Track Listing

1. Meds
2. Infra-red
3. Drag
4. Space Monkey
5. Follow The Cops Back Home
6. Post Blue
7. Because I Want You
8. Blind
9. Pierrot The Clown
10. Broken Promise
11. One Of A Kind
12. In The Cold Light Of Morning
13. Song To Say Goodbye

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #24494 in Music
• Released on: 2006-03-13
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Explicit Lyrics
• Dimensions: .22 pounds

Amazon.co.uk Review
While Placebo’s previous couple of albums demonstrated a tendency to pander to a devout fanbase eager to suckle up frontman Brian Molko’s shrill delivery of prurient autobiographical narrative and sexual innuendo, their fifth album, Meds, finds them ready to engage again with the rock mainstream.

Tracks like "Infra Red" and "Post Blue" craft a fresh dynamic between quiet-loud Pixies dynamics and febrile Sonic Youth crunch, and there’s a couple of notable guest appearances: first in the shape of VV, smouldering frontwoman of The Kills, who brings her femme fatale drawl to the chorus of "Meds", but also REM’s Michael Stipe, who shadows Molko through the dynamite plumes of "Broken Promise". "Drag", meanwhile, might even become a career highlight, a breezy hymn to self-loathing with characteristically perverse lyrics ("You’re the first one to swim ‘cross the Seine/I lag behind"), while "Pierrot The Clown" strikes a neatly poignant note, all painted-frown melodrama and tapped glockenspiel. All in all, it’s probably Placebo’s most accessible album since Without You I’m Nothing. --Louis Pattison

CD Description
'Meds' is the fifth studio album from UK trio Placebo. Produced by Dimitri Tikovoi and recorded in just eight weeks, Tikovoi made the band strip back their sound, doing away with studio trickery and taking the band back to their early indie rock roots. The album features the lead single 'Because I Want You'.

Customer Reviews

A Totally Unexpected Suprise
Placebo have never been a group to push boundaries, their songs have always been simple, moving ballads or progressive rock numbers. But they do it with such charisma that they instantly become recognisable, and with the brooding vocals of Brian Molko, they also possess one of the best rock singers of these modern times.

I never really knew about this new Placebo record untill about a week ago. What sealed the deal as far as getting it this was seeing them perform some songs of the album on a late night Channel 4 show. I purchased the single Because I Want You prior to buying the album to get a taster of what was in store and I gradually got more anxious to hear it.

Well after listening to Meds several times today, I find this album to be more consistently good than its predecessor 'Sleeping With Ghosts'. The album has a more rockier sound to it and shows the band going back to the roots of their debut. This is also possibly their shortest album to date (which ain't bad considering closing songs like Peeping Tom from Black Market Music lasted over ten minutes and there was a lot of silence).

Lyrically, Molko is no longer dealing with prescription drugs or confused sexuality, instead he shows a maturity in his writing focusing on topics that are as he states 'less gimmicky'. He still manages to make them sound good enough that you could sing along to them, particularly on Infra-Red or Because I Want You.

Musically, this is possibly the most touching album they have made in recent memory. The group seem tighter than ever, which causes them to make emotionally drove songs like Pierrot The Clown or Song To Say Goodbye. Michael Stipe of R.E.M. fame duets on the haunting Broken Promise, which delivers the quiet/loud formula in a twisted way. That song along with In The Cold Light Of Morning are chilling enough to be put on the next proper horror movie.

Overall I am utterly flabbergasted at this album. Its definately a great record and a great return from Placebo.

unexpected return to form! though probably the end.....
After the relative letdown of 'sleeping with ghosts' (despite its obvious highlights) I am absolutely amazed that a) Placebo have even made another record and b) how wonderful it has turned out to be. without talking about individual songs, I'd have to say that the biggest difference (and one that may well prolong thier appeal in the uk) is the change in production. This is one of the richest albums I have EVER heard. Yes ever. For instance.........I never thought I'd hear a Placebo song that sounded like Danny Elfman! (see 'in the cold light of morning') and it is for this reason that I think that, while it is probably their swansong album (multiple lyrical references to the 'end' cant be overlooked) it is also (closely followed by 'without you I'm nothing) their finest album yet. Indeed for any 'early' Placebo fans out there, there is a great parallel between these two albums. Both find Molko at his most despearte and honest lyrically, which made the record far more believable than recent records (the truly awful 'I do' anyone?-where I really felt he had run out of things to say) while it has to be said also, that with a few exceptions, 'Meds' is as melodically dark as WYIN.
It would be wrong to single out individual songs, because this is truly an 'album' designed to be listened to as just that. HOWEVER!......I'd have to say that 'Blind' 'Space monkey' 'Meds' 'Because I want you' and 'Infra red' are among my personal highlights. It must also be added that there are two songs on this record that fit into that 'unbelievable'.....'i cant believe I'm hearing this territory', they are 'Broken promise' and 'the cold light of morning' two of the bravest, magical and unexpected songs Placebo will ever write.

'Meds' therefore, is a masterpiece. A brilliant, soaring emotional return to form and (probably) the last Placebo record. What a fitting end that one of the best 'singles' band of the last decade have produced an ALBUM worthy of all of those great songs.

Placebo - MEDS
An absolutely awesome album which again covers a whole new range of Placebo experimentations but at the same time staying "timelessly" Placebo. The albums shocked me with a range of new material from Placebo such as "Space Monkey" which on first review sounds like a random pop enduced track but actually proves to be one of the most emotional and shocking track on the whole album. Songs like "Infra Red" remind everybody exactly what Placebo are about and what they stand up for. "Because I want you" is the all out rock track with a massive hint of restrictment to it - providing an odd mix to it - I was in the audience for the video and can verify a live version with a slightly basser line to it would prove much more effective song.

Overall one of Placebo most experimental and shocking album to date. They have truely stepped away from the medicine cabinet lyrics and have produced a much more choppy, rock and less professional electronic album. Its truely the basis of Placebo.