One of the more pleasant surprises of 2021 thus far has been the sudden return of Placebo. The enduring British alt-rock band reasserted their place in our world back in September with the defiant glow of “Beautiful James”, and now have pulled up the dress to show what else is lurking just off these bruised knees: A new album called Never Let Me Go, set for March 2022 release, and a growling, moonlit second single in “Surrounded By Spies” that hit the streams last night (November 8).
“I began writing the lyrics when I discovered my neighbors were spying on me on behalf of parties with a nefarious agenda,” says Brian Molko about the new single in a press release. “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.”
Molko adds: “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.”
Placebo have also unveiled a string of UK tour dates for late 2022, so hopefully a trip across the Atlantic to our welcoming and outstretched arms isn’t too far away. The world, and particularly our world, the only world that matters, is a better place with Placebo as the soundtrack. Listen to “Surrounded By Spies” below.