Sleeping With Ghosts

by

Placebo

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Before I got this album, I knew nothing about Placebo. I had heard a couple of the songs from the album on msn radio, and the music store I was in had nothing on my wish list other than this and a Chemical Brothers album. Feeling more in the mood for rock than electronica, I went with this, and I know that I made the right choice.

Placebo is a rock band with a definite punk influence, great guitarwork, occasionally repetitive but poetic lyrics, and an incredible lead singer. Brian Molko has what very people in the industry seem to have: an original voice. His voice can best be described as feminine, especially in a world full of Eddie Vedder soundalikes. But because of this soft edge, combined with the bass of Stefan Olsdal and the drums of Robert Schultzberg, some pretty amazing results turn out. The last track on the album has the most beautiful vocals this side of Radiohead. And unlike Thom Yorke, who sounds more pained than angry, Molko has a real intensity in his sound, which pays off in the harder songs.

The album starts out with the instrumental "Bulletproof Cupid," which is nothing phenomenal, but its a dang good intro into the sound that dominates the rest of the album. "English Summer Rain" is the first track to exhibit Molko's vocals, and it was the moment that my love affair with this album began. Its combination of basic rock components with the ethereal trip-hop sound just clicked with me. "This Picture" is a more straightforward rock song, but it showcases some of my favorite lyrics on the album. "Farewell, the ashtray girl, forbidden snowflake." It definitely sounds like a good concert song. The titular "Sleeping With Ghosts" goes back to the surreal ambience that makes the album for me. Like many of the songs on the cd, "Sleeping With Ghosts" is a tragic love song. It would be horribly depressing if it didn't sound so good. "The Bitter End" is the single that was released for this album, and I understand why. Lyrically, musically, vocally...its the most radio-friendly song on the album, and unusually, one of the best. No one can sound begging and bitter like Molko can. One of the best parts of the song is in his incomprehensible rant near the end of the song, and the song ends still angry, before dropping you into the Massive Attackish "Something Rotten". My only argument with this song is that the lyrics are, for some reason, not written down with the lyrics to the other songs. It has a pseudo-sexual, diseased feel to it that I adore. "Plasticine" feels like a major departure from the route the album was taking, but it works nonetheless, especially with the guitar lick accompanying Molko's "Don't forget to be the way you are." The next three tracks are the weakest parts of the album, but only by comparison. "Special Needs", on the first hearing, struck me as very weak lyrically, but on later listenings, the incredible use of the piano made up for the lyrical faults. "I'll Be Yours" is the worst song on the album, but it still has a great feel to it, and the repetitive "Second Sight" has an awesome refrain. "Protect Me From What I Want" is the track that made me want this album, and I still can't get enough of its poetry and its distant-sounding vocals, despite its repetition and even after more listenings than I dare to count.

This only leaves the last track, "Centrefolds". One of the things that for me makes a great album is if it gets you started right, and then lets you off properly. Just as Track 1 is a great intro, Track 12 paves the path for Placebo's exit. Its the most vulnerable track on the album, the least angry, and without a doubt the most beautiful. Hearing that surreal sound you've become used to through the album, with Molko pleading for you to "be mine", its hard for this album to end without you smiling.

It feels a bit weird writing a review for this album, prely because it was this album that turned me off of Placebo.

well...

It's not a *bad* album perse... it's just not good. Background info: I've been a Placebo fan since 1998, swept up in the "Without You I'm Nothing" haze and the common 13-year-old "ooo... pretty boy!" mindset. And it wasn't unjustified. Mr. Molko was in his make-up drenched, long-haired heyday, writing quirky pop songs with the subtle dementia and histrionic ambivalence characteristic of many great post-punk bands (as well as many great bands of all kinds). The first album is essentially bursting out of the seems; energetic and defiant pop music with a camp edge, which was a breath of fresh air amongst the earnest drone of some many bands of the era. The music was fresh and alive... it had a life all its own and embodied a world of drugs, sex, and an acute existential awareness and expressiveness as affected by drugs and sex, all filtered thru the corpse of camp rock n' roll. Then came Without You I'm Nothing. A wonderful album. Probably their best. Much darker and slightly ethereal - strangely imperminent, as if the same thoughts in the brilliant minds giving us the first album were twisted and contorted in fun-house mirrors and dizzied by the fumes of black nail varnish. A beautiful and evokative album by all accounts (I still think "your smile would make me sneeze/ when we were Siamese" is one of the best lines ever).

That was the end of an era. Black Market Music followed suit, bringing them tons of new fans, but showing an "aging" (for lack of a better term, though seems akward considering most of the music I listen to is courtesy old or dead people) Placebo. The artistic and intellectual vision and intensity of the previous two albums was lacking, but it was (and is... why the hell am I using past tense? oh well) still a wonderful album, despite its often confessional nature. But there was still a spark, a certain intangible something, and the album seemed to create a life (albeit a slightly more boring life).

So along comes Sleeping With Ghosts. When news of the album hit the internet, I was thrilled... just the title of the album is genius... it sums up so much of what I feel (see the old/dead musicians comment above) and what I felt Placebo's early music possessed. So, I bought the album expecting MY Placebo to be back. So wrong. The album is drenched in mundane filler, as if, in the process of aging, their souls died or decayed or something. The album possesses no soul, no spark, nothing... no expression or life, only a trail of sad confessions and "used to be"s. The lyrics are vapid and one dimensional ("this happened to me... it was bad... be sad" sums up most of the songs) in meaning, not to mention the almost complete lack of word play and logic twists that once defined Placebo. The music is also bland alterna-rock BS... very few of the awkward rhythms and interplay of yore, much more straight-forward, well, alterna-rock.

And no, I don't dislike the album because they changed... Many bands change and do it well (they manage to change their style while maintaining a universal spark of some sort), and even Without You I'm Nothing is quite different from the self-titled. I dislike this album not because the style is different, but because there's nothing there to define Placebo... nothing to give the album life. That being said, "This Picture', "Sleeping With Ghosts', and "Special Needs" ARE great songs. The only problem is, they're the only great songs on the album, and only 2 or 3 other songs are even good (to be honest, half the album is unlistenable garbage... what the hell is "Plasticine"?).

I'm giving the album 3 stars just because I can't bear to give them lower... they were once one of my favorite bands, and may be again. We'll see what happens with the next album.