Placebo cover

Placebo

Released

Sprawling, messy, a collection of sentiments often about doing a lot of wrong things and doing so with knowing yet resigned abandon, and a blasting rampage of rock that found its roots in glam, metal, Sonic Youth and the Smashing Pumpkins — Placebo’s debut release is very much all that and more. Brian Molko and Stefan Olsdal’s non-heterosexuality informed things as much as their volume and Molko’s yelping near-hysteria adds frisson to early anthems like “Nancy Boy,” “Bruise Pristine” and the first of many torch songs to come, “Our Lady Of The Flowers.”

Ned Raggett

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