Unfortunately, Garbage's fourth album Bleed Like Me is exactly what it says on the tin.
After the commercial disappointment of the musically adventurous Beautiful Garbage, the band is trying very hard to reassert itself with big rock guitars anchored to big rock effects but it somehow never manages either to sound big enough or to rock hard enough.
The band have spent four years finding their way back to the grungy guitars, girl-group melodies and adolescent angst that made them famous.
But Bad Boyfriend, about a boyfriend who's bad but in a good way, is a surprisingly timid opener, and even Dave Grohl's drums can't liven up it up.
Shirley Mansun's lyrics seem uninspired and awkward and the album trundles through scathing song after scathing song, becoming increasingly more tiresome.
Listening to Bleed Like Me may give you an overwhelming desire to fling it where it really belongs - with the rest of the garbage.
CS
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