From their early days in the nineties to today, British rock band Placebo [ tickets ] seems contemporary no matter what style of rock n roll is pounding the charts at the time. Their straightforward fifth album is called "Meds" and it's a little Emo, a little Goth, but mostly, it's a lot of rock.

Singer Brian Molko may not have much vocal range but he makes the most of his band's taut, dramatic songs. Molko is at his best when he carves his dark lyrics into melodic, memorable lines. On the roiling ballad "Follow the Cops Back Home," Molko's singing is knowing and sly, punctuated by unexpected melodic twists: "The call to arms was never true/I'm medicated, how are you?/Let's take a dive, swim right through/Sophisticated points of view," he sings, his voicing rising and quivering over Dimitri Tikovoi's spare production. The best stuff here is loud, aggressive and, indeed, melodic. The buoyant "Infra-Red" with its epic chorus and smart percussive tempo is a confident blast of guitars and distortion.