June 06, 2019

Placebo - Black Market Music (2000)

Country: United Kingdom
Genre: Noise Rock
Label Number: CDFLOOR13 7243 8 50049 2 6

© 2000 Elevator/Hut/Virgin Records
AllMusic Review by Dean Carlson
After almost five years, the vile, nasty, spunk-filled world of Placebo has refused to go away. Marilyn Manson has turned a satirical eye on his own media status and even Suede have since come to swoon over girls "shaped like a cigarette." Yet it's Brian Molko that's steered his band from premature randiness (Placebo) to fearful regrouping (Without You I'm Nothing) without once batting a makeup-smeared eyelash. Black Market Music finds Molko in such moody lust that his strangled, androgynous wailing rivals anything the band has previously flashed to the world. Whether it's the dripping, slithery punk circle of songs like "Black Eyed" or the choir-boy enthusiasm of others like "Special K" (strangely echoing Midnight Oil's "Warakurna"), Placebo seem to have finally found that sweet wet spot between beauty and perversion. Even at its worst (the "Block Rockin' Beats"-sampling "Taste in Men"), past glories sometimes fail to be repeated with at least grand, postcoital contentment. Because it's hard to hate an album with such fascinating softer touches. In one moment, Molko cries respect to his mother; in another he counsels, "You better keep it in check/Or you'll end up a wreck/And you'll never wake up" -- a paternal warning seemingly directed at his fellow hedonists. Of course, there's a thin line between trying to perfect old efforts and stumbling into laughable self-parody. But Placebo now seem more in control than they ever have before. The spectacular "Commercial for Levi," for example, is some perverted, weary take on a childhood lullaby, only one written in a parallel dimension about "spunk and bestiality." True, there's no "Nancy Boy" or "Pure Morning," yet the album's consistency easily outmatches even the highest watermarks of either predecessor. This is a dank, lusty moment in the band's career that is about as good as Placebo "mark 1" can go. They now have the talent, the intelligence, and the distorted arousal to possibly become unstoppable. It's only a matter of time before they finally find love amid the lust.

tags: placebo, black market music, 2000, flac,

6 comments:

  1. I'm getting a strange re-direct from both FLAC and AAC links. I'm a Win10 Pro desktop.

    I tried first with Firefox 75.0 with the uBlock Origin extension. The FLAC and AAC link would sometimes go to a blank page, sometimes to a Bing search page or scam software installation page like this

    https://imgur.com/a/C6SgvYf

    I tried 24 hours later, same result. The web address line it would redirect to was often

    http://ww7.uclaut.net/?z

    which was a blank page. Sometimes it opened a Firefox tab with some scam software installation page (often the same Flash install links).


    Thinking it was my browser, I then tried Chrome 81.0.4044.113 (no extensions of any kind installed). The links sometimes went to a blank page, sometimes to the scam Flash install page, sometimes to some other scam software install pages. It would never re-direct me the Mega web page.

    I tried on my phone finally (same 2 browsers). I switched to mobile data just to make sure I'm with a different ISP, same results.

    I noticed the same peculiar problem with another Mediasurfer.ch page that used uclaut.net in the link to the FLAC and AAC files. The page is

    https://www.mediasurfer.ch/2019/06/placebo-without-you-im-nothing-1998.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The uclaut.net is an expired domain by Adfly. They worked for 2 years but it has now been continued. They all don't work. It's not becasue of your browser, settings, ISP, mobile etc.. It's an expired domain.

      Delete
    2. The links have been updated for both entries.

      Delete
  2. Hello, The .ACC link appears to be down, could you please reup. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete

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