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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Shoulders toes and knees.., 9 May 2003
... I'm 36 degrees. Deciphering what this meant took me a while, and finally i grasped it, below normal temperature, cold. Shivering and snivelling Placebo pull off what is a usual, a blinding debut. This debut is not just their best, it is the only, the album they obviously keep searching to re-do. Not one tune in this collection should hav ebeen omited, all set a standard and tell a tale.Surely the sub-standard producion mires the full effect of the album, on the contrary, the inperfection hightens the albums beauty. Come home's almost tinny sound breaks with Molko's whine, his claims of emaciation and looking at clouds have helped many a sad faux depressed teen come to terms with the world, the following track is a snide jibe at them, yet at the same time it is a knowledgeable admition and conveys comfort,even if nothing ever goes their way. The repetition of Bionic makes a vibrator of a song become somewhat of a play on words, fantasies and aloofness galore. Thundering in, my favourite track on the album chimes in with a melancholy lyric and the guitar lights up my life. The infuriating chorus finally came to me, someonne tried to do me ache.. madness, but understandable somehow. The end of feelings, the begginings of greatness. Hang on to your IQ, possibly the best advice i have ever recieved from an album, a song that me and my friends relished singing. After the reflective comes the self penned self abuse that is the sahmless Nancy Boy, a track people still point at me and smile when we dance, a track which in single form is better, in sex mix is best, but on album is raw and acts as a blueprint, a sort of placebo manifesto for 1996-7. There is a definate placebo sound, the guitar is the signature, but with I Know, you realise that someone, somewhere is playing a dijaredo(sp) and the mind boggles, and this album takes an experimental step, for a song anyway. The pessimism carries on through Bruise Pristine, wearing make up in men leads to abuse, physical or mental, this song carries the scars and flicks the V's at them, sounding vaugely like Nancy Boy, it has to be noted that this was their first single before thier major label signing, so Nancy Boy sounds like this. The fact that Nancy Boy sounds different on this album from the single version is to be understood as both Come Home and Bruise Pristine have different guises in their original single form. More hollow, more caustic, more bass! The last two listed songs are purely interpretive, the delicate almost electro strum of Lady Of The Flowers makes you wonder what drugs were taken during the making of this album, the break at the chorus allows for the rock to come out, but still makes you wonder, can these Placebo people really be jacks of all trades. Then Swallow throws you, intrigues you, makes you feel ill, and is an utterly wonderful and uncomfortable end to and album that still has a hidden track to go. I wont mention what the track is about, listen and be shocked, and try not to imagine it. This album is a sad, sometimes depressing one, it uplifts at the same time, with just the right balance of light and dark, guitar and experimentation. A must have even if you think Mr Molko is a girl, even if it's not metal, even if... I never tire of this album, I've yet to find one that touches me in so many places.
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