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Rather than simply remix or remaster their 1996 debut album for a 30th anniversary reissue, Placebo's Brian Molko and Stefan Olsdal opted to return to the source material with a fresh perspective, and rework every song on the record. The results on this "director’s cut" are stunning.
For those who weren't around to witness their emergence on the UK music scene in the mid '90s it might be difficult to conceive of just how much Placebo stood out from both their Britpop and Britrock peers, despite theoretically having a foot in both camps. Fronted by the fabulously quotable, sassy, catty and razor-sharp Molko, a born rock star so provocative and so pretty that confused rival musicians didn't know whether they wanted to fight him or fuck him, the London-based trio were a revelation, taking influences from Sonic Youth, The Cure, Depeche Mode and PJ Harvey and channelling them into dark, transgressive alt. rock songs written in the Deptford council flat Molko and Olsdal shared.
Three years earlier, with songs such as Animal Nitrate and The Drowners, Suede's Brett Anderson had painted images of the seedier side of London, but Molko went deeper and darker. On the opening verse of Nancy Boy, the album's best-known song and highest-charting single, Molko sang of losing both his clothes, and his lube, before loudly celebrating the hedonistic lifestyle he had embraced in his adopted hometown. "Cruising for a piece of fun / Looking out for number one / Different partner every night / So narcotic outta sight / What a gas / What a beautiful ass." You didn't get this with Shed Seven or Reef.
RE:CREATED takes the best elements of Placebo and tightens the focus. Opener Come Home is now heavier, more muscular and more propulsive, a brilliant intro to a set of songs that have lost none of their lustre. Punchy singles Bruise Pristine, Teenage Angst and 36 Degrees sound magnificent, while slower songs Hang On To Your IQ and Lady Of The Flowers are given more space to breathe, the dynamics even more pronounced. Even better, the refresh of instrumental H.K. Farewell, the original album's 'hidden track' - a very '90s trope - is a revelation, a perfect blend of post-rock precision and fuzzy shoegaze wooziness. The five remixes on the 'deluxe' editions of the album are kinda superfluous, admittedly, but as an exercise in reimagining Placebo's art for a new age, RE:CREATED is a triumph. If this were a brand new album, it'd be the best alt. rock record of the year.
