Meds (album)

This article is about the Placebo album. For the Pakistani tribe, see Meds (tribe). "Meds" is also an abbreviation of "medication".

Untitled

Meds is Placebo's fifth album. The album was released in most countries on March 13, 2006, although it was released three days earlier in Australia (standard and special editions) and New Zealand (standard edition only). Illegal copies had previously been available on the Internet since January 17, 2006. "Because I Want You", released on March 6, is the first UK single from the album. The first single outside of the UK is "Song To Say Goodbye", released on the same date. The next single from Meds is "Infra-Red", released on June 19th 2006 in the UK. "Infra-Red" received significant exposure in the US; it was within the 50 most-played alternative rock songs as of mid-May 2006. The last single off the album was "Meds".

The album was re-released by Virgin Records USA in America in January 2007, to include an extra three tracks.

The album is distinctly darker than the bands previous efforts, with Molko's lyrics in particular taking a more poetic tone. Some of the lyrics were disturbing and compressed, for example in the song Infra-Red: "One last thing before I shuffle off the planet" seemed to forecast an unenviable demise for either the band or the frontman. It seemed to echo Kurt Cobain's line in his last recording with Nirvana ("You Know You're Right"): 'I will crawl away from here'.

Track listing

1. "Meds" (featuring Alison "VV" Mosshart) - 2:55
2. "Infra-Red" - 3:15
3. "Drag" - 3:21
4. "Space Monkey" - 3:51
5. "Follow The Cops Back Home" - 4:39
6. "Post Blue" - 3:11
7. "Because I Want You" - 3:22
8. "Blind" - 4:01
9. "Pierrot the Clown" - 4:22
10. "Broken Promise" (featuring Michael Stipe) - 4:20
11. "One of a Kind" - 3:20
12. "In the Cold Light of Morning" - 3:52 (does not appear on the 2007 US re-release)
13. "Song to Say Goodbye" - 3:36

• "Lazurus" (1007 US re-release only)
• "UNEEDMEMORETHANINEEDYOU" (2007 US re-release only)
• "Running Up That Hill (Deal with God)" (Kate Bush cover) (2007 US re-release only)

Special Edition (DVD Track Listing)

1. "Documentary"
2. "Lyrics"
3. "Twenty Years (Live at Wembley 05.11.04)"
4. "If Only Tonight We Could Sleep (Placebo and The Cure)"
5. "Backstage at Live 8 Photo Galleries"
6. "Long Division (Audio)"
7. "In The Cold Light Of Morning (Demo) (Audio)"
8. "I Do (Demo) (Audio)"
9. "Pierrot The Clown (Demo) (Audio)"

Trivia

• The special edition version of Meds has a different-colored cover with a "Special Edition" next to the word "Meds".
• The special edition DVD has every song on it in instrumental form. Played when viewing lyrics in the lyrics section (Karaoke style)
• Some of the songs on the leaked copy(s) of Meds appear to differ slightly from the versions on the album as eventually made commercially available. "Song to Say Goodbye", for one, has a subtly different structure and a clearly different vocal performance from Brian Molko.

• Song lyrics contain many references to other songs and albums:

1. "My Funny Valentine" by Rodgers & Hart (Blind)
2. "Unhappy Birthday" by The Smiths (Infra-Red)
3. "Begger's Banquet" by The Rolling Stones (Infra-Red)
4. "The Needle and the Damage Done" by Neil Young (Song To Say Goodbye)
5. "Mother's Nature Son" by The Beatles (Song To Say Goodbye)
6. "Golden Brown" by The Stranglers (Post Blue)
7. "Planet of Sound" by Pixies (Space Monkey)

• The cover of Running Up That Hill was used in The O.C.

Chart positions

• #1 - France, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland, Greece, Mexico, Chile
• #2 - Germany
• #3 - Finland, Portugal
• #4 - Australia, Italy, Argentina
• #5 - World Chart
• #7 - UK
• #10 - Netherlands, Czech Republic
• #12 - Norway
• #20 - Denmark
• #33 - Sweden
• #95 - Canada
• #180 - US (5,974 units in the first week)