Placebo - 'Song To Say Goodbye' (Virgin) Released 22/05/06

While Placebo have undoubtedly matured and lost some of the raw visceral grit of their earlier works, ‘Song to Say Goodbye’ is indicative of their newfound, more honed song writing panache. About losing friends through ‘bad lifestyle choices’ and containing some pretty darn brutal lines; “You are one of God’s mistakes/ You crying, a tragic waste of skin”, the song has a depth that some more recent material has lacked. Musically too, it’s confident and direct with Brian Molko’s typical drawl narrating and we even get some strings at the end. How nice.