Whereas a lot of the UK had been puffing on the dying fag-ends of the Britpop occasion within the mid-to-late 90s, Placebo entered by means of the facet door – kicked it down, even – with a fervid reminder that there was extra to UK rock historical past than wry 60s kitchen-sink statement. Their self-titled debut album, launched in 1996, hit the No. 5 spot within the UK charts because of the group’s visceral replace of the 70s glam rock sound. Placebo was such an important addition to the rock panorama that it gained plaudits from David Bowie, who invited the band to help him on tour.
For its follow-up, Placebo needed to go larger and tougher – and so they did. Launched over two years later, in October 1998, With out You I’m Nothing constructed on the visceral rock of its predecessor, because the group created a sound that belied their standing as a three-piece. Including a extra layered – at occasions virtually oppressive – manufacturing to their established template, the heavier Placebo that emerged on the album served to underscore the extra private nature of frontman Brian Molko’s lyrics; songs comparable to “My Sweet Prince” emerged as his most confessional to that time. Elsewhere, on tracks comparable to “Brick Shithouse,” new producer Steve Osborne gave the group a dance music edge that nodded in the direction of the commercial rock scene emanating from the US courtesy of 9 Inch Nails (Osborne had pedigree: he’d lower his enamel with Glad Mondays, serving to to facilitate that guitar band’s crossover into the dance-rock world on Drugs’n’Thrills And Bellyaches).
The world was listening. With out You I’m Nothing opened with Placebo’s joint highest-placing UK single, “Pure Morning” (additionally their highest-charting US single, coming into the Prime 20 Stateside), and included different big-hitters “You Don’t Care About Us” and “Every You Every Me.” Hitting No. 7 within the UK charts and coming into the Prime 20 in 4 nations, the album constructed upon a rising fanbase for whom the band had grow to be – properly, every part. Even Bowie returned to offer his approval, cementing his relationship with the group by showing on the title observe, launched because the fourth single from the album, and becoming a member of them on stage on the 1999 BRIT Awards for a reside duet of T. Rex’s “20th Century Boy,” a canopy of which Placebo had contributed to the Velvet Goldmine soundtrack. But although the band would retain sturdy hyperlinks to their glam roots, With out You I’m Nothing set them on a brand new path solely.
Take heed to With out You I’m Nothing now.
