Album Review: Garbage - The Absolute Collection

One remains somewhat dubious when one studio album is book-ended by two different compilations in a band's discography. Similarly titled with a tracklist far too similar to 2007's Absolute Garbage, fans have every right to feel short-changed. But with an Aussie tour on the horizon, Liberation have abandoned promotion of Not Your Kind Of People (released just nine months ago) to trot out old tricks to sell those tickets. The brilliant lead single Blood For Poppies (one of just two ...People tracks included here) was the sound of the four band members finally pulling in the same direction for the first time since their second album. Alarmingly, it took just over 8,000 sales of ...People to scrape into the UK Top 10 (before promptly disappearing without trace). It's enough to make one empathise with Shirley Manson's sourness.

But all that aside, is The Absolute Collection worth having? Six songs come from their near perfect debut, four from the very worthy sequel, so that's half the album assured of quality. The six songs from Beautiful Garbage and Bleed Like Me struggle to be anything more than filler fodder as a mid-career pattern emerges of strong lyrical intent with dull execution. Cherry Lips, despite being a torchsong of transgender empowerment is naff, while the cancer-themed Tell Me Where It Hurts should be heart-wrenching but bores one into a coma. At least the 20 tracks finish with a trifecta of perfection (Milk, Push It and #1 Crush from the Romeo & Juliet soundtrack), which mask the inconsistency of the disc and prompt another spin. In all it's 60% beautiful, 40% garbage.