You know Placebo. Yes, you do. Remember that song you sang along with back in the 90’s, the one that went, “A friend in need’s a friend indeed, a friend with weed is better?” That’s them, and that line isn’t the title-the song is called Pure Morning. I can’t tell you whether they dropped of the dial after that, since I despise the radio with a passion usually reserved for squawky-voiced middle aged women spewing ultra-conservative rhetoric like bile, but I know that when I mention the band, nobody ever knows who the hell I’m talking about, and that’s just sad. I also can’t tell you what category they fall into in the vast world of musical pigeonholes; they are by various turns punk, pop, dance, techno, new wave, grunge and occasionally, basic rock. Throw in lyrics pulled straight from someone’s cynical and spit-shined gut, add a singer with a voice like no other (you’ll either fall in love with it, or want to punch the face it comes out of; I fall into the former category, naturally) and you have the wonder that is Placebo. It’s impossible to choose ten favorite songs; my list changes by the day, my mood, the weather, but here off the top of my head and from the bottom of my ashtray heart (if you’re a fan, you’ll get that) is today’s list of Placebo’s best.
1. Meds. A personal favorite, simply because I’ve been there, on both sides of this song. Like many of their songs, Meds is a love song wrapped in something much more real than hearts and flowers. Many of Placebo’s songs reverberate with an almost frenetic intensity, but it’s especially clear in this one; there’s an underlying tension that tries to creep through your skin until you reach the chorus, a soft refrain of “Baby, did you forget to take your meds?” By the end, singer Brian Molko is nearly screaming the words, desperate for the answer you know he’s never going to get.
2. Follow the Cops Back Home. This is one of those songs that, if you sat down and read the lyrics, you’d wrinkle up your eyebrows and go “whaaaa-?” But put together with a spare and delicate melody, sung with a longing you can feel in the spot right below your throat, it becomes something you want to turn up and drown in until it’s all you know. Follow the Cops… manages to weave what is possibly one of the saddest songs ever created out of lyrics that are at once beautiful and nonsensical, much like the life it describes. “I’ll tell you stories bruised and blue…”
3. Spite and Malice. Sex and violence, lust and loneliness, all lined up and waiting their turn: Spite and Malice is fairly spat at you with guest vocalist Justin Warfield’s words coming at you staccato and fierce, creating a juxtaposition of sounds that’s perfect for the theme of the song. Nothing is simple in the world of Placebo, and Spite and Malice proves it.
4. Bubblegun. I love this song, partly because it’s naughty and I’m still an adolescent at heart, partly because despite being rather naughty, it’s also very pretty. Placebo are adept at the art of combining sex and sorrow, and it’s expertly done here. Bubblegun is living proof that b-sides deserve far more recognition than they get.
5. Every You Every Me. Dysfunctional love at its finest-from the first line, “Sucker love is heaven sent” to the slap in the face “I know I’m selfish, I’m unkind… I always find someone to bruise and leave behind”, Every You Every Me is more honesty than any of us ever want to hear.
6. My Sweet Prince. One of the prettiest love songs in the world happens to be a sweet ode to addiction. Molko’s voice rises plaintive through the song, breaking words in half as he’s prone to do, dreaming out loud of promises made and torn apart and a life left behind. A love song in the truest sense of the word, My Sweet Prince is one that makes you want to lie back with your eyes closed and listen over and over until it becomes something you simply breathe.
7. Twenty Years. I’ve tried a dozen times to describe this song, and it’s not as simple as the song itself. Where many of Placebo’s songs are wrapped in love and sex, drugs and sorrow, Twenty Years veers away from that and reminds us that time is the only thing we really have, and that it goes far too fast for us to all sit around pretending to be the things we’re not.
8. I Do. You know that feeling when you’re getting to know someone and you realize that they’re so amazing that if you could, you’d want to not just be with them, but be them? I Do captures that sentiment perfectly, with a groovy androgynous twist.
9. Plasticene. One of my favorite lyrics ever comes from this song: 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… There is an uncomfortable truth in this song, and that is that too many of us give up who really are for who we think others want to see. We are not plasticene, we are flesh, human, and unless we remain so, we might as well not exist at all. Don’t forget to be the way you are, indeed.
10. Black Eyed. Another bitingly honest look at someone who has loved and might not have deserved it, Black Eyed carries you into the mind of someone who knows he’s destructive. This is where manic narcissism meets regret and lives to bear the bruises afterward.
If I wasn’t limited to the ten best here, I could easily go on for pages, listing nearly all of Placebo’s songs as a favorite. Their music is volatile, moody, and never anything less than sincere. If you’re new to the band, check out their albums Once More With Feeling and Extended Play ’07 to get a feel for who they are. And if you’re addicted to Placebo like I am (heh), remember that their new album comes out in June and promises to be just as incredible as everything they’ve done thus far.
