Placebo: Battle For The Sun

Oh Placebo, why must you continue down this road of banality?

Battle For The Sun is Placebo's sixth album to date and unfortunately, it's not looking bright, despite what its title might fool you into believing. 

Everything is typically Placebo and herein lies the fundamental problem: that's all it is, typical Placebo with an added layer of cheese for good measure. Brian Molko is still glaringly original in vocal style and tone, the instrumentation is still pretty intelligent and precise but when they decide to diversify, the good ship Placebo veers disorientated towards a brick-wall with predictable results.

The album starts off on a high note (literally and metaphorically) with Kitty Litter and though it's nothing memorable, it's still good Placebo. In all honesty, it's good to hear Molko again, squealing his feminine, nasal vocalism over a dirty riff and brash percussions. "I need change, i need a change of skin" he shouts at the break; it's straight out of the 'Cliché Guide to Rock" book in places, but it's a good start at least.

Of course everything comes crashing down on track two, Ashtray Heart. It's got a ridiculously out of place chorus which offends the ears with the force of a docker trip to Liverpool and is completely self aware of its generic nature. If there wasn't so many blatant album fillers smothering and bloating the L.P, it'd be a lot easier to absorb and enjoy.

There are bits and pieces of fantastic Placebo scattered across the record and it's frustrating to have to swathe through the nonsense to get to it. Devil In The Details is forgettable until its last stretch; For What It's Worth is too epic for it's own good but does no harm; Then you have title track Battle For The Sun which is mind numbingly simple but it holds hints of Queens Of The Stone Age in its tone and fuzz. Saying that, its rhythm and repetition is too much to bear after just a few listens.

There seems to be too many attempts at stadium theatrics and the breaks always seem desperate to attain a golden, positive, goal-reaching atmosphere for reasons unbeknownst to us. I know it's a harsh thing to comment on but the band sounded a lot more comfortable and intriguing when Molko was up to his eye-balls in recreational drugs.

Kings Of Medicine closes the album unevenly with an almost impressive rhythm and better lyricism than anything previous (but still, that's not saying too much). It's tenable until the hopeful, unneeded keys and horns interrupt the otherwise passable experience. Why they keep doing this, we don't have a clue.

It seems Placebo were on a slow downward spiral starting at about album number two - Without You I'm Nothing - and though none of the successive records were completely amnesia-inducing, you had to sift through the rubbish to find the hidden gems. 

Battle For The Sun holds a few of the aforementioned gems but is otherwise just another notch dug crudely and ashamedly into Placebo's growing discography of dullness. We wanted this to be their return to form but unfortunately, it's more like the first draft of their obituary.