Placebo - Battle For the Sun

Yet another nail is plunged into Placebo’s coffin as this sixth studio album finds Brian Molko taking his lyrics to a whole new levels of cringe. ‘I tore the muscle from your chest, used it to stub out cigarettes’, he sneers ridiculously on ‘Ashtray Heart’. Musically, not even the addition of young whippersnapper drummer Steve Forrest can lift the band’s spirits. In fact it’s clear from these 13 forgettable and lifeless tracks that Placebo have now completely run out of ideas. And it’s sad, because somewhere beneath the heap of egotistical bluster and over-produced gibberish there is a genuinely thrilling little rock act screaming to get out. We don’t fancy its chances.

(PIAS)