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Placebo is the eponymous debut studio album by English alternative rock band Placebo. It was released on 16 July 1996 through Hut Records. It is the only album recorded with drummer Robert Schultzberg before his departure from the group.
In recent years, only a few songs from the album were still being played live. Since 2006, "Come Home" and "I Know" were often included in live setlists. "Nancy Boy" was occasionally played as an encore. "Bionic" was regularly present on set lists until 2005. It has been played often on the Battle for the Sun tour.
Placebo was remastered and reissued in 2006 for its tenth anniversary.
User Album Review
The key to Placebo's sound is singer/guitarist Brian Molko, whose impersonation of a woman goes far beyond his appearance and into his singing voice. His trio brings together various influences -- the epic, noisy "Chicago sound," late-'70s prog rock, and late-'80s "college rock" -- but boils them down into fairly conventional, guitar-heavy melodrama, with the sort of opaque and angst-ridden lyrics usually found in that genre. That's not to say that Placebo's sound is boring; churning guitars and direct, heavy basslines give the album a good deal of strength, and Molko is able to write moving, gritty melodies and fairly clever lyrics. Placebo may sound like a mix between the Smashing Pumpkins and Rush -- and the levels of melodrama on the album may stretch far beyond most people's tolerance -- but it's well-written and performs enough variations on those genres to keep it interesting.
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