Bleed Like Me, released in April 2005, is an album that appeals to my teenage angst side. It's full of attitude, catchy guitar riffs and Shirley Manson's inimitable vocal style. An album filled with misery and inevitable unhappy endings delivered by Manson's emotionally cutting, biting and scratching vocals.
Track listing:
1. Bad Boyfriend
2. Run Baby Run
3. Right Between The Eyes
4. Why Do You Love Me
5. Bleed Like Me
6. Metal Heart
7. Sex Is Not The Enemy
8. It's All Over But The Crying
9. Boys Wanna Fight
10. Why Don't You Come Over
11.Happy Home
Manson's dirt-tinged, sleazy vocals in Bad Boyfriend coupled with the catchy guitar riffs and Dave Grohl's guest drum work make for a cracking grungy rock opener. Run Baby Run and Right Between The Eyes are less dirty than Bad Boyfriend, more reminiscent of earlier Garbage featuring cleaner guitar lines, catchy riffs and Manson at her best.
The self-doubting Why Do You Love Me opens with a lively and infectious guitar riff and continues increasing the intensity with full-on choruses alongside a wealth of catchy rock riffs and lively, sing-along vocals. Perfect pop-rock, sung with a brilliant mixture of vulnerability and ballsy screw-you attitude.
The title track is a painful set of individual stories which ought to touch any but the most ice cold soul. Individuals with problems that most of us could relate to laid out for the world to see. "After 1 drink he's a loser, after 2 drinks he's a star" – who can't relate to that?! Haunting vocals mixed with simple, clean guitar lines and ending with Manson singing, "you should see my scars" add up to a slower, filled with emotional power.
The sampled drums and synth pads juxtaposed to the full-on rock guitars and drums make Metal Heart significantly from the rest of the album is more of a musical exploration than anything. Manson's characteristic vocals may not be as prominent it still is a great yet slightly different track. This is followed by the weakest track on the album Sex Is Not The Enemy, a perfectly adequate track, just not having the bite of other tracks on the album.
It's All Over But The Crying is an excellently constructed, angst-ridden track that lays Manson and her vocals bare. "Fade to black, I'm sick of trying" is a line that plenty of people can relate to when a tough day gets the better of them. Boys Wanna Fight, a track with fantastic sampled drum beats, contains a chorus that makes you want stick it to the man, dance-rock at its best. Listen to this at high volume and you will inevitably fail at not trying to dance to this track.
Why Don't You Come Over is classic Garbage with catchy riffs, plenty of energy and a "take me on if you think you're hard enough" attitude. Happy Home is a long way from being "happy"; however it is beautiful track that is strangely uplifting. It ends the album with more of a whimper than a bang, leaving you feeling quietly contemplative compared to the blood pressure raising angst ability of many of the previous tracks.This is an album to scream along to when you've had the worst of it, or you want to share your pain with someone who feels the same way as you do, you could do a lot worse than joining Shirley Manson in her pain-infected delivery of this album.
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