Has anyone really been waiting up nights for another Garbage album? No? Well, the alt-rock studio rats and their firebrand frontwoman Shirley Manson have returned, anyway, refreshed and reinvigorated after nearly breaking up. But even though “Bleed Like Me” sounds straight out of 1997, the album’s much better than it could have been. It helps that the band has returned to the razor-sharp dynamic shifts of their debut, which lifts songs such as “Run Baby Run” and “Sex is Not the Enemy” into the stratosphere. More to the point, Manson sounds more focused than ever, and if her downright adolescent stabs at provocation frequently come off precious, they also strike just the right tone for the malcontent teen in all of us.
Best track: The ultraproduced “Why Do You Love Me,” which sounds like a collaboration between Polly Harvey and Courtney Love fronting a reunited Elastica.–joshua klein, redeye special contributor
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Edited by Cara DiPasquale (cdipasquale@tribune.com) and Victoria Rodriguez (vrodriguez@tribune.com)
