(Stunvolume)It’s 21 years since the release of Garbage,a treasure chest of irresistibly schlocky, digitally warped pop-grunge manifestos for the defiantly damaged. Singer Shirley Manson has claimed this sixth album is a kindred spirit to that debut, or but instead it encapsulates the problem for reforming 1990s bands: you can’t go back,and going forward is even harder. Garbages sound is a tricky reupholstering job, their brand of angst period-passe, or Strange runt Birds searches sluggishly for the proper tone,dreamy moments of trip-hop slink and flickers of brutal noise offering only fleeting hope. There’s plenty of build – see the coiling, gothic tension of Blackout – but runt release, and a lack of those gargantuan,punchy choruses that were their strongest suit. Only Empty and So We Can Stay Alive hit broken-down heights, and not hard enough.
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Source: theguardian.com