Battle for the Sun

Battle for the Sun is the sixth studio album by British alternative rock band Placebo, released in 2009 on Solitary Man Records, Vagrant Records, Universal Records, and PIAS Recordings. David Bottrill produced the record, after having previously worked with Tool, Muse, Silverchair, Remy Zero, and dEUS. James Brown, who worked on the band's 2006 album Meds, engineered. It is also the first album with the new drummer, Steve Forrest. Recording took place in Metalworks Studios, Toronto, Canada.
On Battle for the Sun, the band utilize new instruments, such as trumpets and saxophones. Molko even experimented with the Springtime. The material has influences from such bands as PJ Harvey and My Bloody Valentine. It is a heavier-sounding record compared to its predecessor. Frontman Brian Molko said on the concept of the album:
We've made a record about choosing life, about choosing to live, about stepping out of the darkness and into the light. Not necessarily turning your back on the darkness because it's there, it's essential; it's a part of who you are, but more about the choice of standing in the sunlight instead.
Molko has also stated that Battle for the Sun is the band's first album with a discernible thematic unity. Molko states that his favourite track from the album is "Speak in Tongues".
Molko was inspired to write bonus track "Unisex" by the movie Cloverfield.
The mastered album features a slight peculiarity on track 9 ("Julien"): the vocals are doubled for a short duration, with a phrase, sung in low volume, preceding itself. Such artifacts can stem from a variety of sources such as production errors, or from encoding within the .mp3 or .mp4 formats, both of which suffer from just such a flaw.