Bosco

Album: Loud Like Love (2013)
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Songfacts®:

  • The closing track of Loud Like Love, "Bosco" finds Brian Molko expressing regret for messing up a relationship.

    I ask you for another second chance, but then I drink it all away
    And I get bellicose when you react, full of frustration and dismay


    Molko said: "That's kind of what I consider perhaps to be the most vulnerable moment of my career, in terms of approaching a subject that's kind of… a relationship that's kind of torn apart by addiction."
  • Bassist/guitarist Stefan Olsdal told Artist Direct this is the song he's written that he's most proud of. He explained:

    "It's the most timeless and emotive Placebo have been. I remember presenting Brian with the recorded piano and he came up with the some gut wrenchingly beautiful lyrics."
  • Placebo have only played this live once, during their special MTV Unplugged show. Olsdal explained this is because, "we feel it needs an orchestra to do it justice."
  • In a 2017 Vice interview, Molko reflected on both the album and song's significance in Placebo's body of work, saying: "I think this was a real turning point for us. Battle For The Sun was the sound of a band trying to find a new identity, and Loud Like Love was the sound of a band becoming very comfortable with who they are now. Around the time we had discovered the producer Adam Noble who was nearby in London, and we just gelled really well. So it was an extremely upbeat experience making that record. I think, in terms of songwriting, it marks a new change for me. Over the years, I had become more adept at telling stories, moving away more from confessionals to storytelling. Paradoxically, it allows you to be freer, more honest, and more vulnerable because you're expressing yourself through characters. I think every band is trying to write a song that transcends their identity, and exists completely in its own context without any knowledge whatsoever of what they represent, and we finally achieved that with the last song, 'Bosco.' It couldn't be more different from a song on our first album. There was a sonic evolution and I had grown as a person. To me, it sounds fresh and it sounds now."

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