With diminishing sales and dwindling public interest, Placebo were beginning to look like a band on its last legs. All the more surprising, then, that the multinational gothic trio should return to the fray with an album as accomplished and self-confident as Sleeping With Ghosts. Brian Molko's androgyny may have lost its novelty value, but he remains one of the more charismatic frontmen around - and his new songs are arguably the best he's ever written, dark, ominous and curiously compulsive. Stefan Olsdal and Steve Hewitt, meanwhile, rise to the occasion by brewing up a mighty storm of techno-enhanced rock, an agreeably bombastic sound that's occasionally reminiscent of early U2. True, Molko's vocals border on the whiny at times and his self-absorption can be more than a little irritating. But for the first time, Placebo have backed up their impeccable style with a certain amount of substance - and suddenly they look like a band that could be here for the long haul after all.

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