Placebo: Sleeping with Ghosts (released 01 April 2003)

01 Bulletproof Cupid (2:22)
02 English Summer Rain (4:01)
03 This Picture (3:34)
04 Sleeping with Ghosts (4:38)
05 The Bitter End (3:10)
06 Something Rotten (5:28)
07 Plasticine (3:26)
08 Special Needs (4:22)
09 I'll Be Yours (3:32)
10 Second Sight (2:49)
11 Protect Me from What I Want (3:15)
12 Centrefolds (5:02)





Placebo is a British alternative rock band, formed in London in 1994 by vocalist–guitarist Brian Molko and bassist–guitarist Stefan Olsdal. Drummer Robert Schultzberg joined in late 1994, but left in 1996 shortly after the release of the band's eponymous debut album due to conflicts with Molko, and was replaced the same year by Steve Hewitt. Molko was born in Belgium and Olsdal and Schultzberg in Sweden; remaining members Molko and Olsdal both grew up in Luxembourg before separately relocating to London and are both British citizens.
Following the release of a demo, a split single, and their eponymous debut album, Placebo gained exposure in 1997 after the single "Nancy Boy" became popular in the UK, a song notorious at the time for its gender-bending content. The band stood out amongst the Britpop scene they were associated with at the time for their androgynous appearance and musical content, as well as Molko's distinctive voice and lyrics which openly discussed sexuality, mental health, and drug use.
Hewitt left Placebo in 2007, due to personal and musical differences. He was replaced the following year by Steve Forrest. Placebo released two albums with Forrest, who left in 2015 to pursue his own musical career. Since 2015, Placebo are officially a duo, though augmented with additional musicians.
Placebo have collaborated with various artists over the years, including David Bowie, Justin Warfield, Michael Stipe and Alison Mosshart. To date, Placebo have released eight studio albums, all of which have reached the Top 20 in the United Kingdom, and have sold around 14 million records worldwide.

Sleeping with Ghosts is the fourth studio album by British alternative rock band Placebo. It was recorded from late 2002 to early 2003 and released on 1 April 2003 by record labels Virgin and Hut.Sleeping with Ghosts reached number 11 in the UK Albums Chart, and received a generally favourable reaction from music critics.
Michael Idov of Pitchfork wrote "No peaks, no gorges, just a steady oscillation between adequate and inspired. Sleeping with Ghosts is a remarkably level collection of guitar pop, simultaneously less glammy and less pungent than Placebo's earlier stuff." Mojo wrote "There's some terrific and accessible stuff here [...] but the result is still an album that retreads old Placebo themes." Q magazine called it "spikily brilliant".

Porcupine Tree: In Absentia (released 24 September 2002)

01 Blackest Eyes (4:23)
02 Trains (5:56)
03 Lips of Ashes (4:39)
04 The Sound of Muzak (4:59)
05 Gravity Eyelids (7:56)
06 Wedding Nails (Instrumental) 6:33
07 Prodigal (5:32)
08 .3 (5:325)
09 The Creator Has a Mastertape (5:21)
10 Heart Attack in a Layby (4:15)
11 Strip the Soul (7:21)
12 Collapse the Light Into Earth (5:54)
13 Drown With Me (5:21)

In Absentia is the seventh studio album by British progressive rock band Porcupine Tree, first released on 24 September 2002. The album marked several changes for the band, with it being the first with new drummer Gavin Harrison and the first to move into a more progressive metal direction, contrary to past albums' psychedelic and alternative rock sounds. It was very well received critically and commercially, with it often being considered the band's crowning achievement, and selling three times as many copies as any of the band's earlier albums.

While not a formal concept album per se, all of the songs still have common themes related to serial killers, youthful innocence gone wrong, death, murder, and criticisms of the modern world. Brainchild of Porcupine Tree Steven Wilson (who wrote every song) said of the title:

"It comes from... It's related to some of the lyrics. It's about people on the fringes, on the edges of humanity and society. I have an interest in serial killers, child molesters, and wife beaters... Not in what they did, but in the psychology of why. What caused them to become unhinged and twisted? Why are they unable to empathise? It's [In Absentia] sort of a metaphor - there's something missing, a black hole, a cancer in their soul. It's an absence in the soul."

The album's title evokes the same theme, with the phrase being Latin for "in absence" or "in one's absence", a term often used in relation to criminal proceedings that occur despite the absence of the defendant.

• BLACKEST EYES is about a boy who grows up to become a serial killer, using his van to ensnare victims.
• Although TRAINS is ostensibly about a boy waxing nostalgic about his love of trains, the lyrics suggest more of a train fetish, potentially using a train to either suicide or murder someone "when the evening reaches here you're tying me up, I'm dying of love..."
• Continuing to follow the theme of the album, LIPS OF ASHES is about a man in love with a woman (or vise versa) and the woman does not feel the same way about him. This drives the man insane and he murders the woman he loves in brutal fashion and now can spend the rest of his life with her lifeless body. Pretty dark.
• THE SOUND OF MUZAK is Porcupine Tree’s personal attack on the record industry (the "death" of musical creativity). Lashing out against soulless “ear candy,” the song paints an image of a very depressing future in which music continues to be watered down and created merely to make money, losing artistic integrity and originality.
• The tile of GRAVITY EYELIDS is apt, describing a narrator who is giving his victim(s) sedatives, with the intent of raping/murdering them as they lose consciousness.
• PRODIGAL details the final account of a victim of suicide.
• The song .3 seems to clearly be about nuclear Armageddon. Although no explanation for the title is given, it has been suggested the title is about WW3; others have more cleverly speculated it is a biblical reference to Armageddon: .3 = 3/10, 3/10 = 3:10 as in 2 Peter 3:10 ("But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up").
• THE CREATOR HAS A MASTERTAPE is particularly dark, discussing a man who tortured and raped his own kids while recording it for his future enjoyment. It also suggests the indifference of God "The Creator had a mastertape, but he left it in a cab".
• HEART ATTACK IN A LAYBY details the last account of a man who pulls over into a layby (English for a pull-out or resting area on a main road) to rest because he isn't feeling well, without realizing he is actually dying from a heart attack.
• Another cheerful tune about a parent abusing and murdering their family, STRIP THE SOUL continues the disturbing theme of the album.
• COLLAPSE THE LIGHT INTO EARTH is a beautiful piano ballad with lyrics that are simultaneously loose enough to keep the relationship between the speaker and the subject up for interpretation, and obvious enough to tell us that it is about trying to stay strong in the face of an inevitable personal loss (perhaps the end of the world?). Wilson has indicated the events of 9/11 in the United States partially inspired the song, although it is not about this tragedy per se.
• The final track DROWN WITH ME closes with a murderer's account of drowning someone intentionally. The lyrics suggest the murderer may have already drowned the victim's other family members as well: "You're drowning in family there, when will you come up for air? Don't feel you let them down, 'cause they have already drowned".

Billy Joel: The Stranger (released 29 September 1977)

01 Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)
02 The Stranger
03 Just the Way You Are
04 Scenes From an Italian Restaurant
05 Vienna
06 Only the Good Die Young
07 She's Always a Woman
08 Get it Right the First Time
09 Everybody Has a Dream
10 The Stranger (Reprise)

Before The Stranger, Billy Joel was on the verge of being dropped by his record label Columbia Records. After the unexpected success of Joel's second album, Piano Man, his subsequent albums were commercially disappointing. Turnstiles, Joel's 1976 release, had peaked at only number 122 on the Billboard 200 chart.

By 1976, Joel had formed a reliable touring band, consisting of Doug Stegmeyer on bass, Liberty DeVitto on drums and Richie Cannata on saxophone, flute, clarinet and organ. Joel grew to appreciate this group of musicians, finding that they had a high-energy, rough-around-the-edges feel that he hoped to capture in his studio recordings. Joel had mostly worked with session players for his first three studio albums, which contained only scattered contributions from his own backup musicians, and strongly disliked the polished sound of these albums. Joel sought a producer who could cultivate his desired style; a longtime fan of the Beatles, initially looked to famed Beatles producer George Martin. But after meeting with Joel, Martin expressed interest in producing the album, but did not want to use Joel's band, wishing instead to bring in session players. Joel, however, was adamant in his desire to record with his own band and declined Martin's offer. Ultimately, Joel turned to Phil Ramone, a veteran New York City sound engineer and record producer who had recently worked with Paul Simon, another singer-songwriter, on Simon's album Still Crazy After All These Years. According to Joel, he and Ramone met with each other at Fontana di Trevi, an Italian restaurant near Carnegie Hall, where Joel had been playing at the time. The restaurant would go on to inspire the setting of "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant", a song on The Stranger. According to Joel, Ramone expressed an appreciation for Joel's band and their energy, and understood the reasoning behind Joel's attitude towards recording, which ultimately led Joel to choose Ramone as the producer for his next album.The Stranger was well-received by critics, particularly in retrospect, with many considering it to display some of Joel's best-written material. 

In a contemporary review of the album, Ira Mayer of Rolling Stone deemed it an improvement over Joel's previous studio efforts, praising its musical variety and Ramone's production.

The Pineapple Thief: Your Wilderness (released 12 August 2016)

01 In Exile (5:10)
02 No Man's Land (4:17)
03 Tear You Up (4:51)
04 That Shore (4:52)
05 Take Your Shot (4:33)
06 Fend for Yourself (3:43)
07 The Final Thing on My Mind (9:53)

08 Where We Stood (3:45)

The Pineapple Thief are a British progressive rock band, started by Bruce Soord
in 1999 in Somerset, England. Soord states that he and his girlfriend (now wife) were watching an American indie film called ‘Eve’s Bayou’, and there was a scene wherein a girl steals a pineapple. Someone shouts out “I can see you, pineapple thief!”, and (admittedly after a few too many glasses of cheap wine) Soord decided to name his project The Pineapple Thief. 10 increasingly successful albums later, the band released ‘Your Wilderness’ in 2016. The album features guest musicians including Gavin Harrison (Porcupine Tree, King Crimson), John Helliwell (Supertramp), and Geoffrey Richardson (Caravan).

The music of Your Wilderness carries the themes of isolation in a vast, empty space from its slow-build opener “In Exile” all the way to its pensive closer “Where We Stood”. There are some heavy moments throughout, including a galloping riff in the middle of “Tear You Up”, but on the whole Your Wilderness is a hushed and brooding – but excellent – affair from the Pineapple Thief. The echoey “That Shore” sums up the ethos of the record with its sparse piano notes and Soord’s lamentations: “Your face is leaving me.”

Tear You Up

The Pineapple Thief: Tear You Up

Lyrics

Breakdown

 

The Alan Parsons Project: Breakdown

Lryics