Review Summary: Placebo's evolution continues ever strong, and this album screams 'Sleeping with Ghosts' on various tracks.
Placebo have been a long time favorite of mine since I was young and first heard 'Once More with Feeling: Singles 1996–2004'. My love for this band has never faded, yet when this album was first released I found it hard to like half the songs.. at first. The reason I say this is, to put it simply, this is one of those album that you have to wait a little while to allow it to grow on you. After sitting down with the record for a good few evenings, I found that the songs not only appealed to me, but reminded me of some of their early entries (Sleeping With Ghosts) and a familiar tone has been set to the tune of their last album 'Battle For The Sun'.
The first thing that I noticed about the album was how well it has been mixed. The mixing of records means a lot to me, and this album does not disappoint. The bass is there, and can be heavy at times, yet subtle at others. This helped on the track 'Too Many Friends' to boost the drums providing the driving beat, yet allow the piano treble and vocals to be heard upfront. Treble tones are set, and usually accompany the piano, vocals, and acoustic guitar. Unlike some of their earlier songs, these tracks do not sound 'tinny' or compressed - a huge bonus for me.
I had a little problem with the lyrics, however. Although they sounded wonderful and a good vocal range had been accompanied, I felt that they were a little too repetitive for my liking. This will drag the album's score down for some, but for me it was only a small infringement.
The opening and closing songs in this album are by far the best of all the songs for me. The record opens with the popular single and album title track 'Loud Like Love', a lavish but relaxing 'love song', and ends with another romantic ballad 'Bosco' Bosco utilizes the piano to its full potential, and comes complete with slow strings. The main focus of this track are the lyrics, some of the best in the album.
Overall a 3.5 from me. Well mixed, yet could do with some lyrical improvement.
