Si Hawkins
Placebo
Loud Like Love
(Virgin)
**
It can be easy to forget quite how famous Placebo were in the 1990s and Noughties. Brian Molko’s glam-goth outfit carved an enviably distinctive niche, as evidenced by their list of collaborators, live and on record: David Bowie, The Cure’s Robert Smith, Michael Stipe of REM. Like the latter group, Molko and Co hit a creative wall after that commercial heyday, however, and while their seventh album aims for a bold new direction, it seems to have swerved back down the same old road. Loud Like Love is a concept affair about, yes, love, and yet the singer still yelps every word as if being poked with something sharp and possibly poisonous. His hard-rocking band rose to prominence by tackling provocative issues in song, but here their typically spiky guitars are offset by some horribly amateurish lyrics. Hold on to Me and Rob the Bank sound particularly rushed and repetitive, while the pleasingly mature arrangements of the closing two tracks, Begin the End and Bosco, merely emphasise the adolescent awkwardness of Molko’s musings. He turned 40 last year. Time for a rethink.
artslife@thenational.ae
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League quarter-final, second leg (first-leg score):
Manchester City (0) v Tottenham Hotspur (1), Wednesday, 11pm UAE
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The Travel Diaries of Albert Einstein The Far East, Palestine, and Spain, 1922 – 1923
Editor Ze’ev Rosenkranz
Princeton
Timeline
2012-2015
The company offers payments/bribes to win key contracts in the Middle East
May 2017
The UK SFO officially opens investigation into Petrofac’s use of agents, corruption, and potential bribery to secure contracts
September 2021
Petrofac pleads guilty to seven counts of failing to prevent bribery under the UK Bribery Act
October 2021
Court fines Petrofac £77 million for bribery. Former executive receives a two-year suspended sentence
December 2024
Petrofac enters into comprehensive restructuring to strengthen the financial position of the group
May 2025
The High Court of England and Wales approves the company’s restructuring plan
July 2025
The Court of Appeal issues a judgment challenging parts of the restructuring plan
August 2025
Petrofac issues a business update to execute the restructuring and confirms it will appeal the Court of Appeal decision
October 2025
Petrofac loses a major TenneT offshore wind contract worth €13 billion. Holding company files for administration in the UK. Petrofac delisted from the London Stock Exchange
November 2025
180 Petrofac employees laid off in the UAE
