(Translated from my original Italian text by ChatGPT and Piero Scaruffi)

The androgynous Brian Molko (an American expatriate whose baritone resembles Geddy Lee of Rush) was, for a few months, the “next big thing” in British rock. With his band Placebo (a Swedish bassist and an English drummer), he revived David Bowie’s glam-rock through the singles Bruise Pristine (1995), Come Home (1996), 36 Degrees, Teenage Angst, and especially Nancy Boy, which were released (as usual) in a flood, each one essentially a copy of the previous idea, and were (as usual) collected on the debut album, Placebo (Caroline, 1996). The trio leans on atonal “retirement-home” riffs and the nasal singing of its “star,” but behind their emaciated melodies hides the usual Brit-pop of Suede and Oasis, merely reimagined in the spirit of old-school dark punk (particularly the Cure).

Without You I'm Nothing (Hut, 1998) lacks the commercial impact of those singles, relying instead on the hypnotic carousel (in “Madchester” style) of Pure Morning, and a handful of soporific ballads with existential pretensions (Summer's Gone the most lyrical, Every You Every Me the liveliest, My Sweet Prince the most ambitious and embarrassing, Burger Queen the long closing litany). For a moment, the raw violence of Brick Shithouse and Scared Of Girls echoes Nine Inch Nails and the Smashing Pumpkins. But the impression remains that Molko is cheating, that he doesn’t care about his lyrics at all, and that his music contains no real despair—only the showmanship of a troupe of performers.