Once More With Feeling features 16 singles, in chronological order, from ‘36 Degrees’ to ‘English Summer Rain’, along with the previous only available on import ‘Protège Moi’ and new songs ‘I Do’ and ‘Twenty Years’ (released as a single to coincide).

Ironically, despite the fact the band had their early knockers, it’s the older material that stands up best. ‘Nancy Boy’ will always probably be their best known, and something of an indie-disco/teenage misfit classic. Both ‘36 Degrees’ and ‘Teenage Angst’, however, stand up pretty well alongside in a powerful and promising start.

The band, like any, have had their troubles over the years, and the momentum doesn’t keep up. It seems after their debut the band could only manage a couple of decent songs per album. Of course, to be fair to the band, this is a singles collection, not a ‘best of’, and sometimes you have to question not the quality of an album, but the decision of which songs to release (‘Special K’ and ‘English Summer Rain’ being particularly guilty).

Whatever the justification of their inclusion, at least these songs are the ones people know. I’m sure that a few don’t really sound as good as they did (‘Pure Morning’), while others are better than remembered (‘Every You & Every Me’). Perhaps it’s just the mind playing tricks… Whatever, it’s perfect if you’ve liked Placebo singles on the radio, but never got round to buying their albums.

For those that own most or all of the songs in question, there’s not really much incentive to pay out again – unless for the special edition with a dance remix CD (featuring UNKLE, Timo Maas, Les Rythmes Digitales and Junior Sanchez). For the rest of us, it has the few songs you’ll want, plus surprisingly much filler for such a collection. Maybe they should’ve called it a day earlier, and been remembered as better after all.

(3/5)

Release Date: 18 October 2004

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Once More With Feeling: Singles 1996 - 2004