Placebo - Placebo Re:Created [Indie Exclusive]

Most anniversary reissues are a remaster and a bonus disc. Placebo went back to the original 1996 master tapes and rebuilt the album instead. Brian Molko and Stefan Olsdal produced alongside Rob Kirwan, working through three decades of playing these songs live and asking what the twenty-three-year-old versions were actually reaching for. Robert Schultzberg's original drum takes stay underneath the whole thing, which keeps it honest.

The result is slower, heavier, and considerably less shrill than the record that made the band's name. "Nancy Boy," "Teenage Angst," "36 Degrees" and "Bruise Pristine" all sound like they have finally been given the low end they were denied in 1996. "Lady Of The Flowers" and "Swallow" gain the most, opening out into something closer to the widescreen band Placebo became. Adam Noble mixed, Robin Schmidt mastered, and the two of them find room in songs that used to sound compressed to a wire. Calling it a director's cut is fair: the arrangements are recognisably the same, but the intent behind them is now audible.

Whether you were there for the original or came to Placebo later, this is a genuinely different way to hear an album that has been fixed in place for thirty years. It is also the sound of a band that clearly still likes these songs.

This indie store exclusive presses the album on limited white vinyl with a bonus white 7" pairing "Drowning By Numbers" with "H.K. Farewell." On Elevator Music / AWAL.