Sleeping with Ghosts

Sleeping with Ghosts
Studio album by Placebo
Released	1 April 2003
Recorded	Late 2002 – early 2003 at Townhouse Studios and Sarm West Studios, London
Genre	Alternative rock
Length	46:32
Label	Astralwerks (US) Virgin (rest of world) Hut (worldwide)
Producer	Jim Abbiss
Placebo chronology
Black Market Music (2000) Sleeping with Ghosts (2003) Covers (2003)
Singles from Sleeping with Ghosts
"The Bitter End" Released: March 2003 "This Picture" Released: July 2003 "Special Needs" Released: September 2003 "English Summer Rain" Released: February 2004

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	64
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic
The A.V. Club	favourable
Blender
Filter	85%
Mojo
Pitchfork	6.4/10
PopMatters	mixed
Q
Rolling Stone
Uncut	4/10

Sleeping with Ghosts is the fourth studio album by English alternative rock band Placebo. It was released on 1 April 2003.

Background

Frontman Brian Molko, who is known to be a fan of the band Sonic Youth, was notably influenced by their album Sister while writing the lyrics for Sleeping with Ghosts; at least two of the songs feature references to lyrics from Sister: "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") and "Sleeping with Ghosts".^{[citation needed]}

Album meaning

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."

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.

Release history

The album was been released with the Copy Control protection system in some regions.

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.

Track listing

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Bulletproof Cupid"	2:22
2.	"English Summer Rain"	4:01
3.	"This Picture"	3:34
4.	"Sleeping with Ghosts"	4:38
5.	"The Bitter End"	3:10
6.	"Something Rotten"	5:28
7.	"Plasticine"	3:26
8.	"Special Needs"	5:15
9.	"I'll Be Yours"	3:32
10.	"Second Sight"	2:49
11.	"Protect Me From What I Want"	3:15
12.	"Centrefolds"	5:02

Special Edition bonus track
No.	Title	Length
13.	"Protège-Moi"	3:13

CDFLOORF17 bonus tracks
No.	Title	Length
13.	"Slackerbitch"	3:24
14.	"Eyesight to the Blind"	2:58
15.	"Miss Moneypenny"	2:50
16.	"Then the Clouds Will Open for Me"	4:19
17.	"Waiting for the Sun of Man"	4:10
18.	"Leeloo"	4:19
19.	"ION"	4:08

Japanese edition bonus tracks
No.	Title	Length
14.	"Evalia"
15.	"Drink You Pretty"

Special edition bonus disc (Covers)

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Running Up that Hill" (originally by Kate Bush)	Kate Bush	4:57
2.	"Where Is My Mind?" (originally by Pixies)	Black Francis	3:44
3.	"Bigmouth Strikes Again" (originally by The Smiths)	Johnny Marr, Morissey	3:54
4.	"Johnny and Mary" (originally by Robert Palmer)	Robert Palmer	3:25
5.	"20th Century Boy" (originally by T. Rex)	Marc Bolan	4:39
6.	"The Ballad of Melody Nelson" (originally by Serge Gainsbourg)		3:58
7.	"Holocaust" (originally by Big Star)	Alex Chilton	4:27
8.	"I Feel You" (originally by Depeche Mode)	Martin Gore	6:26
9.	"Daddy Cool" (originally by Boney M.)	Frank Farian, George Reyam	3:21
10.	"Jackie" (originally by Sinéad O'Connor)		2:48

Charts

Sleeping with Ghosts reached the Top 20 in the UK,^{[citation needed]} Top 40 in Australia,^{[citation needed]} and sold well throughout Europe.^{[citation needed]} In the US, "Sleeping with Ghosts" reached the Top 20 on the Heatseeker Albums chart in 2003.^{[citation needed]}

• #1 – France [710,600 copies sold (3x Platinum)]
• #1 – Belgium
• #2 – Germany
• #3 – Switzerland
• #4 – Portugal
• #6 – Austria
• #6 – Italy
• #10 – Poland
• #11 – UK
• #11 – Australia
• #14 – Sweden
• #14 – Finland
• #28 – Denmark
• #18 – US (Top Heatseekers)

Personnel

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"

Production

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

External links

• Sleeping with Ghosts at Discogs (list of releases)