This is the follow-up to Placebo's eponymous debut. It was released just after the first single, and opening track, "Pure Morning", and established fans had high hopes. Reviews out at the time said that they had matured, and this was an 'intelligent' album. Perhaps I'm just not 'intelligent' enough. This album isn't as good as their first. The first three tracks are pretty much standard Placebo. "Brick Shithouse " is scarily heavy, with distorted vocals. "You Don't Care About Us" is an obvious single, although still not as catchy as some of the tracks on "Placebo". "Ask For Answers" is very good. A quiet and emotional song, delving deeper into the side of Molko that was only glimsped at on the first record - although it could have done without the extra outro part. Next, the title track. Why, oh why, does Brian tune his guitar like that?!? The chords in this song are SOOOO weird. But after a few listens, this song does start to get to you. The lyrics are, again, typical Placebo. You could probably find just about any meaning in them, so they sort of become meaningless after a while. This is a great song, though - if not slightly depressing. The chorus is particularly collossal. "Allergic (To Thoughts Of Mother Earth)" is the first of the fillers. It's okay, but it gives me the impression that they wrote a song just to fit in as many lyrics as possible, but then didn't say much in it. "The Crawl" is depressing. Enough said. Then "Every You Every Me"! This is a great song. The guitar riff is really cool, the lyrics and phrasing are interesting. This is more like it - another single. "My Sweet Prince" is another boring quiet one - okay if you like that sort of thing, but it's not what I expect from Placebo. "Summer's Gone" carries on in a similar vein, and "Scared Of Girls" is a sort of emotionless rock song. The lyrics are a bit too meaningless, but there are some great guitar riffs in this song. Finally, "Burger Queen". I first heard this song when they did it acoustically on the radio, and it sounded much better then. The lyrics are a bit odd, but a cool song nonetheless. Oh, by the way, the inlay card has selected lyrics for each song. This is kinda annoying, but not a major gripe. Once again, there's a 'hidden' track on this album - a cool instrumental. Overall, I'm not sure whether to recommend this or not. There are some great songs on this record, but there are too many fillers on it for my liking. If I'd known what it was like before I bought it, I'd probably have not bothered, and just bought the singles instead.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Good review of what I consider Placebo's best album!! PlaceboFan x
tendril- 14.07.2001 18:57
hey good op. I personally really like this album but i do agree that the first is a bit better. Its a hell of a lot better than Black Market Music! : )
Jul 14th, 2001
very helpful by (100%):
![River Is Wide, The [Remastered] - Forum (The)](http://imagesb.ciao.com/iuk/images/products/small/251/prod_small-6006251.jpg)
