Funny to see the split on opinions about their previous album BeautifulGarbage. First time I heard it, I thought it was weird, but still good. Just different. Apparently a lot of Garbage fans were put off by it. Now, I’ll admit I still think Version 2.0 is their best disc, but that doesn’t make BeautifulGarbage bad. I like BG better than their first disc.
Anyway, I’ve been through Bleed Like Me probably a dozen times now and it’s decent, but nothing to write home about. As mentioned, some of the tracks are really simplistic (lots of choruses which simply repeat the same phrase over and over); overall it’s certainly not as complex an album as BeautifulGarbage. While simple, though, some of the tracks are pretty catchy. It is definitely more of a rock album than BeautifulGarbage and probably more than even their first two.
Taken as a straight rock album, it’s good but not a huge standout. I really like Shirley’s voice, which is worth a lot. Now that Curve is no more (sniff) and Kate Bush is long retired, Garbage is the flagbearer for female lead singers for me. I like her edgy and loud, so I don’t care much for most of the mellower tracks of theirs. However, I do sort of like the title track. I think the top track, though, is “Why Do You Love Me”–Shirley seems to be channeling Debbie Harry on that one. Yes, that’s praise. Other standouts for me are “Bad Boyfriend” and “Why Won’t You Come Over” (despite being one of the repetitive-chorus tunes). There are losers on this disc as well, which I won’t single out by name.
So it’s an OK disc. There are certainly some good tracks, but it has it’s share of weaker ones as well.