June 3, 2009
Album review: Placebo - 'Battle For The Sun' Placebo Tickets
All the appearance of a cure, all the reality of a disease
- More Placebo news, reviews, videos and tour dates
- Buy Placebo music from Amazon
- Placebo news RSS Feed
-
6 / 10
In medicine, for a placebo to work, the patient has to have absolute faith in the sugar pill they’ve been given. In this case, with a prayer on their glossed lips and nail varnished fingers crossed behind their back it’s entirely possible for the mentally or physically infirm to experience all the benefits of a great band. And it’s true that in parts ‘Battle For The Sun’, Placebo’s fifth studio album, will give the open-minded/easily-fooled aspartame butterflies in the stomach, methadone iris dilation and nicotine-patch heart tremors. By far and away the best song here, ‘Ashtray Heart’ is named after the band’s initial, 15-year-old incarnation, and has the closest to a ‘classic’ Placebo sound. Elsewhere, however, the synthetic, breezy Britpop of ‘Kings Of Medicine’ and the subpar Primal Scream-style Dixie-rock honking of ‘For What It’s Worth’ point to what this album’s really about: a desperately transparent copy of originality. For those who still believe in them, Placebo will, at least, remain an efficacious live band at festivals this summer, but only given that the real thing (Suede, Muse, David Bowie, Nirvana et al) isn’t currently on offer.
John Doran
More on this artist:
Placebo NME Artist Page
Placebo MySpace
9.9
NEW! For the latest music videos and backstage interviews, check out our brand new sister site, NME Video.
- Previous Album Review : Album Review: Anti Flag - 'The People Or The Gun'
- Next Track Review: 10 Tracks You Have To Hear This Week (06/06/09)
You may need to upgrade your Flash Player
You can download the latest flash plugin here.
If you have installed flash but keep getting this message:
1. Try to bypass flash plugin detection here.
2. Ensure you have javascript enabled in your browser.
3. Try using Firefox
Listen to more Free Music at we7.com
| Date/Time | Venue | Town/City | Seetickets | Viagogo |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 25, 2012 19:30 | Edinburgh Picture House | Edinburgh | Tickets not currently available. |
Buy Placebo Tickets |
| Apr 25, 2012 19:30 | Hmv Picture House | Edinburgh | Buy Placebo Tickets |
Buy Placebo Tickets |
| Apr 26, 2012 19:00 | Olympia - Liverpool | Liverpool | Tickets not currently available. |
Buy Placebo Tickets |
| Apr 26, 2012 19:00 | Liverpool Olympia | Liverpool |
Buy Placebo Tickets |
Buy Placebo Tickets |
| Apr 28, 2012 19:00 | Indigo2 | Greenwich | Tickets not currently available. |
Buy Placebo Tickets |
| Date/Time | Venue | Town/City | Seetickets | Viagogo |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 25, 2012 19:30 | Edinburgh Picture House | Edinburgh | Tickets not currently available. |
Buy Placebo Tickets |
| Apr 25, 2012 19:30 | Hmv Picture House | Edinburgh | Buy Placebo Tickets |
Buy Placebo Tickets |
| Apr 26, 2012 19:00 | Olympia - Liverpool | Liverpool | Tickets not currently available. |
Buy Placebo Tickets |
Comments do not always reflect the views of NME, or IPC Media, for guidelines visit our Ts & Cs page