“Teenage Angst” by Placebo

"Teenage Angst" was the third single Placebo pulled from their self-titled 1996 debut, and the credits show how much ground three people covered: Brian Molko and Stefan Olsdal split the acoustic, electric and bass guitars between them, Molko adds keytar, Olsdal brings grand piano, Moog and Rhodes, and Robert Schultzberg plays drums, percussion and even a didgeridoo. Molko wrote the words and sings lead, all three share the writing credit, and Brad Wood produced it.

One review heard it carrying the album's mood of utter despair even more convincingly than the rest, major key and all. It was in their set before the album was out and has never quite left, reworked often on the road: as a piano piece, over a hip-hop-style beat on the Sleeping with Ghosts tour, and in a fresh arrangement as late as the Loud Like Love tour.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.