Black Market Music
by Placebo
- Type: Album
- Released: 2000
- Label: Elevator Music, Virgin, Elevator Lady Ltd
- Country: United Kingdom
- Length: 50:47
- Community rating: 3.63/5 from 8 ratings
Artists on this release: Brian Molko, Stefan Olsdal, Steve Hewitt
Album Notes & Community Reviews
On 'Black Market Music', Placebo channels a more confrontational and sonically direct energy, resulting in a collection of songs both musically heavier and lyrically more outward-looking than their predecessors. The production emphasizes distorted guitars and a driving rhythm section while incorporating new electronic textures and a notable hip-hop collaboration on "Spite & Malice". This sonic expansion supports a thematic shift away from personal introspection towards broader social commentary on commercialism, hypocrisy, and addiction, solidifying the album as a deliberate and aggressive statement.
Genres
Descriptors: guitar-driven, electronic, distorted, effects-laden, melodic
Tracklist
- Taste in Men (04:15)
- Days Before You Came (02:33)
- Special K (03:52)
- Spite and Malice (03:37)
- Passive Aggressive (05:24)
- Black-Eyed (03:48)
- Blue American (03:31)
- Slave to the Wage (04:06)
- Commercial for Levi (02:20)
- Haemoglobin (03:46)
- Narcoleptic (04:22)
- Peeping Tom (05:16)
- Black Market Blood (03:57)
Credits
- Brian Molko - vocals, guitar, keyboards, 6-string bass, production, mixing
- Stefan Olsdal - bass, guitar, 6-string bass, keyboards, backing vocals, production, mixing
- Steve Hewitt - drums, percussion, production, mixing
- Rob Ellis - string arrangements
- Bill Lloyd - bass on "peeping tom"
- Severe Loren - backing vocals on "taste in men" and "special k"
- Dimitri Tikovo茂 - string programming
- Justin Warfield - rapping vocals on "spite & malice"
- Paul Collins - sleeve art direction
- Ian Cooper - mastering
- Paul Corkett - production, mixing
- Lorraine Francis - engineering
- Scott Kannberg - sampling
- Dare Mason - production
- Kevin Westenberg - sleeve art direction, sleeve photography