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Album reviews Music

Garbage

Rating: NNN



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The recording of Bleed Like Me, Garbage’s first album since 2001’s flop Beautiful Garbage, was reportedly marred by intra-band strife and frontwoman Shirley Manson’s lack of inspiration. No wonder the disc oozes angst and vitriol. Manson’s in decent form, spitting jealous-lover blues on first single Why Do You Love Me and channelling a broken-bird croak on the title track, a strikingly understated and affecting ode to self-destructing misfits that wouldn’t be out of place in the Velvets’ canon. But while Bleed Like Me starts strong, propelled by Dave Grohl’s meaty pounding on Bad Boyfriend, it stalls midway through, mired in tired rehashes of overproduced late-90s Britrock. The “history repeating” lyrical motif of the warmed-over Elastica track Sex Is Not The Enemy made me wonder if Garbage were all, like, meta-smart. Then I realized they were just tapped for ideas.

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