Garbage - Bleed like me

year: 2005 Genre Alternative Rock

review: Garbage deserve credit for one thing in particular; remaining true to their roots. However, that may also make it the primary weakness of this record as well. Shirley Manson and Co. have always ventured into the metaphoric dirt under their fingernails and incorporating these themes of heartbreak, betrayal and coping into the songwriting, with the meaty hooks. "Bleed Like Me" continues to walk upon that familiar territory, though the production is more polished than ever before. However, many of the songs alone, despite some effort, end up sounding cliched or formulaic, adjectives Garbage have never really been equated with. Garbage remain one of the better Alternative artists out there, but this is their weakest of their four releases to date and if they want to maintain that early integrity from here on, perhaps the advice to them would be to not just dig under the fingernails and write of the dirt, but mature on and write of the learning experience from it.