PLACEBO // Announce New LP, Share New Single

Nov 09, 2021 / WORDS Chanel Issa / PHOTOS Mads Perch / The Nine Year Drought Is Over.

It’s been nine long years, but Placebo are finally back with the announcement of their eighth studio record, Never Let Me Go.

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It’s set to drop on 25th March 2022 and to celebrate the news, the band has shared its second single, Surrounded by Spies.

On the track, vocalist Brian Molko says: “I began writing the lyrics when I discovered my neighbours 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.”

It’s a true story told through a lens of paranoia, complete disgust for modern society’s values and the deification of surveillance capitalism.
[ Brian Molko ]

“I used the cut-up technique invented by William S Burroughs and popularised 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.”

In September, Placebo shared the record’s first single, Beautiful James. Both tracks are available to stream now.

You can also pre-order Never Let Me Go here.

PLACEBO // Never Let Me Go