It’s hard to believe that Placebo have been around for 15 years now, especially given the band’s much-publicised substance abuse problems and reputations for sexual hedonism (unsurprisingly, they’re no longer with Virgin). If ever a band seemed ripe for implosion, or simply manufactured for the moment, it was this eyeliner-wearing crowd who picked up where Suede left off in the decadence stakes back in the mid ‘90s.
But no, several breakdowns, rehabilitations and 10 million album sales later, they’re still with us (though Steve Hewitt has been replaced with former Evaline sticksman Steve Forrest). More surprisingly, their studio sixth album, recorded over three months in Muse/dEUS producer David Bottrill’s Toronto studio and mixed by Smashing Pumpkins and Nine Inch Nails supremo Alan Moulder, is their best, freshest and most vital work in years.
Frontman Brian Molko – owner of the most divisive set of vocal pipes this side of Michael Stipe – recently described Battle For The Sun’s sound as being “hard pop,” stating that “we’ve made a record which is almost the flipside of Meds. We’ve made a record about choosing life, and choosing to live, about stepping out of the darkness and into the light.”
Thankfully, even when Placebo are standing in the light, they’re still pretty damn dark. Not to mention loud. Album opener ‘Kitty Litter’ is up there with QOTSA in the noisy riff stakes. On infectious lead single ‘For What It’s Worth’, Molko sings, “I have a slow disease/That sucked me dry,” before bitterly declaring, “No-one cares when you’re out on the street/Picking up pieces to make ends meet.” The plaintively crooned ‘Devil In The Detail’ and darkly melancholic ‘Come Undone’ equally kick all lightweight emo pretenders into touch. The title-track, meanwhile, is possibly their best song since ‘Nancy Boy’.
Placebos aren’t meant to have any real effect on users. But this sulks, broods, sneers, twists and rocks (though not necessarily in that order), and carries the listener willingly along in its manic sonic slipstream.

Key Track: ‘Kings Of Medicine’