Garbage - Strange Little Birds, review: ‘a worthy return’

Following a nostalgic 20th-anniversary edition of their self-titled debut album last year, with their new music Garbage continue to harness that mid-Nineties feeling when they were top of the tree.

Self-releasing their material since their return from a long hiatus, this sixth album comes with low commercial expectations but also no external pressure to sound current.

There’s a trip hop feel to If I Lost You’s minimal bass and drums, and their familiar industrial rock with a pop sheen has rarely been done to such exhilarating effect as on Empty.

Strident singer Shirley Manson can sound surprisingly vulnerable here and there, but is appropriately menacing on the spooky lullaby Teaching Little Fingers to Play.

Overall it’s a worthy return for a band whose moment should be long over.

(Stunvolume)