴 7𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘰𝘯 𝘚𝘭𝘦𝘦𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘞𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘎𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘵𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘣𝘶𝘮.

https://tinyurl.com/y7bnuvrc

📌𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐈𝐍𝐄 -𝐋𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘯 𝘗𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦𝘣𝘰'𝘴 𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘭𝘦 “𝘚𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘴” 𝘩𝘢𝘭𝘧 𝘢 𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘢𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳 “𝘚𝘭𝘦𝘦𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘨𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘵𝘴” 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘱𝘶𝘵 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘪𝘹𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘋𝘪𝘮𝘪𝘵𝘳𝘪 𝘛𝘪𝘬𝘰𝘷𝘰𝘪 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘣𝘶𝘮 “𝘔𝘦𝘥𝘴” 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘢𝘯𝘥.

https://tinyurl.com/yhpk5b2y

Photo credit: Nigel Crane

🔹𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐈𝐍𝐅𝐎:🔹
In this song Brian references lyrics from Sonic Youth's album Sister on "Plasticine" ("𝐵𝑒𝑎𝑢𝑡𝑦 𝑙𝑖𝑒𝑠 𝑖𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑑𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑒𝑦𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑎𝑛𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑡ℎ𝑓𝑢𝑙 𝑑𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑚" 𝑑𝑖𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑙𝑦 𝑟𝑒𝑓𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒𝑠 "𝐵𝑒𝑎𝑢𝑡𝑦 𝑙𝑖𝑒𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑒𝑦𝑒𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑎𝑛𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟'𝑠 𝑑𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑚" 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑆𝑜𝑛𝑖𝑐 𝑌𝑜𝑢𝑡ℎ'𝑠 "𝐵𝑒𝑎𝑢𝑡𝑦 𝐿𝑖𝑒𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐸𝑦𝑒").

The very first song and such a gem.
I'm talking about the slow version, of course, even though the original fast rock version is just amazing.
𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐈𝐍𝐄 -𝐋𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧...
Unfortunately, this song was never performed live either.
When you hear the verse ⭐"...𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵'𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘦"⭐ for the first time, it's pure perfection put into a unique voice.

Brian's voice makes this song something absolutely tender, soft, something that wraps you in angelic wings and you wish it would never end.
At least that's how this song makes me feel.

The lyrics could support teenagers in their difficult time when they are trying to draw attention to their uniqueness.
It's a time when everyone feels the need to be more or less a rebel, to stand up for themselves.

But this song can also be understood from the other side - at the moment when a young person joins a group of other rebels and tries to impress others there, so as not to stand out from the crowd, then it is appropriate to use exactly that verse - ⭐"𝐃𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐲 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐫𝐞".⭐

But this song lovingly suggests to each of us to reflect on our lives.
To what extent am I being myself and to what extent am I trying to behave in a way that fulfills others' idea of me?
I leave that reflection to you.

I lived most of my life to please everyone around me...mother, husband, children, boss at work...
Until I got seriously ill and it made me realize where my uniqueness had been lost.

Rebel anarchist in my youth, but suddenly I didn't recognize myself...
Yeah, that was a tough test.

It was only then that the lyrics of this song took on the right meaning for me. I can honestly say for myself that Placebo really is therapy. Because such songs are meant to make you think.


⭐𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐞 𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐦𝐞:⭐
𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘰𝘯... 𝘐𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘢𝘯'𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘰𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨...
𝘋𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘨𝘰 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘭 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧-𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘦𝘮... 𝘋𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘣𝘦 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘦...“

Photo credit: Tracey Griffin

And now we have another song from the series of „acid lullabies“:

🎶🔹"𝕀'𝕃𝕃 𝔹𝔼 𝕐𝕆𝕌ℝ𝕊" 🔹🎶
📌"I think we've gone back to what we do best which is writing twisted love stories. They have a certain darkness to them, an acid lullaby, which is important otherwise they become insipid and disposable."
(𝙿𝚕𝚊𝚌𝚎𝚋𝚘, 𝙱𝙱𝙲 𝚁𝚊𝚍𝚒𝚘 𝟷, 𝟸00𝟹)

🔹𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐈𝐍𝐅𝐎:🔹

The song '𝐈'𝐥𝐥 𝐁𝐞 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬' was also released in two versions.
📌"𝘈𝘵 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘢 𝘸𝘢𝘭𝘵𝘻. 𝘖𝘯𝘦 𝘥𝘢𝘺 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘶𝘥𝘪𝘰, 𝘑𝘪𝘮 𝘈𝘣𝘣𝘪𝘴𝘴 𝘵𝘰𝘭𝘥 𝘶𝘴: "𝘞𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘰𝘯 '𝘐'𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴', 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘪𝘵'𝘴 𝘯𝘰 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘳 𝘢 𝘸𝘢𝘭𝘵𝘻. 𝘞𝘦 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘢 𝘧𝘰𝘶𝘳-𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘬𝘦. 𝘜𝘭𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘺, 𝘐 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦. 𝘐𝘯 𝘢𝘥𝘥𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘸𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘯 𝘢 𝘉-𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦!"
(𝙱𝚛𝚒𝚊𝚗 𝙼𝚘𝚕𝚔𝚘, 𝙻𝚎𝚜 𝙸𝚗𝚛𝚘𝚌𝚔𝚞𝚙𝚝𝚒𝚋𝚕𝚎𝚜 𝙽𝚘.𝟹𝟾𝟸, 𝙼𝚊𝚛𝚌𝚑-𝙰𝚙𝚛𝚒𝚕 𝟸00𝟹)

So to be clear, the version that is on the 𝐒𝐥𝐞𝐞𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐆𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐬 album is not the original version because Jim Abbiss needed to change the rhythm of the song from a waltz to a four beats. And thanks to this, we can now enjoy two lullabies instead of one!

Take a listen to the version '𝐈'𝐥𝐥 𝐁𝐞 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬' that was eventually released as the ninth song of the 𝐒𝐥𝐞𝐞𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐆𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐬 album. You'll hear the onset of Steve's drums first, joined by the dark sound of Stefan's guitar.
Even this beginning is a foreshadowing that this is no romantic sweet lovesong.


'𝐈'𝐥𝐥 𝐁𝐞 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬' 𝐎𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐀𝐮𝐝𝐢𝐨
https://tinyurl.com/4kj3t5kb

While the second version with piano may confuse us because it sounds more tender, the lyrics belie that impression.

'𝐈'𝐥𝐥 𝐁𝐞 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬' (𝐕𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝟒 𝐀.𝐌.)
https://tinyurl.com/ac3dzv67


This original version called - 🔹"𝐈'𝐋𝐋 𝐁𝐄 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐒 𝐕𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝟒 𝐀.𝐌."🔹 was released as the B-side of the 𝐄𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡 𝐒𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐑𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝟐𝟎𝟎𝟒 and was re-released in 2016 on the compilation "𝐒𝐥𝐞𝐞𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐆𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐬 𝐁-𝐒𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐬" available only on digital platforms.

As far as I know, Placebo played live "𝐈'𝐋𝐋 𝐁𝐄 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐒 𝐕𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝟒 𝐀.𝐌." only at the private concert at 𝐋'𝐎𝐥𝐲𝐦𝐩𝐢𝐚 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐬, 𝐅𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞, 𝐨𝐧 𝐉𝐮𝐧𝐞 𝟑𝟎, 𝟐𝟎𝟎𝟒, 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐜𝐡 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐛𝐫𝐨𝐚𝐝𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐧 𝐑𝐓𝐋𝟐.

Photo credit: Nigel Crane

🔹𝐁𝐑𝐈𝐀𝐍 𝐎𝐍 "𝐈'𝐋𝐋 𝐁𝐄 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐒":🔹
„I composed Protect Me From What I Want during Black Market Music at the same time as I'll Be Yours. This is two songs you vomit, which came out of me without my being aware of it. At the time I was weak. I was caught in a painful divorce and I needed to express it."
(𝙱𝚛𝚒𝚊𝚗 𝙼𝚘𝚕𝚔𝚘, 𝙻𝚎𝚜 𝙸𝚗𝚛𝚘𝚌𝚔𝚞𝚙𝚝𝚒𝚋𝚕𝚎𝚜 𝙽𝚘.𝟹𝟾𝟸, 𝙼𝚊𝚛𝚌𝚑-𝙰𝚙𝚛𝚒𝚕 𝟸00𝟹)

”A disturbing track. Someone who wants to engulf another person completely in the name of love. Something I’ve been on the receiving end of and it’s scary.”
(𝙱𝚛𝚒𝚊𝚗 𝙼𝚘𝚕𝚔𝚘, 𝚁𝚘𝚌𝚔 𝚂𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚍, 𝙰𝚙𝚛𝚒𝚕 𝟸00𝟹)


„𝘐'𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘸𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳... 𝘉𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘯...𝘞𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘭𝘪𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘥 𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘦...
𝘐'𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘧𝘦𝘳... 𝘠𝘰𝘶'𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘦 𝘪𝘯...𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦...

𝘐'𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘧𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳...𝘐'𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘮𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳..
𝘐'𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳... 𝘐'𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴... 𝘠𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴...

𝘐'𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘳... 𝘠𝘰𝘶'𝘭𝘭 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘦 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘳𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘦...
𝘚𝘰 𝘐'𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘭𝘪𝘲𝘶𝘰𝘳... 𝘋𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘥𝘳𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘧𝘭𝘰𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘸𝘢𝘺...“


To me, this song is an expression of the cruel boundless dependence of one person on another.
But be warned - it's not the tormented tone of Without You I'm Nothing song, it's not the dog's eyes full of desire to be noticed by the other person.
These are dark threats, just whatever you do, I'll lovingly hold you in my arms so you can't breathe.

For me it's like -

I'll be your water, I'll clear your thoughts and I'll keep a good eye on you so you don't escape.
I'll be your anchor, I'll hold you so you never leave these shores.
I'll be your drug, the demons don't stand a chance because you have me.

I'll be your everything, but don't you dare look anywhere else. It's me, I'm all you need. Nobody else. And you have no choice but to believe it and surrender.

Photo credit: Helena Berg

The third treasure at the end.
If the previous lullaby has dragged you down into the dark waters of human addiction, rest assured that there is no escape during the next track.


🎶🔹"ℂ𝔼ℕ𝕋ℝ𝔼𝔽𝕆𝕃𝔻𝕊"🔹🎶

is the last song on the album “Sleeping with ghosts” and maybe it deals with something that is long past, but the author clings to it and cannot get over it.

I imagine it can extend to idolizing a famous celebrity... All he thinks about every day is that the object of his desire he worships can't be happy with anyone but him.

And in his malice, he wishes his adored nothing good... „𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘧𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘯, 𝘧𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘭 (𝘉𝘢𝘭𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘻𝘢𝘳) 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘐 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘺𝘰𝘶, 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵'𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘥𝘰 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘸𝘢𝘺.“

These verses ⭐"𝘈𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘭𝘥... 𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘢𝘯'𝘵 𝘢𝘧𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘥... 𝘠𝘰𝘶'𝘷𝘦 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘧𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘥 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘦𝘺𝘦𝘴 …"⭐ are full of poison.

For me it means „..𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘧𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘧𝘰𝘭𝘥𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘻𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦... 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘢𝘯'𝘵 𝘥𝘰 𝘪𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦... 𝘢𝘤𝘤𝘦𝘱𝘵 𝘮𝘦, 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘐'𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘨𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘴 𝘮𝘺𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧 𝘵𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘧𝘶𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘬𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘰𝘱𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘦𝘴...“

It's about self-degradation, total humiliation at any cost.

I have personally experienced several times a situation when I looked up in love to some important person from my surroundings, and in that moment, when your hormones are totally controlling you and every cell is screaming for his or her arms, it's pretty hard to handle the emotions.

It meant a lot of despair and crying nights for me...

Fate often tests us hard, how far we are willing to go, what humiliation we are able to achieve, just to be noticed by that person.

🔹𝐁𝐑𝐈𝐀𝐍 𝐎𝐍 𝐂𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐑𝐄𝐅𝐎𝐋𝐃𝐒:🔹
”Someone telling a washed-up celebrity 'I’m the best you can get now so you’d better be mine.' It’s about obsession, questions of status and self-degradation.”
(𝙱𝚛𝚒𝚊𝚗 𝙼𝚘𝚕𝚔𝚘, 𝚁𝚘𝚌𝚔 𝚂𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚍, 𝙰𝚙𝚛𝚒𝚕 𝟸00𝟹)

”This is a track written by Stefan six years ago at the piano. It's about the role reversal in relationships, the lost power, a very desperate form of love, very unclean, impossible.”
(𝙻𝚎𝚜 𝙸𝚗𝚛𝚘𝚌𝚔𝚞𝚙𝚝𝚒𝚋𝚕𝚎𝚜, 𝙼𝚊𝚛𝚌𝚑-𝙰𝚙𝚛𝚒𝚕 𝟸00𝟹)

“When you’re releasing your first couple of records you do think that you’re invincible. As a young artist there’s always this voice in the back of your head telling you you’re shit, that you’re not as good as the next guy. By the time you get to your fourth album that voice has changed. You know you can’t be shit because you’ve just sold X amount of records, but now it’s telling you you’re a has-been. As an artist that’s been on my mind and that’s why it’s crept into songs like ‘Centrefolds’ and ‘Special Needs’, this idea of washed-up celebrity.”
(𝙱𝚛𝚒𝚊𝚗 𝙼𝚘𝚕𝚔𝚘, 𝚁𝚘𝚌𝚔 𝚂𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚍, 𝙰𝚙𝚛𝚒𝚕 𝟸00𝟹)
~🔹~🔹~🔹~


Dear soulmates, - the song 'Centrefolds' was played live only 69 times in total in 2003-2004.

Enjoy today's last lullaby in a live performance shared from 𝐃𝐕𝐃 „𝐒𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐍𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐃𝐢𝐞“ 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐬 𝟐𝟎𝟎𝟑.

Post by Marti

𝐒𝐋𝐋𝐄𝐏𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇 𝐆𝐇𝐎𝐒𝐓𝐒 𝐂𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐑 𝐛𝐲 𝐉𝐄𝐀𝐍-𝐁𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐄 𝐌𝐎𝐍𝐃𝐈𝐍𝐎

𝑺𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆𝒔 𝑰 𝒘𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒅𝒊𝒔𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒆𝒂𝒓, 𝒕𝒐 𝒅𝒊𝒔𝒔𝒐𝒍𝒗𝒆. 𝑰 𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒈𝒂𝒏𝒕” - 𝐽𝑒𝑎𝑛-𝐵𝑎𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑒 𝑀𝑜𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑜

As I promised last week, we’re going to continue talking about a famous French photographer 𝑱𝒆𝒂𝒏-𝑩𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒆 𝑴𝒐𝒏𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒐 who created an incredible artwork for Placebo’s fourth studio album 𝑺𝒍𝒆𝒆𝒑𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑾𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝑮𝒉𝒐𝒔𝒕𝒔.
Pretty reclusive and camera shy person, Mondino never opened much to the press to let his art speak for him.

Photo credit: Sleeping With Ghosts cover; Jean-Baptiste Mondino - unknown; Placebo - Jean-Baptiste Mondino / edit by Olga

💢Recently, I found a great 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐕𝐈𝐄𝐖 with the artist. Although he unfortunately didn’t talk about Placebo or Brian but some other musicians, I’d like to share the article in full because it’s such a brilliant interview of great – yet VERY humble! – artist.

𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒃𝒐 and 𝑱𝒆𝒂𝒏-𝑩𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒆 𝑴𝒐𝒏𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒐 worked together in 2003. This interview is from 2018. However, I was amazed by some connections - in terms of attitude and mood and wisdom - between persons 𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒏 and 𝑱𝒆𝒂𝒏-𝑩𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒆 𝑴𝒐𝒏𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒐 became during the latest years (although, Mondino is more than 20 years older than Brian). How similar their opinion on certain things like social media or today’s constant rush, is… how much in common they have in their worldview and their values! Well, both talented, intelligent, profound souls…

💢Let’s just go back for a while and remember what Brian said about the cover by Mondino in 2003.

𝐇𝐞𝐢𝐝𝐢 𝐁𝐚𝐛𝐲: 𝑯𝒊 𝒈𝒖𝒚𝒔, 𝒘𝒉𝒚 𝒅𝒐𝒏'𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒆𝒂𝒓 𝒐𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝑪𝑫 𝒄𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒔?
📢𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧: It's just a bit too boy bandy. It's very old school, reeks of marketing. I think your album cover should represent something else as well as who you are as people. It's important to make your album cover a work of art, not just a masturbation shot. This time we worked with a huge and well-respected artist, Jean-Baptiste Mondino, who's done stuff for Prince and Bjork. He also did Madonna's Justify My Love video. So you want his interpretation of your album. You work quite closely but you want to set them free to do what they do best. And it's working out very well. There's only so far you can take that ghostlike motif which we're playing with at the moment. Eventually you have to subvert that a little bit. It's really lazy to just stick your face on the cover.
(𝐵𝐵𝐶 𝑅𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑜 1, 2003)

𝑾𝒉𝒐 𝒅𝒆𝒔𝒊𝒈𝒏𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒌 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝑺𝒍𝒆𝒆𝒑𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝑮𝒉𝒐𝒔𝒕𝒔? 𝑰𝒕'𝒔 𝒈𝒐𝒐𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒆𝒆 𝒂𝒏 𝒂𝒍𝒃𝒖𝒎 𝒄𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒔 𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒖𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕.
📢𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧: The great Jean-Baptiste Mondino is responsible for the artwork of SwG. He also did the cover of Bjork's Debut, Lovesexy by Prince and the video for Madonna's Justify my Love. Quite a pedigree if you ask me.
(𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑇𝑖𝑚𝑒𝑠, 𝐴𝑢𝑔'03)

Photo credit: Jean-Baptiste Mondino

"While the band reached the top of the charts with "Black market Music" and while the greatest fashion designers were struggling to dress Brian, it was out of question to release a cheap cover! Placebo used a renowed photographer and music video director (Jean-Baptiste Mondino has worked with Rita Mitsouko, Madonna, Bjork, Alain Bashung, Tricky) and treat themselves with a luxury cover.
📢"'Sleeping With Ghosts' is the only picture taken with the intention of being a cover, that was actually used as such. It is simply a double exposure. No tricks. It symbolizes the bond to the relationships' memory. But we had some problems with it in some countries. Too suggestive. In China it was more cultural, a ghostly appearance is synonymous with bad luck and that is unacceptable ... This is the kind of stuff with which one learns to be careful."
(𝑉𝑂𝑋𝑃𝑂𝑃, 𝐽𝑢𝑛-𝐽𝑢𝑙'09)

📢𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧: The cover artwork is born thinking about the ghosts of past relationships, which sometimes come back strongly to create space in the present, because of an odor, a color, a sentence.
(𝐿𝑖𝑏. 2003)

And finally, please enjoy the 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐕𝐈𝐄𝐖.
❤💫𝐉𝐄𝐀𝐍-𝐁𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐄 𝐌𝐎𝐍𝐃𝐈𝐍𝐎: "𝐑𝐄𝐂𝐎𝐑𝐃 𝐂𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐒 𝐖𝐄𝐑𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐈𝐍𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐌 𝐎𝐅 𝐌𝐘 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄"💫❤

𝑾𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒊𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒊𝒄 𝒊𝒎𝒂𝒈𝒆𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒗𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒐𝒔, 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒉𝒐𝒕𝒐𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒑𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒔𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒊𝒎𝒂𝒈𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒔 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝑷𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑴𝒂𝒅𝒐𝒏𝒏𝒂

Mondino, of Italian descent, grew up in Paris and became known for his iconic images of singers and actors in the mid-1980s. Like no one else, he knew the spirit of time, a mixture of image, graphics, advertising, music and fashion, from different cultures and subcultures of the last 30 years, from pornography and gay aesthetics in his pictures, commercials and music videos.

𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐀𝐑𝐃: 𝑾𝒉𝒊𝒄𝒉 𝒊𝒎𝒂𝒈𝒆𝒔 𝒊𝒏𝒇𝒍𝒖𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒐𝒔𝒕 𝒊𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒄𝒉𝒊𝒍𝒅𝒉𝒐𝒐𝒅?
📢𝐉𝐞𝐚𝐧-𝐁𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞 𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐨: I’m from a suburb of Paris. My world was that of music and record covers. Record covers were the Instagram of my time. I was interested in their design and they shaped my generation.

𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐀𝐑𝐃: 𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒂 𝒎𝒖𝒔𝒊𝒄𝒊𝒂𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒔𝒆𝒍𝒇, 𝒘𝒆 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒏 𝒘𝒂𝒕𝒄𝒉 𝒂 𝒎𝒖𝒔𝒊𝒄 𝒗𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒐 𝒐𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒔𝒐𝒏𝒈 "𝑳𝒂 𝑫𝒂𝒏𝒔𝒆 𝒅𝒆𝒔 𝑴𝒐𝒕𝒔" 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 1984 𝒐𝒏 𝒀𝒐𝒖𝑻𝒖𝒃𝒆. 𝑾𝒉𝒚 𝒅𝒊𝒅𝒏'𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒌 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒊𝒕?

𝐉𝐞𝐚𝐧 𝐁𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞 𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐨 - 𝐋𝐚 𝐃𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐬 𝐌𝐨𝐭𝐬
➡  https://bit.ly/3SjtLua

Photo credit: Jean-Baptiste Mondino

📢𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐨: I always wanted to be a musician. Thank goodness that didn't work out. I might be dead by now. As a young man, I hitchhiked to the Isle of Wight Music Festival in 1970 because of Jimi Hendrix. He was my big idol. When I saw him play, I thought to myself: I will never be able to play like this. Over time, I discarded the dream of a music career. If I had known the work of Man Ray, Richard Avedon or Erwin Blumenfeld, I probably would never have become a photographer.

𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐀𝐑𝐃: 𝑯𝒐𝒘 𝒅𝒊𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒈𝒆𝒕 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒐 𝒑𝒉𝒐𝒕𝒐𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒑𝒉𝒚?
📢𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐨: That happened by accident. I was good at drawing and worked in an advertising agency in the 1970s. Back then I was still part of the music scene. When a couple of my friends got a record deal, I said, "Let me do the cover." I came up with a concept, borrowed a camera and took pictures. Since I never wanted to be a photographer, I never had much respect for photography. The concept was always more important to me than the photography. For a long time, I thought my work wasn't good enough, so I never bought a camera. To this day I don't own any. In my work I captured the vision of the youth of my time in pictures: punks, girls with shaved heads - there was a new way of dressing, of behaving, new music, new graphics.

𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐀𝐑𝐃: 𝒀𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒑𝒊𝒄𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝑴𝒂𝒅𝒐𝒏𝒏𝒂 𝒐𝒓 𝑷𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒊𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒑𝒐𝒑 𝒄𝒖𝒍𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆. 𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒐𝒘𝒏 𝒔𝒕𝒚𝒍𝒆, 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒌 𝒊𝒔 𝒓𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒈𝒏𝒊𝒛𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆. 𝑯𝒐𝒘 𝒅𝒊𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒔𝒕𝒚𝒍𝒆 𝒅𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒍𝒐𝒑?
📢𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐨: I don't think I really have a style. I would rather say that my "limitedness" is responsible for my style. My talent lies in recognizing the personality of the people I work with. I learned in advertising how to perceive what someone or something represents: I'm a kind of medium. I'm just not artist enough to draw anyone into my vision. I always need a counterpart to create something.

𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐀𝐑𝐃: 𝑰𝒏 1987 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒑𝒉𝒐𝒕𝒐𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒑𝒉𝒆𝒅 𝑷𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒏𝒂𝒌𝒆𝒅 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒐𝒇 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒂𝒍𝒃𝒖𝒎 "𝑳𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒔𝒆𝒙𝒚". 𝑻𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝒂 𝒔𝒄𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒂𝒍. 𝑯𝒐𝒘 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒊𝒕 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝑷𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒆?
📢𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐨: I was a big fan of Prince and was over the moon when he commissioned me. I spent a week with him at his studio in Minneapolis while he was recording. He spoke little. He rather communicated by allowing me to be there. At one point he said, "Tomorrow we're flying to LA, where we'll shoot the cover. Let's discuss everything on the plane." We didn't discuss anything during the flight. When we arrived, he said, “Okay, we’re meeting tomorrow.” But after we were at a nightclub until two in the morning, it didn't happen again. The day after, at breakfast, we finally talked a little. At that time, Prince wanted to release his Black Album first, which he then withdrew for personal reasons. It suddenly crossed my mind that this man needs light, something like a rebirth. I drew my idea for him and he loved it.

𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐀𝐑𝐃: 𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒄𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒂 𝒑𝒐𝒑 𝒄𝒖𝒍𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝒊𝒄𝒐𝒏 𝒃𝒂𝒄𝒌 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒏. 𝑫𝒐𝒆𝒔 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒌 𝒕𝒐𝒅𝒂𝒚?
📢𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐨: Iconic images by Helmut Newton, Irving Penn and Richard Avedon have existed for a long time. I've created a few myself, and I've done my part in fueling the desire for iconic imagery—through TV, MTV, and magazines. Instagram has democratized celebrity. Anyone can sing today, make a film or have fans. Every single image melts away like a snowflake in the sun. Iconic images are no longer relevant. You can’t help it. The icons of tomorrow will come from science.

𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐀𝐑𝐃: 𝑫𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒂𝒏 𝑰𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒎 𝒂𝒄𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒔𝒆𝒍𝒇?
📢𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐨: No! (As proof, Mondino pulls a small Nokia phone out of his pocket.) I've been showing my pictures for 40 years. There are enough people who are interested in me. I want to be left alone. I would like to disappear.

𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐀𝐑𝐃: 𝑬𝒙𝒄𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒎𝒆?
📢𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐨: Sometimes I would like to disappear, to dissolve. I find that very elegant. You know, over the last few years, a lot of people that meant a lot to me and with whom I worked, have disappeared: Prince, Azzedine Alaïa, Glenn O'Brian. They were part of my world and suddenly they're gone. Life goes on, but it seems to me that people can no longer grieve and suffer because they don't have time. So if you're asking me about my iconic images... It's all bullshit! My work was only important when it was created. I'm not an artist.

𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐀𝐑𝐃: 𝑰𝒔𝒏'𝒕 𝒊𝒕 𝒊𝒎𝒑𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒈 𝒑𝒆𝒐𝒑𝒍𝒆 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒌?
📢𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐨: They don't need me. They have their own world. I also didn't try to copy Avedon or Newton. Maybe I'll stay relevant because of certain images like the Prince cover or Madonna in the Gaultier outfit. Maybe my work will be some kind of fertilizer for the next generation. That would make me happy.

Photo credit: Jean-Baptiste Mondino

𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐀𝐑𝐃: 𝑯𝒐𝒘 𝒅𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒇𝒆𝒆𝒍 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒍𝒐𝒐𝒌 𝒂𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒌?
📢𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐨: I like it. I know it’s good. But that is not important. I feel proud when I look at my children, my wife and our life together. I do this job to pay my bills and have my freedom. I’m a simple person.

𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐀𝐑𝐃: 𝑾𝒂𝒔 𝒊𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒖𝒔𝒊𝒄 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒊𝒏𝒇𝒍𝒖𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒌 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒐𝒔𝒕?
📢𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐨: Today I’m almost seventy years old. And I always thought my inspiration came mainly from music. In fact, it was the Church. The suburban life of my childhood and adolescence was brown and gray. I was fascinated by the church where I was a choirboy. It was like a Jeff Koons or Damien Hirst exhibition - the colors, the incense, the characters, the bodies, the bare skin, Christ on the cross, the angels, Mary. It was a mixture of sensuality, sexuality, emotion and transcendence. Later I found something similar in music and fashion.

𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐀𝐑𝐃: 𝑯𝒐𝒘 𝒎𝒖𝒄𝒉 𝒉𝒂𝒔 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒌 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒅 𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒚𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒔?
📢𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐨: In the past I would have said: That's not good enough for a picture. (Mondino points to tropical plants.) Today I can see so much more beauty in many things. My perspective has changed. Everything I used to flee from, I live today: slowness, silence, being alone. I enjoy contemplation. I no longer play with sexuality, I no longer have to provoke. Been there, done that. We won this battle. I don't like to repeat myself. Today there is more poetry and gentleness in my paintings.
(𝐷𝑒𝑟𝑆𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑎𝑟𝑑, 12𝑡ℎ 𝑁𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 2018)

“𝑺𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆𝒔, 𝑰 𝒘𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒅𝒊𝒔𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒆𝒂𝒓, 𝒕𝒐 𝒅𝒊𝒔𝒔𝒐𝒍𝒗𝒆…”

…like the ghost from Placebo’s captivating cover, like fading memories of love lost from Brian’s melancholic lyrics…

Post by Olga

💫💙⭐"𝐈'𝐕𝐄 𝐒𝐀𝐕𝐄𝐃 𝐀 𝐋𝐎𝐓 𝐎𝐅 𝐌𝐎𝐍𝐄𝐘 𝐎𝐍 𝐏𝐒𝐘𝐂𝐇𝐈𝐀𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐂 𝐓𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐓"⭐💙💫

📍𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒏 𝑴𝒐𝒍𝒌𝒐 has been up since 5am doing interview after interview after interview. He has appeared on the 𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒏𝒆𝒍 𝟒 breakfast programme, 𝑹𝑰:𝑺𝑬 and has had fifteen different journalists sit before him in a row, most likely repeating the same questions. In less than 24 hours he has two live performances; one on 𝑻𝒐𝒑 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑷𝒐𝒑𝒔 and the other on the 𝑱𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒏 𝑹𝒐𝒔𝒔 𝑺𝒉𝒐𝒘.

So, you can imagine my trepidation at being the last journo to interview 𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒏 after such a long and boring day. I presumed he would be cranky and disinterested in my questions, and with good reason. However, 𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒏 is disarmingly friendly and charming, chatting in an open and informal way to me. He always makes eye contact when talking and his grey/blue eyes are exceptionally captivating. The man looks unfairly good considering he has been up for a long time. So, what must it be like sitting through constant interviews and being expected to be pleasant all day?
🎤“𝑻𝒐𝒘𝒂𝒓𝒅𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒆𝒏𝒅 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒂𝒚 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒚 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆 𝒍𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝒑𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒕, 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆: '𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒐𝒏𝒆… 𝒂𝒈𝒂𝒊𝒏'. 𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒑𝒆𝒐𝒑𝒍𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆 𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒍 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝑰 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒓𝒆𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒅 𝒎𝒚𝒔𝒆𝒍𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒐𝒏 𝒉𝒂𝒔, 𝒉𝒐𝒑𝒆𝒇𝒖𝒍𝒍𝒚, 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒌𝒆𝒅 𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒅 𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒊𝒓 𝒒𝒖𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔. 𝑯𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓, 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆𝒔 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒇𝒆𝒆𝒍 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒏𝒔𝒖𝒍𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒊𝒏 𝒂𝒏 𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒘𝒂𝒚. 𝑰 𝒂𝒎 𝒈𝒖𝒊𝒍𝒕𝒚 𝒐𝒇 𝒑𝒖𝒕𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒉𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒅𝒐𝒘𝒏 𝒃𝒚 ‘𝒂𝒄𝒄𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒏𝒕’ 𝒐𝒄𝒄𝒂𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚.”

Photo credit: JB Mondino

𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒃𝒐 have bounced back into the limelight with their fourth album, ‘𝑺𝒍𝒆𝒆𝒑𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑾𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝑮𝒉𝒐𝒔𝒕𝒔’ which was produced by 𝑱𝒊𝒎 𝑨𝒃𝒃𝒊𝒔𝒔, who has worked with both 𝑫𝑱 𝑺𝒉𝒂𝒅𝒐𝒘 and 𝑼𝑵𝑲𝑳𝑬 respectively. With this in mind you can expect an album full of different flavours and experimentation, from the beautiful 𝑷𝒊𝒏𝒌 𝑭𝒍𝒐𝒚𝒅-𝒆𝒔𝒒𝒖𝒆 ballad, ‘𝑺𝒑𝒆𝒄𝒊𝒂𝒍 𝑵𝒆𝒆𝒅𝒔’ to electroclash inspired ‘𝑬𝒏𝒈𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒉 𝑺𝒖𝒎𝒎𝒆𝒓 𝑹𝒂𝒊𝒏’.
🎤“𝑾𝒐𝒓𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝑱𝒊𝒎 𝑨𝒃𝒃𝒊𝒔𝒔 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒈𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕 – 𝒉𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒂 𝒈𝒖𝒚 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒐𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒂𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒘𝒆 𝒂𝒔𝒌𝒆𝒅 𝒉𝒊𝒎 𝒕𝒐 𝒈𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒖𝒔 𝒂 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍 𝒌𝒊𝒄𝒌 𝒖𝒑 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒂𝒔𝒔. 𝑯𝒆 𝒎𝒂𝒅𝒆 𝒖𝒔 𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒏 𝒕𝒐 𝒎𝒖𝒔𝒊𝒄 𝒊𝒏 𝒂 𝒅𝒊𝒇𝒇𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒚 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒘𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒈𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒖𝒑 𝒂 𝒍𝒐𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒓𝒐𝒍. 𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒏𝒐 𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒎𝒖𝒍𝒂 𝒊𝒏 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒘𝒆 𝒅𝒐, 𝒘𝒆 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒇𝒆𝒆𝒍 𝒂𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒂𝒓𝒌 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒔𝒆𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒘𝒆 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆, 𝒍𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒐𝒏𝒈𝒔 𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎𝒔𝒆𝒍𝒗𝒆𝒔. 𝑰 𝒘𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒅𝒆𝒔𝒄𝒓𝒊𝒃𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒂𝒍𝒃𝒖𝒎 𝒂𝒔 𝒂𝒏 𝒆𝒎𝒐𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒍 𝒋𝒊𝒈𝒔𝒂𝒘 𝒑𝒖𝒛𝒛𝒍𝒆.”

Which is an excellent way to describe ‘𝑺𝒍𝒆𝒆𝒑𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑾𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝑮𝒉𝒐𝒔𝒕𝒔’ with its deep and personal lyrics. The title track includes the epitaph-like line “𝒔𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒎𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒔 𝒏𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒅𝒊𝒆”, which tells the story of true soulmates meeting in different lifetimes. ‘𝑺𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒅 𝑺𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕’ is on the other end of the emotional scale, portraying the morning after a one night stand when one person wants more: “𝒘𝒂𝒍𝒌 𝒂𝒘𝒂𝒚 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒇𝒂𝒄𝒆 / 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒏𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒂 𝒈𝒆𝒏𝒊𝒖𝒔”. One can only imagine that there must be a plus side to airing your dirty laundry in public.
🎤“𝑰’𝒗𝒆 𝒔𝒂𝒗𝒆𝒅 𝒂 𝒍𝒐𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒆𝒚 𝒐𝒏 𝒑𝒔𝒚𝒄𝒉𝒊𝒂𝒕𝒓𝒊𝒄 𝒕𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑰’𝒎 𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒌𝒇𝒖𝒍 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕,” laughs 𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒏. “𝑰 𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒔𝒐𝒏𝒈 𝒘𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒏 𝒂 𝒄𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒊𝒄 𝒘𝒂𝒚 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒎𝒂𝒚𝒃𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕’𝒔 𝒘𝒉𝒚 𝒑𝒆𝒐𝒑𝒍𝒆 𝒆𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒎𝒖𝒔𝒊𝒄, 𝒔𝒉𝒚 𝒂𝒘𝒂𝒚 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒊𝒕 𝒐𝒓 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒉𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒊𝒕. 𝑺𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒑𝒆𝒐𝒑𝒍𝒆 𝒅𝒐𝒏’𝒕 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒔𝒐𝒓𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒇𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒍 𝒒𝒖𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒚 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒇𝒆𝒓 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒆𝒖𝒑𝒉𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒄 𝒐𝒓 𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎𝒊𝒄. 𝑰 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒌 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒂𝒍𝒃𝒖𝒎 𝒊𝒔 𝒒𝒖𝒊𝒕𝒆 𝒖𝒏𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒂𝒍 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒊𝒕’𝒔 𝒔𝒐 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒍 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒊𝒕 𝒉𝒂𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆.”

Photo credit:  Jesus Aparicio

Surely it must be invasive having strangers (i.e. journalists) constantly grill you about your lyrics as a key to your personal life?
🎤“𝑰 𝒘𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒃𝒆 𝒍𝒚𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒇 𝑰 𝒔𝒂𝒊𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒊𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒔𝒏’𝒕 𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆𝒔, 𝒚𝒆𝒕 𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆 𝑰’𝒎 𝒑𝒓𝒂𝒈𝒎𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒄. 𝑰 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒛𝒆 𝒊𝒕’𝒔 𝒂 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒄𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒈𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉. 𝑯𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓, 𝒊𝒕 𝒊𝒔 𝒂𝒏 𝒂𝒎𝒂𝒛𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒍𝒖𝒙𝒖𝒓𝒚 𝒕𝒐, 𝒂𝒔 𝒂𝒏 𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒊𝒔𝒕, 𝒆𝒙𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒔𝒆𝒍𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒄𝒉𝒐𝒔𝒆𝒏 𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒎. 𝑰 𝒘𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒆 𝒃𝒐𝒕𝒉 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒎𝒚 𝒐𝒘𝒏 𝒑𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒗𝒊𝒆𝒘 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒔. 𝑺𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆𝒔 𝑰 𝒄𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒂 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆 𝒎𝒚𝒔𝒆𝒍𝒇 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏 𝒊𝒕. 𝑰 𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒊𝒕’𝒔 𝒂 𝒓𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒎𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑰 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒌 𝑰 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒈𝒐𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒏 𝒃𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒆𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑰 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒌 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒗𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒐𝒔 𝒓𝒆𝒇𝒍𝒆𝒄𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕.”

💙 𝐒𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐍𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐬 - 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐛𝐨 (𝐎𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐕𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐨)
https://bit.ly/3bRdoWg 🎶

But what has driven 𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒏 𝑴𝒐𝒍𝒌𝒐 to write such creative lyrics? Are there any significant moments in his life or people that have inspired him?
🎤“𝑺𝒐 𝒎𝒖𝒄𝒉 𝒉𝒂𝒔 𝒊𝒏𝒇𝒍𝒖𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆𝒅 𝒎𝒆 𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒚𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒔. 𝑭𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒅 𝒂𝒍𝒃𝒖𝒎 ['𝑾𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝑰’𝒎 𝑵𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈'] 𝒐𝒏𝒘𝒂𝒓𝒅𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒒𝒖𝒊𝒕𝒆 𝒂 𝒍𝒐𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒓𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒈𝒊𝒐𝒖𝒔 𝒊𝒎𝒂𝒈𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝑰 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒓𝒂𝒊𝒔𝒆𝒅 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑪𝒉𝒖𝒓𝒄𝒉. 𝑰 𝒂𝒎 𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒚 𝒃𝒆𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐𝒕𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒍𝒂𝒑𝒔𝒆𝒅 𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒂𝒔 𝒊𝒕 𝒉𝒂𝒔 𝒈𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒏 𝒎𝒆 𝒔𝒖𝒄𝒉 𝒂 𝒘𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒕𝒉 𝒐𝒇 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒔. 𝑪𝒆𝒓𝒕𝒂𝒊𝒏 𝒑𝒆𝒐𝒑𝒍𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒅 𝒂 𝒍𝒂𝒓𝒈𝒆 𝒊𝒎𝒑𝒂𝒄𝒕 𝒐𝒏 𝒎𝒆 𝒆𝒎𝒐𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚. 𝑰 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒌 𝒊𝒕’𝒔 𝒖𝒔𝒖𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒏 𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒐𝒏 𝑰’𝒎 𝒘𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉. 𝑳𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒐𝒏𝒈 ‘𝑾𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝑰’𝒎 𝑵𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈’, 𝒊𝒕’𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒏𝒆𝒄𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒍𝒚 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒐𝒏. 𝑰 𝒖𝒔𝒖𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒃𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐𝒈𝒆𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒌𝒆𝒔 𝑰’𝒗𝒆 𝒎𝒂𝒅𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒂 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒑𝒍𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒅𝒊𝒇𝒇𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒑𝒆𝒐𝒑𝒍𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒂𝒔 𝒂 𝒄𝒂𝒕𝒂𝒍𝒚𝒔𝒕 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒔𝒐𝒏𝒈 𝒘𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈.”

Recently, 𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒃𝒐 completed a few warm-up shows in smaller venues than they usually play, airing the new material before the big 𝑬𝒖𝒓𝒐𝒑𝒆𝒂𝒏 tour in April. Each gig was warmly received and 𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒏, 𝑺𝒕𝒆𝒇𝒂𝒏 and 𝑺𝒕𝒆𝒗𝒆 looked the happiest and relaxed they had in a long time. Is this heralding a new dawn for 𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒃𝒐 – being as content as 𝑩𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝑪𝒐𝒓𝒈𝒂𝒏 but without the band change?
🎤“𝑾𝒆’𝒓𝒆 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒂𝒎𝒂𝒛𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒍𝒚 𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒑𝒆𝒐𝒑𝒍𝒆 𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒆, 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒎𝒖𝒔𝒊𝒄 𝒊𝒔 𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒊𝒎𝒑𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎. 𝑰 𝒈𝒖𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝒊𝒕’𝒔 𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒔 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒂𝒄𝒌 𝒐𝒇 𝒎𝒚 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒅, 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘, 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒊𝒈𝒉 𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒏𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒐𝒇 𝒃𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒔. 𝑨𝒏𝒅 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒑𝒆𝒐𝒑𝒍𝒆 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝑺𝑼𝑴 𝟒𝟏 𝒐𝒓 𝑨𝒗𝒓𝒊𝒍 𝑳𝒂𝒗𝒊𝒈𝒏𝒆 𝒓𝒆𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒕𝒉 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒐𝒅𝒂𝒚 𝒂𝒔 𝒄𝒐𝒓𝒑𝒐𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒖𝒇𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒔, 𝑰 𝒘𝒐𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒊𝒇 𝒑𝒆𝒐𝒑𝒍𝒆 𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈. 𝑻𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒂 𝒉𝒂𝒍𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒏𝒅 𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒈𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝑰 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒃𝒆𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒐𝒖𝒓. 𝑰 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒌 𝒘𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒓𝒆𝒍𝒂𝒙𝒆𝒅 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒂 𝒐𝒇 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒊𝒕 𝒎𝒆𝒂𝒏𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆 𝒖𝒔. 𝑾𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒂 𝒏𝒆𝒘 𝒇𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅 𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒈𝒕𝒉 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒘𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒂 𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒈 𝒇𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒂𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒅 𝒐𝒇 𝒖𝒔.”

Photo credit: David Willis

It is quite hard to believe that the articulate and sensible man sitting opposite me had a name for being a difficult interviewee and once left “𝒂 𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒊𝒍 𝒐𝒇 𝒃𝒍𝒐𝒐𝒅 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒔𝒑𝒖𝒏𝒌 𝒂𝒄𝒓𝒐𝒔𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒕𝒓𝒚” in 1998 (“𝑨 𝒒𝒖𝒐𝒕𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒇𝒐𝒍𝒍𝒐𝒘 𝒎𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒎𝒚 𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒗𝒆”). 𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒃𝒐 really did have quite a reputation for drugs, sex and general misbehaviour, 𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒏 often described as a ‘𝒅𝒓𝒖𝒈-𝒄𝒓𝒂𝒛𝒆𝒅 𝒔𝒆𝒙 𝒅𝒘𝒂𝒓𝒇’. Was this an unfair portrayal or an accurate summary of that time?
🎤“𝑰𝒏 𝒂𝒏 𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒍𝒊𝒆𝒓 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒗𝒊𝒆𝒘 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒑𝒖𝒕 𝒊𝒕 𝒒𝒖𝒊𝒕𝒆 𝒘𝒆𝒍𝒍. 𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒔𝒂𝒊𝒅: ‘𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒉𝒂𝒅 𝒂𝒏 𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒉𝒖𝒔𝒊𝒂𝒔𝒎 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒅𝒓𝒖𝒈𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒔𝒆𝒙’ 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑰 𝒃𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒆𝒗𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒊𝒔 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒑𝒆𝒐𝒑𝒍𝒆 𝒔𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒂𝒄𝒄𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒖𝒔 𝒐𝒇. 𝑰𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒔𝒊𝒕𝒖𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝒔𝒂𝒚 𝒘𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒅 𝒂 𝒓𝒆𝒑𝒖𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒇𝒐𝒓 ‘𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒉𝒖𝒔𝒊𝒂𝒔𝒎’ 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒂𝒈𝒆 𝒊𝒕’𝒔 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚𝒃𝒐𝒅𝒚 𝒈𝒐𝒆𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉. 𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒕𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒂 𝟐𝟐 𝒚𝒆𝒂𝒓 𝒐𝒍𝒅 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒉𝒂𝒔 𝒃𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒍𝒊𝒗𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒐𝒍𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒂 𝒇𝒆𝒘 𝒚𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒔. 𝑮𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒉𝒊𝒎 𝒂 𝒓𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒓𝒅 𝒅𝒆𝒂𝒍, 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒆𝒚, 𝒈𝒆𝒕 𝒉𝒊𝒎 𝒐𝒏 𝒂 𝒃𝒖𝒔 𝒇𝒖𝒍𝒍 𝒐𝒇 𝒂𝒍𝒄𝒐𝒉𝒐𝒍, 𝒈𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒉𝒊𝒎 𝒍𝒐𝒕𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒘𝒂𝒕𝒄𝒉 𝒊𝒕 𝒃𝒍𝒐𝒘 𝒖𝒑! 𝑰 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒌 𝒊𝒕’𝒔 𝒂 𝒏𝒂𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒂𝒍 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒑𝒆𝒐𝒑𝒍𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒅𝒐 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒊𝒓 𝟐𝟎𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒚𝒘𝒂𝒚, 𝒊𝒕 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒔𝒐 𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒆𝒏𝒆𝒅 𝒘𝒆 𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒅𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒕 𝒊𝒏 𝒑𝒖𝒃𝒍𝒊𝒄. 𝑾𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒅 𝒂 𝒍𝒐𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒃𝒓𝒂𝒗𝒂𝒅𝒐, 𝒔𝒘𝒂𝒈𝒈𝒆𝒓 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒂𝒓𝒓𝒐𝒈𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒘𝒆 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒃𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒚 𝒔𝒑𝒐𝒌𝒆 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒊𝒕 𝒂 𝒃𝒊𝒕 𝒕𝒐𝒐 𝒎𝒖𝒄𝒉 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒊𝒕’𝒔 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒚𝒕𝒉 𝒎𝒂𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒄𝒆𝒔𝒔.”

𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒃𝒐 certainly seem a lot more chilled out now, they don’t seem to be in a rush to try everything, experience everything. Maybe, because there’s not much left for them to experience now except settling down and continuing to enjoy their music.
🎤“𝑰𝒕’𝒔 𝒍𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒂 𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒚𝒍𝒆 𝒄𝒉𝒐𝒊𝒄𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒂 𝒑𝒉𝒚𝒔𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒍 𝒊𝒎𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒗𝒆, 𝒊𝒕’𝒔 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒑𝒐𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒅𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒂𝒏𝒚𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒆. 𝑷𝒖𝒕 𝒊𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒘𝒂𝒚: 𝒊𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒆𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒐𝒐 𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒚 𝒄𝒖𝒓𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒔 𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒘𝒆𝒆𝒌 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒅𝒐𝒏’𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒆𝒂𝒕 𝒄𝒖𝒓𝒓𝒚 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒂 𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒉 – 𝒕𝒐𝒐 𝒎𝒖𝒄𝒉 𝒐𝒇 𝒂 𝒈𝒐𝒐𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈, 𝑰 𝒔𝒖𝒑𝒑𝒐𝒔𝒆. 𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒛𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖’𝒓𝒆 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒊𝒎𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒂𝒍 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒑𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒊𝒃𝒊𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒆𝒔. 𝑰𝒕’𝒔 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒚𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒅𝒆𝒔𝒆𝒓𝒗𝒆 𝒕𝒐 – 𝒓𝒆𝒘𝒂𝒓𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒔𝒆𝒍𝒇.”

It would appear that a more mature 𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒃𝒐 has emerged from the gritty leftovers of the 90s. ‘𝑺𝒍𝒆𝒆𝒑𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑾𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝑮𝒉𝒐𝒔𝒕𝒔’ serves to represent that, justifying everything 𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒏 has said. 𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒏, himself, has proved to be an honest and thoughtful person, thinking each question I ask over thoroughly to give me the best answer he can, often exploring himself through the question. So, 𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒏 and the rest of the band, the hard work done, must be ready to sit back and watch the album do its thing.
🎤“𝑰𝒕’𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒍𝒊𝒎𝒃𝒐 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒐𝒅 𝒃𝒆𝒕𝒘𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒊𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒂𝒍𝒃𝒖𝒎 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒊𝒕 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒎𝒆𝒂𝒏𝒔 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒄𝒂𝒏𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒚𝒆𝒕. 𝑶𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒈𝒆𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒇𝒊𝒓𝒔𝒕 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝒑𝒐𝒔𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔 𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒚 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒓𝒆𝒍𝒂𝒙.”

With this in mind, 𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒏 can now go and relax with a well earned drink, safe in the knowledge that 𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒃𝒐 have achieved No. 12 in the 𝑼𝑲 𝑻𝒐𝒑 40 and, bizarrely, No.1 in the 𝑷𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒖𝒈𝒖𝒆𝒔𝒆 charts, with their first single from the new album, ‘𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑩𝒊𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝑬𝒏𝒅’.
▪️𝐵𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑛 𝑀𝑜𝑙𝑘𝑜, 𝐷𝑟𝑜𝑤𝑛𝑒𝑑 𝑖𝑛 𝑆𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑, 𝑀𝑎𝑟𝑐𝒉 𝟐𝟓𝑡𝒉, 𝟐𝟎𝟎𝟑.
✒️ 𝚋𝚢 𝚁𝚎𝚋𝚎𝚌𝚔𝚊𝚑 𝙿𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚌𝚎

Photo credit: Perou

⭐𝘋𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘴, this afternoon I wanted to take you back to the time of 𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒃𝒐's "𝑺𝒍𝒆𝒆𝒑𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑾𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝑮𝒉𝒐𝒔𝒕𝒔" album with this great interview where 𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒏 𝑴𝒐𝒍𝒌𝒐 talks about his creative songwriting process - which I don't know about you guys, but I enjoy a lot when 𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒏 talks about how these beautiful songs were born - and also he reflects on the band's crazy past and how they became a more mature band. 𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒏 was wondering if people were still into the real thing, so if I may, I want to ask you soulmates, 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘩 𝘰𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘗𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦𝘣𝘰 𝘧𝘢𝘯𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘣𝘶𝘮?
Before I say goodbye for today, I want to share with you the two live performances mentioned at the beginning of the interview.

🎥 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐄𝐧𝐝 - 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐛𝐨 𝐋𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐀𝐭 𝐓𝐨𝐩 𝐎𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐨𝐩𝐬 🎼
https://bit.ly/3fbfodL

🎥 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐛𝐨 - 𝐉𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐑𝐨𝐬𝐬 𝐒𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝟐𝟎𝟎𝟑 (𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰 + 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐄𝐧𝐝) 🎼
https://bit.ly/3sFFtod

Post by Rita

🎶”𝗕𝗨𝗟𝗟𝗘𝗧𝗣𝗥𝗢𝗢𝗙 𝗖𝗨𝗣𝗜𝗗”🎶

🎤 "𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒍𝒐𝒔𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒂𝒍 𝒘𝒆’𝒗𝒆 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒅𝒐𝒏𝒆!"

”𝗕𝗨𝗟𝗟𝗘𝗧𝗣𝗥𝗢𝗢𝗙 𝗖𝗨𝗣𝗜𝗗” is the opening track on Placebo's fourth studio album “Sleeping with ghosts” (2003). It was an unexpected and risky way to start the record with an instrumental track, but the band wanted to surprise the fans. Brian: "First you get this sonic slap on the face and you're waiting for the vocals to start and they don't. So it sets up this feeling of intrigue” (dormusiccom, May 2003). The listener doesn't know where the album is going and has to delve into the music to figure it out.
  

Ex-drummer Steve Hewitt stated in an interview with Rock Sound that “Bulletproof Cupid” was "the closest thing to metal we’ve ever done". In Brian's opinion the song was their response to the relationship that developed in the studio between them and producer Jim Abbiss. "It was a reaction to that Jim had done to our songs – we needed to reassert our identity” (Rock Sound, April 2003).


The difficulty with “Bulletproof Cupid” was actually to decide where on the record to put the song. But the musicians came to the conclusion that it only worked at the beginning. If they had put it elsewhere, it would have interrupted the album flow. Brian said he found it interesting that as listener you wait for the lyrics to set in all along the track. “It's a matter of intrigue. You are disoriented and you know that you will have to listen to at least five or six songs to understand the record" (Guitar Part, April 2003).


“Bulletproof Cupid” wasn't planned to be an instrumental song in the first place but Brian revealed that for some reason everything he wrote for it sounded like Napalm Death. So it was easier to keep the track without a text. Considering the song title I wonder what Brian's lyrics attempts were like because in classical mythology Cupid is the god of desire, erotic love and attraction.


Like the album also the shows of the “Sleeping with ghosts” tour (2003/2004) were opened with “Bulletproof Cupid”. Brian had said beforehand that the song gives a hint to what the concerts will be like. The shared live version was recorded at Rock am Ring in Germany on June 7th 2003. It was one of 88 performances of the song.

  Placebo at The Wiltern Theatre (Los Angeles, USA) on November 26th 2003. Credit unknown

📌 𝗕𝗥𝗜𝗔𝗡 𝗢𝗡 “𝗕𝗨𝗟𝗟𝗘𝗧𝗣𝗥𝗢𝗢𝗙 𝗖𝗨𝗣𝗜𝗗” 📌
📢 "It's a musical slap. I want to wake up the audience. I tried to write lyrics on this track, but I couldn't. It didn't come out, it didn't sound natural. So it was easier to keep this track as an instrumental. Then the difficulty has been to choose where to integrate this track. It could only work at the beginning. If we had put it elsewhere, it would have interrupted the album flow. But what I find interesting as an auditor is that on the one hand you take a slap and in addition, you wait for the lyrics all along the track. But they don't come. It's a matter of intrigue. You are disoriented and you know that you will have to listen to at least five or six songs to understand the record. This concept is interesting."
(Guitar Part, April 2003)

𝘔𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘣𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘰𝘧𝘧 𝘢 𝘊𝘋 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘢𝘯 𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘭. 𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘗𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦𝘣𝘰 𝘪𝘴𝘯'𝘵 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘣𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴. "𝘉𝘶𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘵𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘧 𝘊𝘶𝘱𝘪𝘥" 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘴𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘳𝘪𝘧𝘧𝘴 𝘪𝘵 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴𝘯'𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘭𝘺𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘴. 𝘐 𝘨𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘨𝘶𝘺𝘴 𝘧𝘦𝘭𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘰𝘰.
📢 “Well, yeah, I tried to and whenever I would sing over it, the song was so fast it ended up sounding like silly metal singing. Napalm Death or something like that.“
𝘗𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦𝘣𝘰 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴 𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩 𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘢𝘭?
📢 “Yeah, that wasn't going to happen. I felt that after we recorded it and we were sequencing the record, the only place that we could put it was the beginning, because it would interrupt the flow. So we took that decision afterwords and realized that it was quite fortuitous, because when the listener puts the album on for the first time, they are expecting the vocals to come. A minute into the song, tehy are saying to themselves, 'well, they have to start now' and they don't. So the listener is dragged in.“
(The Sentamentalist, 2003)

 Placebo at Astoria  London on March 10th 2003. Credit unknown

📢 "A reaction to that Jim had done to our songs – we needed to reassert our identity but all the lyrics I tried to write sounded like Napalm Death. Also a hint to what the live shows will be like."
(Rock Sound, April 2003)

📢 "It pulls people into the record, first you get this sonic slap on the face and they're waiting for the vocals to start and they don't. So it sets up this feeling of intrigue. Musically it's completely different and the listener doesn't know where the album's going. You have to delve into it to figure it out."
(dormusiccom, May 2003)

📢 "It was our response to the relationship that developed in the studio between us and our producer Jim Abbiss. First of all, this time we wanted to work with someone who grew up in the culture of British dance music. It wasn't supposed to be some American rock producer. We believe that rock must move forward, take on futuristic features and adopt elements of contemporary, culturally important genres such as electronics and hip hop. Jim Abbiss has worked with such artists as DJ Shadow, Sneaker Pimps, U.N.K.L.E., Bjork, and Massive Attack. And that's partly why we decided on his person. He had a bit of freedom, and we wanted someone to give us a hard kick in the ass. We expected Jim to keep us motivated at every stage of creating new songs."
((Non)Security Zone, May 2003)

Post by Silke

♦️𝐀𝐍𝐍𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐀𝐑𝐘 𝐎𝐅 "𝐒𝐋𝐄𝐄𝐏𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇 𝐆𝐇𝐎𝐒𝐓𝐒"♦️

“𝙏𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙧𝙚𝙘𝙤𝙧𝙙 𝙞𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙢𝙤𝙨𝙩 𝙚𝙢𝙤𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙖𝙡 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙝𝙤𝙣𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝙬𝙚’𝙫𝙚 𝙢𝙖𝙙𝙚.”
(Brian Molko, Rock Sound, April 2003)

The album was released exactly 19 years ago today on the 24th of March 2003. It deals with the memories of former relationships and the effects the ex-partners have on the life of the characters in the songs and how those people have changed the protagonists as a human being. “I believe we carry the ghosts of past relationships with us till we die,” Brian explained. He added that ‘you’ in the lyrics actually means himself.

📀 𝗦𝗟𝗘𝗘𝗣𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗪𝗜𝗧𝗛 𝗚𝗛𝗢𝗦𝗧𝗦
🎵 https://bit.ly/3lXCdjo 🎵

Photo credit: Cover of the album and covers of the singles / edit by Silke

“Sleeping with ghosts” was produced by Jim Abbiss and engineered by Simon „Barny“ Barnicott. Bill Lloyd worked on the album as additional engineer. The songs were recorded at The Townhouse Studios and Sarm West Studios, both located in London. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘣𝘶𝘮 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘥 𝘯𝘶𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳 11 in the UK Album Charts and received a generally favourable reaction from music critics.

𝘍𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘭𝘦𝘴 were released from “Sleeping with ghosts”: The lead single “The bitter end” came out three weeks prior to the album and peaked no. 12 in the UK Singles Chart. It was followed by “This Picture”, “Special needs” and “English summer rain” which all entered the Top 30.

In an interview with Rock Sound Brian said that “Sleeping with ghosts” was the most emotional and honest record they made so far. Brian also pointed out that he was very proud of the fact that the album has no drug references at all (see quotes below).


📌 𝗕𝗥𝗜𝗔𝗡 𝗢𝗡 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗔𝗟𝗕𝗨𝗠 𝗣𝗥𝗢𝗗𝗨𝗖𝗘𝗥 📌
“Working with Jim Abbiss was great – he is a guy with very strong ideas and we asked him to give us a real kick up the ass. He made us listen to music in a different way and we had to give up a lot of control. There is no formula in what we do, we like to feel around in the dark and see what we like, letting the songs present themselves. I would describe this album as an emotional jigsaw puzzle.”
(Drowned in Sound, March 2003)

Photo credit: Jean Baptiste Mondino (3) / edit by Silke

📌 𝗕𝗥𝗜𝗔𝗡 𝗢𝗡 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗔𝗟𝗕𝗨𝗠 📌
📢 ”The memories are certainly there and “Sleeping with ghosts” is about how do deal with them. You look back and think about if your memories are accurate. If they're objective or not. And I believe that with me they are subjective. And I also believe we carry the ghosts of past relationships with us till we die.”
(DNAsix, March 2003)

📢 "Trying to push your sound forwards without turning your back on all the things that make the band unique and recognisable is definitely a difficult balance, but I think we pulled it off."
(Scotland on Sunday, April 2003)

📢 "Obviously, certain songs are about particular people or things that reminded me of them, but I think there's a shared history there because we've all been through the types of relationships described on this record. The title “Sleeping with ghosts“ is about a smell or object or film reminding you of a certain person or misdemeanour."
(Scotland on Sunday, April 2003)

📢 “I’ve used this album to look back on relationships I’ve had over the past 10 years and whatever masochism is going on in the song is nearly always directed towards myself – ‘you’ actually means ‘me’.“
(Rock Sound, April 2003)

Photo credit: Jean Baptiste Mondino

📢 “We had to ask ourselves a lot of questions with this album. Were we still relevant? Did we still deserve to sell records? It meant we had to strike a very fine balance between not turning our backs on eveything that had made us Placebo and still pushing our sound. This time I did that without having to give reference to the contents of my medicine cabinet or a whole series of ‘fucks’ and ‘shits’. I’ve reached a point where I don’t need that as much, which must mean the writing’s getting better.”
(Rock Sound, April 2003)

📢 ”This album is a return to what we do best really, it’s dealing with relationships again. It’s got so much to do with the fact that we had an eight month period off beforehand to think for the first time and be human beings, to reacquaint ourselves with humanity outside of the rock’n’roll bubble. It was very natural that those were the kind of songs that were coming out.”
(X-Ray, April 2003)

📢 ”I started to think very much about the relationships I’ve had over the past ten years and whether they’d changed me and the effect that they’d had on me. So “Sleeping with ghosts” became an album about exorcising the demons of your past relationships. And in that way, it became a very therapeutic and cathartic thing for me.”
(X-Ray, April 2003)

📢 ”In Placebo world it’s never been as simple as boy meets girl. The people who exist in these songs still aren’t particularly healthy. I’ve used this album to look back on relationships I’ve had over the past 10 years and whatever masochism is going on in the song is nearly always directed towards myself – ‘you’ actually means ‘me’.”
(Brian, Rock Sound, April 2003)

Photo credit: Iko Ouro-Preto

📢 ”By the time I reached 30 I realised there is no tragedy without joy in the first place. I became quite obsessed by the idea that you carry the ghosts of your relationships past with you for the rest of your life and people come back to haunt you, and that this is often triggered by external stimuli – smells, a song on the radio, an article of clothing, a book, whatever. I wondered what effect your memory still had on you to this day, regardless of the amount of time from the end of the relationship and where you are now and how you’ve moved on. Along the way, I managed to exorcise a few personal demons.”
(X-Ray, April 2003)

📢 ”I’m very proud of the fact that this album has no drug references.”
(X-Ray, April 2003)

📢 ”Is about trying to deal with your memory and trying to deal with those ghosts that you carry around with you, continuously, the people, the events that shaped you. Trying, I guess, to accept them and learn from them in order to take healthier steps towards the future.”
(Suicide Girls, February 2004)

📢 "The album title's about carrying the ghosts of your relationships with you, to the point where sometimes a smell or situation or an item of clothing they bought you kind of brings a person back. For me it's about the relationship that you have with your memories. They inhabit your dreams sometimes. There can be a lot in the future that's gonna remind you of the ghost of relationships past. So I see the album as a collection of short stories about a handful of relationships. Most of them mine. In a way writing the songs helps me to get a lot of the nasty things off my chest and put them in a box a little bit more, and therefore have a bit more of an objective discourse with those emotions because you've done something positive with them, you've rid yourself of them."
(ReadMag, November 25th 2003)

Post by Silke

♦️𝐀𝐍𝐍𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐀𝐑𝐘 𝐨𝐟 “𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐈𝐓𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐄𝐍𝐃”♦️

“𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙗𝙖𝙘𝙠-𝙩𝙤-𝙗𝙖𝙨𝙞𝙘𝙨 𝙧𝙤𝙘𝙠 𝙨𝙤𝙣𝙜, 𝙬𝙧𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙣 𝙞𝙣 𝙩𝙬𝙤 𝙙𝙖𝙮𝙨. 𝙏𝙬𝙤 𝙥𝙚𝙤𝙥𝙡𝙚 𝙩𝙧𝙮𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙤 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙚 𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙤𝙛 𝙖 𝙧𝙚𝙡𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨𝙝𝙞𝙥 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙩 𝙨𝙘𝙖𝙧𝙨. 𝙑𝙚𝙧𝙮 𝙛𝙪𝙘𝙠 𝙮𝙤𝙪.“
(Brian Molko, Rock Sound, April 2003)

Photo credit: Screenshots from the video, edit by Silke

Today we celebrate the ♦️𝐀𝐍𝐍𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐀𝐑𝐘 𝐨𝐟 “𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐈𝐓𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐄𝐍𝐃”♦️. It was released as the lead single from the album “Sleeping with ghosts” 19 years ago on March 10th 2003 and reached no. 12 in the UK Singles Chart.

The song was written and recorded in only two days (see quotes below). It is about couples who are breaking up and the anger that take hold of them at this time, but also the desire that arises from this injury.

The story of “The bitter end” is based on the novel “1984” by George Orwell, and there are severel references to this book in the lyrics. You can read everything about them here:
👉 https://bit.ly/3IOTAh8


The music video was directed by Howard Greenhalgh and shows the band playing in the dish of the Lovell telescope, one of the largest radio telescopes in the world. It also displays infra-red snippets of a couple chasing each other. Finally they catch each other up and kiss. According to Greenhalgh the video tells the story about two people who found love and this love blows up their world.

🎬 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗕𝗜𝗧𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗘𝗡𝗗 – 𝗢𝗙𝗙𝗜𝗖𝗜𝗔𝗟 𝗩𝗜𝗗𝗘𝗢

🎵 http://bit.ly/2YsP0yn 🎵

Photo credit: Screenshot from the video, edit by Silke

📌 𝗛𝗢𝗪𝗔𝗥𝗗 𝗚𝗥𝗘𝗘𝗡𝗛𝗔𝗟𝗚𝗛 𝗢𝗡 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗩𝗜𝗗𝗘𝗢 📌
📢 “One of my favourites was 'The bitter end' because I couldn't believe we were able to film it. We thought: let's make the end of the world, the end of the world according to the script, so let's make a video about two people who found love, and this blows up the world, but before that, the band needs to play somewhere. Let's put them on a satellite dish. When we arrived at the filming location, we were not allowed to film the group inside the plate. It was very dangerous so they only allowed us to film it from different angles. And we shot everything inside the telescope. And we filmed it outside. And then, in the studio, we overlaid the band's footage on a satellite dish. And we filmed around the saucer, flying in a helicopter. I couldn't believe they would let us do this. It was a telescope. "Wow!" We thought that we would not be allowed to fly in a helicopter, to shoot a satellite dish from the inside. We thought we could only remove the plate from the side. It's incredible. I also liked shooting with an infrared camera, because it was part of the story - the story of lost souls, they meet, and everything falls apart. We had special installations, lightning struck everywhere in the frame. And I think in this video Stefan looked like a "God of Rock" with his bass. I think that all the shots with them were good. I think, that it was one of their most comprehensible tracks. It was like a song with a good chorus. It brought them a lot of success. I remember how I came to the record company. The guys and I were there to talk about filming 'The bitter end'. And the first question Brian asked me was, "What do you think of this track?" He had never asked me that before. And I think he really, really liked this track. Maybe I could be wrong that he doubted the song, but I got the impression that he really liked the track and they wanted to know what I thought of it. I liked the track. I'll tell you one thing: I have Placebo records in my car and I need to be very careful when I play their music. Speeding is something that happens all the time when I listen to them. Damn it, I'm speeding.”
(Placebo Story Project, 2016)


📌 𝗟𝗜𝗩𝗘 𝗛𝗜𝗦𝗧𝗢𝗥𝗬 📌
At live concerts “The bitter end“ is a well-established part of the setlist. Since its release in 2003 until 2018 there was not one single year where it wasn't brought on stage at least once. It's no surprise that “The bitter end“ is in the top 3 of the songs that were played live most often. Up to now there are 685 confirmed performances of it, the first one dates back to March 5th 2003 and took place at British TV show CD:UK. Last time it was played live at Sion sous les ètoiles festival 2018 in Switzerland on July 13th 2018.

Photo credit: Screenshots from the video, edit by Silke

📌 𝗕𝗥𝗜𝗔𝗡 𝗢𝗡 “𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗕𝗜𝗧𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗘𝗡𝗗“ 📌
📢 "It was written and recorded very quickly. As we had spent a lot of time playing with the technology and synths, we wanted to do something lively, exuberant, punk. The idea had started from two guitar chords found by Stefan and bang! Two days later, it was finished."
(Les Inrockuptibles N°382, March-April 2003)

📢 "It's about a relationship. Two people fighting, they both want to be the stronger one. A classic Fuck-you song."
(DNAsix, March 2003)

📢 "[...] The backing vocal that comes in at the very, very end which starts out with a line that says "every time we're intersected/it feels love like suicide" and then the last line is "to miss your eyes and lips" and in between I don't know what I am saying. [laughs all around] Live, it changes every night and I like that aspect. For me it is a kick back to The Pixies. I remember reading how Frank Black just considered this lyrics and singing just another instrument. He wasn't really concerned with the significance of what he was saying."
(The Sentimentalist - Issue XII, 2003)

Post by Silke

🔸𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐀𝐋𝐁𝐔𝐌 𝐒𝐋𝐄𝐄𝐏𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇 𝐆𝐇𝐎𝐒𝐓𝐒🔸

”𝙄’𝙢 𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙪𝙙 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙛𝙖𝙘𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙖𝙡𝙗𝙪𝙢 𝙝𝙖𝙨 𝙣𝙤 𝙙𝙧𝙪𝙜 𝙧𝙚𝙛𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚𝙨.”
(Brian Molko, X-Ray, April 2003)

“𝗦𝗟𝗘𝗘𝗣𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗪𝗜𝗧𝗛 𝗚𝗛𝗢𝗦𝗧𝗦” is Placebo's fourth studio album. It was released on March 24th 2003 and reached no. 11 in the UK Albums Chart.
The record consists of 12 songs about past relationships and how do deal with them. Brian said that he became quite obsessed by the idea that you carry the ghosts of this relationships with you for the rest of your life and that people come back to haunt you. So 'Sleeping with ghosts' became an album about exorcising those demons of the past. And in that way it became a very therapeutic and cathartic thing for him.

Photo credit unknown

📜 𝗧𝗥𝗔𝗖𝗞𝗟𝗜𝗦𝗧
Bulletproof Cupid
English Summer Rain
This Picture
Sleeping with ghosts
The bitter end
Something rotten
Plasticine
Special Needs
I'll be yours
Second sight
Protect me from what I want
Centrefolds

📌 𝗕𝗥𝗜𝗔𝗡 𝗢𝗡 “𝗦𝗟𝗘𝗘𝗣𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗪𝗜𝗧𝗛 𝗚𝗛𝗢𝗦𝗧𝗦” 📌
📢 ”I've had many experiences the last few years, and I think it's a bit sad if you're still the same person you were when you were 20 at 30. Then you're not a fully developed human and then you haven't learned from the experiences you had the years before. The memories are certainly there and 'Sleeping with ghosts' is about how do deal with them. You look back and think about if your memories are accurate. If they're objective or not. And I believe that with me they are subjective. And I also believe we carry the ghosts of past relationships with us till we die.”
(DNAsix, March 2003)

📢 "Trying to push your sound forwards without turning your back on all the things that make the band unique and recognisable is definitely a difficult balance, but I think we pulled it off."
(Scotland on Sunday, April 2003)

📹 𝗜'𝗹𝗹 𝗯𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀 – 𝗘𝘂𝗿𝗼𝗰𝗸𝗲𝗲𝗻𝗻𝗲𝘀 𝟮𝟬𝟬𝟰
https://bit.ly/3IfAr8v 

📢 “Writing lyrics is always quite a cathartic experience but I think I probably exorcised more demons on this album than any of the others. I was approaching 30, I'd just moved into a new apartment and had all this time on my hands to reflect on all the relationships I've had.“
(Scotland on Sunday, April 2003)

Photo credit: Perou

📢 "Obviously, certain songs are about particular people or things that reminded me of them, but I think there's a shared history there because we've all been through the types of relationships described on this record. The title 'Sleeping with ghosts' is about a smell or object or film reminding you of a certain person or misdemeanour."
(Scotland on Sunday, April 2003)

📢 “This record is the most emotional and honest we’ve made.”
(Rock Sound, April 2003)

📢 “We had to ask ourselves a lot of questions with this album. Were we still relevant? Did we still deserve to sell records? It meant we had to strike a very fine balance between not turning our backs on eveything that had made us Placebo and still pushing our sound. This time I did that without having to give reference to the contents of my medicine cabinet or a whole series of ‘fucks’ and ‘shits’. I’ve reached a point where I don’t need that as much, which must mean the writing’s getting better.”
(Rock Sound, April 2003)

📹 𝗦𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗱 𝗦𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 – 𝗖𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝗻𝗲 𝟮𝟬𝟬𝟯
https://bit.ly/3Ige9TV 

📢 ”In Placebo world it’s never been as simple as boy meets girl. The people who exist in these songs still aren’t particularly healthy. I’ve used this album to look back on relationships I’ve had over the past 10 years and whatever masochism is going on in the song is nearly always directed towards myself – ‘you’ actually means ‘me’.”
(Rock Sound, April 2003)

📢 ”This album is a return to what we do best really, it’s dealing with relationships again. It’s got so much to do with the fact that we had an eight month period off beforehand to think for the first time and be human beings, to reacquaint ourselves with humanity outside of the rock’n’roll bubble. It was very natural that those were the kind of songs that were coming out.”
(X-Ray, April 2003)

📢 ”By the time I reached 30 I realised there is no tragedy without joy in the first place. I became quite obsessed by the idea that you carry the ghosts of your relationships past with you for the rest of your life and people come back to haunt you, and that this is often triggered by external stimuli – smells, a song on the radio, an article of clothing, a book, whatever. I wondered what effect your memory still had on you to this day, regardless of the amount of time from the end of the relationship and where you are now and how you’ve moved on. Along the way, I managed to exorcise a few personal demons.”
(X-Ray, April 2003)

📹 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗲 – 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝗶𝘀 𝟮𝟬𝟬𝟯
https://bit.ly/3G7zi0T 

📢 “I had this eight month period to look back through everything I’d been through emotionally and I started to deal with it for the first time. I started to think very much about the relationships I’ve had over the past ten years and whether they’d changed me and the effect that they’d had on me. So 'Sleeping with ghosts' became an album about exorcising the demons of your past relationships. And in that way, it became a very therapeutic and cathartic thing for me.”
(X-Ray, April 2003)

Photo credit: Carole Epinette

📢 ”Is about trying to deal with your memory and trying to deal with those ghosts that you carry around with you, continuously, the people, the events that shaped you. Trying, I guess, to accept them and learn from them in order to take healthier steps towards the future.”
(Suicide Girls, February 2004)

📹𝗣𝗿𝗼𝘁𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗺𝗲 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗜 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁 – 𝗥𝗼𝗰𝗸 𝗔𝗺 𝗥𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝟮𝟬𝟬𝟯
https://bit.ly/3pk8qnD 

📢 "The album title's about carrying the ghosts of your relationships with you, to the point where sometimes a smell or situation or an item of clothing they bought you kind of brings a person back. For me it's about the relationship that you have with your memories. They inhabit your dreams sometimes. There can be a lot in the future that's gonna remind you of the ghost of relationships past. So I see the album as a collection of short stories about a handful of relationships. Most of them mine. In a way writing the songs helps me to get a lot of the nasty things off my chest and put them in a box a little bit more, and therefore have a bit more of an objective discourse with those emotions because you've done something positive with them, you've rid yourself of them."
(ReadMag, November 25th 2003)

📢 “Working with Jim Abbiss was great – he is a guy with very strong ideas and we asked him to give us a real kick up the ass. He made us listen to music in a different way and we had to give up a lot of control. There is no formula in what we do, we like to feel around in the dark and see what we like, letting the songs present themselves. I would describe this album as an emotional jigsaw puzzle.”
(Drowned in Sound, March 2003)

Post by Silke