About Beautiful James

First off the addressee of “Beautiful James”, as indicated by the title, is a male, as is the singer. And as can also be ascertained from the name of this song that he is someone whom the vocalist considers as “beautiful”.

Now we do know that Placebo is an LGBT act. And to some extent yes, this does read like a love song from one man to another. However, the only time that idea really comes forth by inference outside of the title is in the chorus, where the vocalist is saying that he “don’t wanna wake” James up. Or put differently, taking all of the above into consideration, in theory it can be understood that the singer is actually sleeping in the same bed with the addressee.

But that noted, Placebo has pointed out that this piece is open to listener interpretation (while simultaneously more or less verifying that it is homosexual in nature).