Garbage - 'Bleed Like Me' (Warner Bros) Released 11/04/05

Garbage’s first record in four years also marks the ten-year anniversary for the band, which has a high-profile slot at this year’s Download Festival.  Talking about the album’s recording, vocalist Shirley Manson says “the boys went in and set up amps and made it super loud and just played.  I think you can feel that.” Sounds interesting, then.

Crunching guitars introduce ‘Bad Boyfriend’, which features Dave Grohl on drums, and any fears that the band have changed are immediately removed – it's trademark Garbage.  Manson sounds sexy singing “I’ve got something special for my bad boyfriend”; and it makes for a solid opening. Then, ‘Run Baby Run’ ups the tempo, but unfortunately doesn’t build much on the promising start, whilst ‘Right Between The Eyes’ suffers from the lack of an actual chorus. Lead single ‘Why Do You Love Me’ is a highlight and sees the band get into top gear with a rasping riff, bass driven verses, and a frantically catchy chorus. Title track ‘Bleed Like Me’ is calmer and shows restraint, which judging on this, doesn’t play to the band’s strengths.

Elsewhere, ‘Metal Heart’ is impressive and employs the use of strings; as well we having a thumping drum beat when finally kicking into life.  ‘Sex Is Not The Enemy’ features seductive ‘ooh ooh’ backing vocals with a catchy and simple chorus, all built on a driving bass riff, which contrasts greatly to ‘It’s All Over But The Crying’, an engaging and mournful piano ballad.  ‘Why Don’t You Come Over’ is a high-octane track, before the epic ‘Happy Home’.  A dark intro gradually builds with guitar and piano, before a rousing chorus.  It’s ending is unnecessarily long, bringing to a close an album which is safe if unspectacular.