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
don't just hark back to their earlier work on
, 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 remain talented, capable professionals, crafting an appealing, tightly constructed album that plays to the group's strengths. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine