Album Review: Placebo - 'Never Let Me Go'
Marking almost a decade since their last album release, British rockers Placebo bring themselves back to the forefront with their brand new record Never Let Me Go.
Following on from 2013’s Loud Like Love, this is a record almost ten years in the making for the two-piece with the whole world changing before their eyes as they bring life to new music. This is breathed in the record through tracks such as ‘Surrounded By Spies’, opening track ‘Forever Chemicals’ and the album’s leading single ‘Beautiful James’.
‘Beautiful James’ is a track that can accurately be called quintessential Placebo. Released near the end of 2021 as the group’s first taste of Never Let Me Go, it has that beautiful (no pun intended) mellow rock sound that the band excel in. It’s catchy but soft enough to live as a chillout tune; one for the summer evenings and spring twilights. Frontman Brian Molko’s unique vocals are what set the high standard for a Placebo hit single, and they work hand in hand with the sound being used within ‘Beautiful James’. Altogether the best single to represent the album and the band’s new era, and one that will be a fan-favourite from now until the end of music.
There is an upbeat side to the record also, which isn’t too disconnected from the softer side to be foreign but not connected too closely to not make a difference. Through tracks such as ‘Twin Demons’, the tone is altered and the tempo is picked up ever so slightly, and it works to bring versatility into the album. This track in particular has a wonderful beat supporting it and even with Molko working his vocal magic, he isn’t the standout of the song. That goes to the arrangement of the instruments used to build the track, giving it a mind and a soul to live on its own with its own energy.
That’s the power of Placebo: they write music with the worthy liveability of any human walking this planet. There is a purpose and there is an importance, and it shall never be forgotten.
Never Let Me Go is Placebo at their freshest, strongest, and most passionate. After nine years of watching the world change - for the better and the worse - it’s only encouraged them to keep working and doing what they love, and they’ve cemented their place in music history.
The world will never let go of Placebo.
Words by Jo Cosgrove
