Never Let Me Go

Even as they become elder statesmen of alt-rock, there remains a youthful ebullience to Placebo’s songs. Perhaps that’s because singer and guitarist Brian Molko and bassist Stefan Olsdal make music rooted in the heady rush of the here and now, where the emotions are raw, the spirit unfiltered. That’s how it goes on this gripping eighth album, which tackles themes of climate change, mortality, and technology while journeying through a broad soundscape that takes in expansive goth rock, orchestral pop, and synth-tinged grooves. Their defiant anthems seem melancholic and hopeful at the same time, the sound of a band savoring life in the present.