Genre: Pop Rock
Label Number: B0004195-12
© 2005 Geffen Records
AllMusic Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
© 2005 Geffen Records
AllMusic Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
As polished and professional as it was, Garbage's third album, Beautiful Garbage,
killed whatever momentum the quartet had as the LP commercially crashed
and burned not long after its fall 2001 release. Subsequently, the band
faded out of view, taking a long hiatus before regrouping in 2004 to
record their fourth album, Bleed Like Me,
which was finally released in the spring of 2005. Although it was
released halfway through the first decade of the 21st century, it
belongs to the midpoint of the last decade of the 20th century, sounding
like a virtual Cliff Notes of the sounds, themes, and styles of the
post-grunge '90s. As they beefed up the guitars, the band have toned
down some of the electronica underpinnings that have been present since
their debut -- they've not been excised, merely subdued, so this is
still recognizably the work of a group that called their second album Version 2.0 with their tongue firmly planted in cheek. But Garbage don't just hark back to their earlier work on Bleed Like Me, they conjure all kinds of ghosts from the '90s, building "Sex Is Not the Enemy" on a Kim Deal bassline, while pasting together a guitar riff straight off of Stone Temple Pilots' Purple and a chorus from Elastica's
classic "Stutter" for the album's first single, "Why Do You Love Me."
Other sounds of the '90s flutter throughout the album -- the title track
reaches back even further, as its cavalcade of misfits uncannily
recalls Lou Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side" in its structure, sentiment, and melody -- while lead singer/lyricist Shirley Manson
trots out a litany of doomed relationships, kinky sex, wallowing
despair, teenage cutters, and hostile confrontations, all topics that
were de rigueur for '90s alt-rock. Manson
doesn't seem like she's pandering -- several songs appear to cut close
to the bone, suggesting that she's been through a particularly painful
breakup recently -- and neither do the band. They're all old pros and
they construct their music well, so it's hooky and loudly stylish.
Problem is, it's a style that's about ten years out of date. Bleed Like Me
doesn't sound like a revival, it feels like it's out of time, as if the
band doesn't quite know how to do anything else but sound like it's the
heyday of post-grunge alt-rock. Since the band's drummer and chief
sonic architect, Butch Vig, helped create that sound with the albums he produced for Nirvana, the Smashing Pumpkins, Sonic Youth, and L7,
that's not a surprise, nor is it necessarily a disappointment, because
the music is not bad. He and his colleagues remain talented, capable
professionals, crafting an appealing, tightly constructed album that
plays to the group's strengths. It's an enjoyable record, but it's hard
to escape the nagging feeling that Garbage
has painted itself into a corner: they haven't found a way to expand
their sound, to make it richer or mature -- they can only deliver more
of the same. While they may be able to do this well, it is nevertheless
more of the same.
tags: garbage, bleed like me, 2005, flac,
