So at 7:30 tonight on BBC's Radio 1 with Zane Lowe, hundreds (probably thousands!) of Placebo fans tuned in to listen to the exclusive first track of their new album 'Battle For The Sun'. :D
Any Placebo fans out there on Mibba tune in?
I was sitting in my living room with the volume turned up high, logged in on the appropriate forums and fan sites all ready to go .
I must say the excitement that was induced into me by hearing Brian Molko's voice made the opening bars of the track all the more anti-climactic.
Now the guitar riffs are nice, and his vocals are up to scratch but it's the seemingly lazy repetition that was so prominent on 'Sleeping With Ghosts' is the real disappointment. But the climactic and epic ending was very "Meds" if you ask me.
I couldn't find the lyrics typed up online so I haven’t yet had the chance to read and look at them properly but so far they seem good. Of course while sitting and listening to this track I had to convince my brother why he should let me leave the radio on and listen to this "whiny, drab music". And to be honest for once it was quite hard to stand up for one of my all time favourite bands and find something profound and ground breaking about this song.
Actually, this is a rather cynical review of the song. I haven't yet had the chance to listen to it properly and take it all in. All the while the song was playing on the radio I kept refreshing the forum page and reading the praising comments, and of course joining in. So I guess now is my opportunity to express my quite opposite opinions on the song xD See it as a vent if you will/
As one user so handily put it "obviously brian's ability to write a good song packed up and left when his hairline did.."
One thing I am very pleased about though is the bands decision to give away a free download of the track for 24 hours!
Me and many many other fans on the forum, and forums around the world I'm sure, rushed to download the song and so consequently crashed the site xD
It took me about 1 hour to download the song!
But many helpful users uploaded the track in a different form so us users could download it. : )
I must say I was very surprised and pleased to see what a friendly and helpful place the fan forum was! I know that forums can get very bitchy and suffer schisms from divided opinions (on something as big as a new track from a new album) but I'm happy to say all I witnessed was some gentle disagreements.
All in all this track has made me even more excited and I'm waiting in anticipation for the new album!
Well done Brian, roll on June the 8th!