PLACEBO
Black Market Music & B.M.M. Remix Sampler (Virgin/Hut)
Reviewed by Jason Thornberry

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I hate to sound predictable right now with my fetish for all things hip-hop, but the song Spite & Malice is one of the best rock/rap fusions I've ever heard. I must have played that song seven times in a row. It has a semi old-school rhyme on the verses with guitarist Brian Molko doing the woeful choruses. The Gorillaz seem able to make that kind of coalition feasible, and are proof that Britpop isn't quite as single-minded and loner-fied as it first appeared. S & M (haha) was far beyond any of the sheepish, lily-white bullshit Gimp Bizkit could summon, and catchier than Run DMC & Aerosmith on Walk This Way.

Black Market Music is Placebo's third full-length, after the critically acclaimed Without You I'm Nothing from 1998. The band also had bit parts in the film Velvet Goldmine, where two members appeared as The Flaming Creatures, while the third had a nameless outfit with Donna from Elastica.

Now they've brought out the fairly long-awaited follow-up, and are probably ready for their ample songwriting skills to take the spotlight that has been shining brightly on lead vocalist Brian Molko's sexuality. Placebo have played on the press' fascination with the band's openness, but have delivered an album that will hopefully lay all of that to rest. Who really cares anyway?

The remix cd has some good make-overs and dub versions of several of Black Market's songs. I don't actually know if this remix cd is a "legit in stores" release, but it's worthy of your attention. You may have to hunt for it. Both are well recommended excursions into the darker regions of guitar-driven pop- rock, with Special K, Slave To The Wage (taken apart on the remix album) , and Taste in Men spinning again and again in my portable stereo. Molko's voice gets compared often to Geddy Lee (Rush) and I do hear a few similarities, but the fact that they don't write epic paeans to Stonehenge or The Douchebag-11 Space Station should keep them from Tapping Into America. Well done.

http://www.placeboworld.co.uk

© 2001 - Jason Thornberry