(PIAS/Shock)

Not so slap-tastic after all those years of pills, thrills and bellyaches

Without tunes, we’re nothing. Burger queens to the core, not a great deal has happened in Brian Molko’s camp (come on, that’s just asking for a pun) in the three years since the release of Meds apart from longstanding drummer Steve Hewitt’s departure. And while the inclusion of 22 year-old Californian Steve Forrest in the ranks initially sounded like a revitalising move, the trio largely fail to conjure vintage jagged magic (insert big Teenage Angst sigh here) on their latest. Despite a number of cross-references, nothing on Battle For The Sun comes close to 2003’s fan-revered Sleeping With Ghosts – opener Kitty Litter is essentially a half-arsed Plasticine rewrite, while Ashtray Heart aims, but fails to top This Picture; put simply, Placebo’s latest is the sound of the drugs-romanticising glamsters getting old. Molko’s trademark squawk and Stefan Olsdal’s buzzing basslines are still the domineering factors and Julien, Breathe Underwater and Kings Of Medicine offer some redemption, however plodding first single For What It’s Worth is Placebo’s weakest so far, and heart-wrenching slowies in the vein of My Sweet Prince and Narcoleptic are conspicuously absent. Whereas Meds produced a handful of classic moments (title track, In The Cold Light Of Morning, Post Blue), BFTS comes as a reminder that 2004’s immaculate one-off Twenty Years and the aforementioned Sleeping With Ghosts shall forever remain Placebo’s best works. See you at The Bitter End. 

**½

DENIS SEMCHENKO

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