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BLACK MARKET MUSIC
Placebo
(Virgin)
These transcontinental glamrockers -- one American, one Swede and one Englishman -- hope to build on the success of their 1998 breakthrough album, Without You I'm Nothing.
Their followup, in stores Tuesday, is more confessional gender-bending techno rock dealing with issues of sex, drugs, violence, relationships and health.
"You're the one who's always choking Trojan, you're the one who's shower's always golden," sings frontman Brian Molko on Commercial For Levi, the most explicit song of the bunch.
They also venture into rap territory on the harder-edged Spite & Malice -- with the help of American rapper Justin Warfield -- and female vocals come courtesy of Severe Loren (aka Caroline Finch) on Taste In Men and Special K.
Molko's nasal voice -- a love or hate proposition -- works well alongside the band's cold, gleaming sound, particularly on the first single, Slave To The Wage, which contains a sample of Pavement's Texas Never Whispers.
Placebo, who play the Warehouse on April 26, are also capable of pretty, emotional rock balladry best exemplified on such songs as Passive Aggressive, Blue American, Narcoleptic and Peeping Tom. (More on: Placebo).
Track Listing
1.Taste In Men
2.Days Before You Came
3.Special K
4.Spite & Malice
5.Passive Aggressive
6.Black Eyed
7.Blue American
8.Slave To The Wage
9.Commercial For Levi
10.Haemoglobin
11.Narcoleptic
12.Peeping Tom