After the commercial and critical failure that was Garbage's last album Beautiful Garbage (this critic however, considered it to be their best and most daring) Shirley Manson and the boys have taken a step back toward mainstream rock with Bleed Like Me, their latest and certainly most generic release to date. You can't blame these guys for trying to return to their bread and butter sound, but Bleed Like Me sounds like a band that's trying too hard to pander to radio programming directors. Take for instance their newest single "Why Do You Love Me?" a bland slab of boring rock that takes zero chances; mundane guitar riffs with an uncomplicated chorus that's easy to sing along to, but not worth the breath. Other tracks like "Sex Is Not The Enemy" and "Boys Wanna Fight" are weak offerings primarily due to lame lyrics on Manson's part. Also, for a band comprised of three super producers (Butch Vig in particular) the sound is anything but challenging or dynamic and with a few exceptions, a better title would've been Bland Like Me.

There are a few tunes here where Garbage does get it right. "Run Baby Run" is by far the stand-out track here, very reminiscent of Version 2.0's "Special," and why it wasn't the first single is the 64,000 dollar question for Garbage's label, Geffen Records. The self-titled track is one of the most serious songs that Manson has ever written, and also one of the best. Those two tracks however are not nearly enough though to save this album from its own play-it-safe mission statement.