great album and cover cd completely spoiled by having copy protection.
Not being able to rip this album for my own use is bad enough but having to listen through a poor player with virtually no controls at VERY poor quility 40kbs on album and 128 on covers is outrageous. its one thing to be against piracy it is another to rip off fans using shoddy technology.
if i buy an album I should be able to decide how i listen to it, on cd player (which doesnt work properly with many cracks and pops throughout the album) on pc, which cant have other heavy use programs running in the background because the stand alone player uses lots of resources (never had a problem with windows media, vlc player, nero player etc..) or ripped to my mp3 player, with cant be done because it is copy protected. well this means infact in order to listen to the album that i will have to find an illegal copy online to download , because i refuse to buy it again from itunes as i have already bought it once.and why didnt i just buy from itunes originally you may ask--well i like having a hard copy incase ipod or pc hard disc dies, because itunes have proved unreliable in the past with storing bought tracks and also with replacing tracks previously bought even though liscense was provided.

This album is a perfect example of a band using up all the best songs assingles. The first single taken from it was 'The Bitter End' and that iseasily the best song on here. 'This Picture' and 'Special Needs' were alsoreleased but I've found these songs do not age very well as I have quicklygot bored of them. And if you heard the brilliant remix of 'English SummerRain' that was released for the single be prepared for disappointment, theoriginal on here is nowhere near as good.
The only other decent songis 'Protect Me From What I Want' at the end of the album but it reallyisn't anything special. This album is full of half-assed tracks and BrianMolko's voice really starts to get irritating (see the awful'Plasticine).
As for the second disc. Its rubbish, don't bother. Itjust adds insult to injury that I've already sat through a mediocre albumand then I hear some of my favourite bands desecrated completely.
For those of you who don't yet own anything by Placebo, I definitlyrecommend starting somewhere else, either the debut self-titled album orthe 'Without You I'm Nothing' album.

As a "mega" fan of Placebo myself - I bought the original single CD version of the album - The album is simply brilliant - If you think Placebo is past its peak you're wrong this is superb - This Band is so under-rated! This is easily the best album in the last 2 years - unlike most bands nowadays each song is so individual and unique - Could Placebo be the best band ever? - if you're fortunate enough not to own it yet buy this version and you even get a 2nd CD (although I do feel a bit ripped off I didn't get this version myself - blame the record company though!)

Fantastic album that hasn't been given enough credit! My 4 year old son thinks they are great.

Don't let the fact that Placebo released this special edition after the one-disc original repel you from the music altogether - "Sleeping With Ghosts" is a wonderful record brimming with musical diversity, beautiful instrumentals and Brian Molko's awesome vocals. My favorite track is the soft and sensual "Special Needs", evocative and atmospheric to a point that it's haunting. Since I've actually heard the second disc, I don't know much about what the special edition entails but BUY this record - this is high quality music that can't be beaten.