Garbage – Not Your Kind of People

Garbage have never been a band of much substance but at their peak they produced some brilliantly damaged pop music. Not Your Kind of People contents itself with refining an established musical palette but the frisson of their best work is in short supply. Whilst it would be unreasonable to expect Shirley Manson to resurrect her supervixen persona in 2012, it would have probably been more engaging than the stream of earnest platitudes that saturate the album.

Opener Automatic Systemic Habit sets the tone by seeing how much lyrical barrel-scraping it can get away with before veering recklessly into ‘80s Eurodance territory; the album’s title track is a pitifully cloying outsiders’ anthem and Beloved Freak... well, take a guess. Sonically it’s robust enough but Garbage never once deign to leave their comfort zone throughout the duration.