There’s certainly a lot to complain about these days. The thing is, a lot of those things are kinda, sorta our own fault so it’s tough to mount any argument that we deserve good things. In fact, we probably have a few more hard lessons to learn. Be that as it may, the powers that be have decided to send something good our way regardless, in the form of a brand new full-length record from Placebo.
Never Let Me Go, the band’s first album in almost a decade has today been confirmed, and will descend upon society on Friday, 25th March 2022.
To mark the moment, Placebo have shared a brand new cut set to be featured on the record titled Surrounded By Spies. An unpredictable extreme weather event of music, ‘Surrounded By Spies’ batters down with unrelenting drums and drenching synth. For those playing at home, ‘Surrounded By Spies’ leaves a rather satisfying after-taste of Sleeping With Ghosts, the band’s 2003 masterpiece.
Lyrically, ‘Surrounded By Spies’ seems to be coming at you from all random angles but per Brian Molko, this randomness is all part of the master plan.
“I began writing the lyrics when I discovered my neighbors were spying on me on behalf of parties with a nefarious agenda. I then began to ponder the countless ways in which our privacy has been eroded and stolen since the introduction of worldwide CCTV cameras that now employ racist facial recognition technologies; the rise of the internet and the cellphone, which has turned practically every user into a paparazzo and spectators in their own lives, and how we have mostly all offered up personal information to enormous multinationals whose sole intent is to exploit us.
“I used the cut-up technique invented by William S Burroughs and popularized in modern song by David Bowie. It’s a true story told through a lens of paranoia, complete disgust for modern society’s values and the deification of surveillance capitalism. The narrator is at the end of their tether, hopeless and afraid, completely at odds with our newfound progress and the god of money.”
Back in September, Placebo shared ‘Beautiful James’, yet another surgically intricate assessment of modern society via song. All signs point to an incredibly timely and hard-hitting album with Never Let Me Go – The title alone is enough to give you a light punch to the gut, and it’s hard to imagine a better reason to shut up and listen.
