How the mighty have fallen.
In the decade that has passed since the arrival of Placebo's self-titled debut album the band have built up a huge fan base and released four subsequent full-length recordings, as well as numerous singles. 'Meds' is the title track and third UK single release from the band's fifth, and (speculatively) final album; following Top 15 single 'Because I Want You' and less impressively-selling 'Infra-Red'.
'Meds' opens with a guitar riff reminiscent of the band's early albums and a step back from their more electronically influenced later work. Singer Brian Molko soon adds his trademark vocals whilst the guitars lazily continue to accompany him without varying themselves too much - until the chorus arrives whereupon the pace and volume is taken up a few notches by additional guitars, drums and backing vocals (some, at least, provided by VV of the The Kills). The track gains a sense of urgency towards the end, Mr. Molko screaming his lyrics and the guitars wailing, until it finally all slows down and he speak-sings the words 'I was alone / Falling free / Trying my best not to forget'.
The lyrics of 'Meds' let the song down to some extent, depending on your perspective of course: if you're an "emo" teenager who thinks mental illness is a fashion accessory, then it probably seems pretty "cool" to hear someone singing about everything going wrong after they forget their daily pills. But if you've ever taken, or knowanyone who has taken, psychiatric medicines, you'll know that they cause horrible side effects, don't work half the time and in general, just aren't that glamorous. It seems cheap of Placebo to exploit what is for many a genuine daily struggle for financial gain. In their defence, singing about such topics has been the norm for Placebo since the outset, as it has for many other bands, and people have been buying the records anyway; but it's still hard to admire them for essentially glamorising (and profiting from) mental illness. Their press release claims that the track 'perfectly captures the paranoia of the drug experience' but that's not an easy explanation to buy, especially as the word "meds" is well-known to be an abbreviation for prescribed medication.
Placebo have supplied no B-side to this track, only an 'Instrumental' version which serves only to prove how unoriginal and unexciting the song's musical arrangement is. All in all, it's a rather disappointing effort from a band who should have quit whilst they still had something interesting to say and the zest to produce a decent tune.