Sleeping with Ghosts

Frontman Brian Molko, who is known to be a fan of the band Sonic Youth,{{cite journal|date=August 1997 |title=The Boy Can't Help It |journal=Guitarist |url=http://www.placeboworld.co.uk/archive/guitaris.htm |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070508233148/http://www.placeboworld.co.uk/archive/guitaris.htm |archivedate=8 May 2007 |accessdate=3 July 2013 |url-status=dead }} references lyrics from their album Sister on "Plasticine" ("Beauty lies inside the eye of another youthful dream" directly references "Beauty lies in the eyes of another's dream" from Sonic Youth's "Beauty Lies in the Eye").

The album has several songs based on a theme of relationships, such as relationships that end badly ("The Bitter End"), power struggles in relationships ("Special Needs") or the idea that some are meant to be eternal soulmates (the title track). Brian Molko told Kerrang! magazine: "I'm looking back to what's happened in my past emotional decade, trying to understand it. Trying to exorcise the ghosts and the demons of relationships past. It's the old cliché of it being therapeutic but it does work for me in that way."{{cite journal |date=March 2003 |title=Natural Born Chillers |journal=Kerrang! |url=http://www.placeborussia.ru/press/press-2002-2003/kerrangmar03 |accessdate=3 April 2012 |archive-date=2 February 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140202153248/http://www.placeborussia.ru/press/press-2002-2003/kerrangmar03 |url-status=dead }}

Another interview has Molko explaining:

The album title's about carrying the ghosts of your relationships with you, to the point where sometimes a smell or a situation or an item of clothing they bought brings a person back. For me it's about the relationship that you have with your memories. They inhabit your dreams sometimes. There can be a lot in the future that's gonna remind you of the ghost of relationships past. So I see the album as a collection of short stories about a handful of relationships. Most of them mine. In a way writing the songs helps me to get a lot of the nasty feelings off my chest and put them in a box, and therefore have a bit more of an objective discourse with those emotions because you've done something positive with them, you've rid yourself of them.{{cite web |url=http://www.abc.net.au/rage/guest/2003/placebo03.htm |title=Placebo – Guest Program Rage |date=9 August 2003 |publisher=Australian Broadcasting Corporation|accessdate=3 July 2013}}

Sleeping with Ghosts was released on 1 April 2003. The CD came with the Copy Control protection system in some regions. It reached number 11 in the UK Albums Chart.{{cite web |url=http://www.officialcharts.com/artist/_/placebo/ |title=Placebo | Artist | Official Charts |website=Official Charts Company |accessdate=4 July 2013}}

A Special Edition version of the album was released on 22 September 2003 worldwide, featuring a diverse selection of cover versions that the band had recorded in previous years. This was re-released as a download-only album in 2007 under the name Covers. This is their last album released under Hut.

{{music ratings

| MC = 64/100{{cite web |url=http://www.metacritic.com/music/sleeping-with-ghosts/critic-reviews |title=Critic Reviews for Sleeping with Ghosts – Metacritic |website=Metacritic |accessdate=11 January 2015}}

| rev1 = AllMusic

| rev1score = {{rating|3|5}}{{cite web |url=http://www.allmusic.com/album/sleeping-with-ghosts-r631419 |title=Sleeping with Ghosts – Placebo | Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards | AllMusic |last=MacKenzie |first=Wilson |website=AllMusic |accessdate=3 July 2013}}

| rev2 = The A.V. Club

| rev2score = favourable{{cite web |url=http://www.avclub.com/articles/sleeping-with-ghosts,12032/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121012155435/http://www.avclub.com/articles/sleeping-with-ghosts,12032/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=12 October 2012 |title=Sleeping with Ghosts | Music | MusicalWork Review | The A.V. Club |last=Murray |first=Noel |date=15 April 2003 |website=The A.V. Club |accessdate=3 July 2013}}

| rev3 = Blender

| rev3score = {{rating|2|5}}{{cite journal |author=Cohen, Jason |title=Placebo Sleeping with Ghosts |journal=Blender |date=May 2003 |page=123 |url=http://www.blender.com/reviews/review_767.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040417185447/http://www.blender.com/reviews/review_767.html |archive-date=17 April 2004 |url-status=dead}}

| rev4 = Filter

| rev4score = 85%{{cite journal |title=[Sleeping with Ghosts review] |journal=Filter |issue=5 |page=123}}

| rev5 = Mojo

| rev5score = {{rating|2|5}}{{cite journal |date=April 2003 |title=[Sleeping with Ghosts review] |journal=Mojo |page=110}}

| rev6 = Pitchfork

| rev6score = 6.4/10{{cite web|url=http://pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/p/placebo/sleeping-with-ghosts.shtml |title=Placebo: Sleeping with Ghosts |last=Idov |first=Michael |date=20 April 2003 |website=Pitchfork |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20050924065948/http://pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/p/placebo/sleeping-with-ghosts.shtml |archivedate=24 September 2005 |accessdate=3 July 2013 |url-status=bot: unknown }}

| rev7 = PopMatters

| rev7score = mixed{{cite web |url=http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/placebo-sleeping |title=Placebo: Sleeping with Ghosts | PopMatters |last=Antrobus |first=David |date=14 May 2003 |website=PopMatters |accessdate=3 July 2013}}

| rev8 = Q

| rev8score = {{rating|4|5}}{{cite journal |date=April 2003 |title=[Sleeping with Ghosts review] |journal=Q |page=111}}

| rev9 = Rolling Stone

| rev9score = {{rating|3|5}}

| rev10 = Uncut

| rev10score = 4/10{{cite journal |date=May 2003 |title=[Sleeping with Ghosts review] |journal=Uncut |page=90}}

}}

Sleeping with Ghosts received "Generally favorable reviews" from critics, and holds an approval rating of 64 out of 100 on Metacritic.

Michael Idov of Pitchfork wrote "No peaks, no gorges, just a steady oscillation between adequate and inspired. Sleeping with Ghosts is a remarkably level collection of guitar pop, simultaneously less glammy and less pungent than Placebo's earlier stuff." Mojo wrote "There's some terrific and accessible stuff here [...] but the result is still an album that retreads old Placebo themes." Q magazine called it "spikily brilliant".

All tracks written and performed by Placebo {{track listing

| title1 = Bulletproof Cupid

| length1 = 2:22

| title2 = English Summer Rain

| length2 = 4:01

| title3 = This Picture

| length3 = 3:34

| title4 = Sleeping with Ghosts

| length4 = 4:38

| title5 = The Bitter End

| length5 = 3:10

| title6 = Something Rotten

| length6 = 5:28

| title7 = Plasticine

| length7 = 3:26

| title8 = Special Needs

| length8 = 5:15

| title9 = I'll Be Yours

| length9 = 3:32

| title10 = Second Sight

| length10 = 2:49

| title11 = Protect Me from What I Want

| length11 = 3:15

| title12 = Centrefolds

| length12 = 5:02

| total_length = 46:32

}}

{{track listing

| headline = Japanese edition bonus tracks

| title13 = Evalia

| length13 = 4:20

| title14 = Drink You Pretty

| length14 = 3:55

}}

{{track listing

| headline = European bonus tracks

| title13 = Slackerbitch

| length13 = 3:24

| title14 = Eyesight to the Blind

| length14 = 2:58

| title15 = Miss Moneypenny

| length15 = 2:50

| title16 = Then the Clouds Will Open for Me

| length16 = 4:19

| title17 = Waiting for the Son of Man

| length17 = 4:10

| title18 = Leeloo

| length18 = 4:19

| title19 = ION

| length19 = 4:08

}}

{{track listing

| headline = Special Edition bonus track

| title13 = Protège-Moi

| length13 = 3:13

}}

{{track listing

| headline = Special Edition bonus disc: Covers

| title1 = Running Up That Hill

| note1 = originally by Kate Bush

| writer1 = Kate Bush

| length1 = 4:57

| title2 = Where Is My Mind?

| note2 = originally by Pixies

| writer2 = Black Francis

| length2 = 3:44

| title3 = Bigmouth Strikes Again

| note3 = originally by The Smiths

| writer3 = Johnny Marr, Morrissey

| length3 = 3:54

| title4 = Johnny and Mary

| note4 = originally by Robert Palmer

| writer4 = Robert Palmer

| length4 = 3:25

| title5 = 20th Century Boy

| note5 = originally by T. Rex

| writer5 = Marc Bolan

| length5 = 3:40

| title6 = The Ballad of Melody Nelson

| note6 = originally by Serge Gainsbourg

| writer6 = Serge Gainsbourg

| length6 = 3:58

| title7 = Holocaust

| note7 = originally by Big Star

| writer7 = Alex Chilton

| length7 = 4:27

| title8 = I Feel You

| note8 = originally by Depeche Mode

| writer8 = Martin Gore

| length8 = 6:26

| title9 = Daddy Cool

| note9 = originally by Boney M.

| writer9 = Frank Farian, George Reyam

| length9 = 3:21

| title10 = Jackie

| note10 = originally by Sinéad O'Connor

| writer10 = Sinéad O'Connor

| length10 = 2:48

}}

{{col-begin}}

{{col-2}}

{{col-2}}

{{col-end}}

{{certification Table Top}}

{{Certification Table Entry|region=Austria|type=album|artist=Placebo|title=Sleeping With Ghosts|award=Gold|relyear=2003|certyear=2003|accessdate=3 June 2019}}

{{Certification Table Entry|region=Belgium|type=album|artist=Placebo|title=Sleeping With Ghosts|award=Gold|accessdate=28 July 2014|relyear=2003|certyear=2003}}

{{certification Table Entry|type=album|region=Germany|artist=Placebo|title=Sleeping with Ghosts|award=Platinum|certyear=2007|relyear=2003}}

{{certification Table Entry|type=album|region=France|artist=Placebo|title=Sleeping with Ghost|award=Platinum|number=2|certyear=2004|relyear=2003}}

{{certification Table Entry|type=album|region=Greece|artist=Placebo|title=Sleeping with Ghosts|award=Gold|id=20040218152127|certyear=2004|relyear=2003|refname="greece"}}

{{Certification Table Entry|region=Portugal|title=Sleeping With Ghosts|artist=Placebo|type=album|award=Silver|relyear=2002|certyear=2003|certref={{cite web |url=http://www.afp.org.pt/top.php?qano=2003&top=topalbuns&sem=15 |title=Top Oficial da Associação Fonográfica Portuguesa – Top 30 Artistas – Semana 15 de 2003|publisher=Associação Fonográfica Portuguesa|language=pt|url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120318161559/http://www.afp.org.pt/top.php?qano=2003&top=topalbuns&sem=15 |archive-date=18 March 2012}}}}

{{certification Table Entry|type=album|region=Switzerland|artist=Placebo|title=Sleeping with Ghosts|award=Gold|certyear=2003|relyear=2003}}

{{certification Table Entry|type=album|region=United Kingdom|artist=Placebo|title=Sleeping with Ghosts|award=Gold|certyear=2003|relyear=2003|id=5974-426-2|refname=BPI}}

{{certification Table Entry|type=album|region=United Kingdom|artist=Placebo|title=Sleeping with Ghosts|award=Silver|certyear=2022|relyear=2003|id=5974-426-2|note=reissue|accessdate=6 February 2022|refname=BPI1}}

{{certification Table Entry|title=Sleeping with Ghosts|type=album|artist=Placebo|relyear=2003|region=United States|nocert=true|salesamount=61,000|salesref={{cite magazine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_RUEAAAAMBAJ&q=Without+You+I%27m+Nothing+%28Placebo+album%29+worldwide&pg=PA53 |title=Placebo gets rockier|magazine=Billboard|first=Emmauel|last=Legrand|date=15 April 2006 |accessdate=18 May 2018}}}}

{{Certification Table Summary}}

{{certification Table Entry|type=album|region=Europe|artist=Placebo|title=Sleeping with Ghosts|award=Platinum|certyear=2004|relyear=2003}}

{{Certification Table Bottom|streaming=true}}

; Placebo

• Brian Molko – vocals, guitar, keyboards, saxophone on "Something Rotten", drums on "English Summer Rain"
• Steve Hewitt – drums, percussion
• Stefan Olsdal – bass guitar, guitar, keyboards, piano, backing vocals

; Additional personnel

• Simon Breed – harmonica on "Protect Me from What I Want"

; Technical personnel

• Jim Abbiss – production
• Jean Baptiste Mondino – sleeve art direction and photography
• Jim Barny – mixing at Mayfair Studios, recording at Townhouse Studios and Sarm West Studios
• Andy Davies – engineering assistance at Sarm West Studios
• Bill Lloyd – additional recording, engineering
• Sean Magee – mastering at Abbey Road Studios
• Fergus Peterkin – engineering assistance at Mayfair Studios
• Danny Porter – engineering assistance at Townhouse Studios
• See Studio – sleeve design and art direction
• Tom Stanley – engineering assistance at Townhouse Studios

{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}

• {{Discogs master|76234}}

{{Placebo}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:2003 albums

Category:Placebo (band) albums

Category:Albums produced by Jim Abbiss

Category:Hut Records albums

Category:Virgin Records albums