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Geffen
Released: April 12, 2005 |
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Garbage
On the day Garbage gathered in Wisconsin to start work on their fourth record, they came up with the glittering and steely “Right Between the Eyes” in all of 30 minutes. Things would not go quite so well with Bleed Like Me again.
The band battled illness, surgery, creative disagreements, major life changes and—depending who you ask—either a break-up or a much-needed sabbatical. But nothing good comes easy… and Bleed Like Me is simply smashing. From the lusty, masochistic skronk of album opener “Bad Boyfriend” to the industrial-strength protest-pop of “Metal Heart” to the hauntingly transgressive title track, it’s everything that you’d expect from one of the past decade’s most acclaimed and innovative bands: Sexy, sonically ambitious, loud, emotionally fraught and catchy as can be.
Shirley Manson, Butch Vig, Duke Erikson and Steve Marker are true musical soulmates, equally in love with experiments and bubblegum, with noise and beauty, always welding bright sounds, big hooks and bigger melodies to Manson’s goth-glam sensibility and innate Scottish pessimism. They were, in fact, a family— and in a family, there’s always gonna be some conflict and dysfunction.
“It got pretty dark there, that’s for sure,” says Erikson, ever the voice of reason. “All four of us might have been willing to just let it go.” It wasn’t so much the drama as “no one was agreeing on the direction of the music,” he continues. “At different times, different band members would come up with stuff, but the other three wouldn’t be on board. When you lose that common bond of the music, you’ve got nothing.”
Good thing this story has a happy ending. “What we realized, after we did take five months off to sort of reassess,” says Marker, “was, we’ve been through all this other bullshit...”
“And we still want to do it,” finishes Manson. “All the bands that came out back when we did are gone, but we’re still standing, wanting to make records, regardless of success or expectations or other outside forces. That’s a really empowering feeling, and I think it helped us make the record that we wanted in the end.”
All of Bleed Like Me sounds great. Buzzsaw guitars give “Why Do You Love Me” an overtone that’s sinister as much as pleading, with a melody that Vig describes as Spectoresque. “Sped-up girl group,” Erikson agrees. The funky, destined-to-be-a-dancefloor-classic “Boys Wanna Fight” takes a sassy, indirect jab at world affairs, while the cutting, sing-song “Sex Is Not the Enemy” takes a direct one at so-called moral leaders. The slow-building sparks of “Happy Home” and the ballad “It’s All Over But the Crying” are all the more gorgeously vulnerable amidst the anger and distortion of the other songs.
And just as that moment prompted Vig to reflect on where he’s been and what he’s done as a producer, Bleed Like Me has him marvelling at Garbage. “We have accomplished a lot more as a band than I ever thought we would,” he says.
“To even get to make a fourth record is incredibly lucky,” Manson echoes. "We have this incredibly long history. I think we’re amazed by that, and proud of it.”
“It really is hard to stay together as a group, it'd be so easy to just pursue our own individual desires," she continues. "But I still believe in the notion of a band-- that people can come together and find a way to work on something together. I’m still in love with the romance of rock’n’roll.”
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