"Garbage's third album, Beautiful Garbage, was as polished and professional as it could be, but it destroyed whatever momentum the quartet had as commercially the LP crashed and burned out shortly after its release in autumn 2001. The band disappeared from sight after that, taking an extended hiatus before regrouping in 2004 to record their fourth album, Bleed Like Me, which was finally released in the spring of 2005. Although released in the middle of the first decade of the 21st century, the album is set in the middle of the last decade of the 20th century and sounds like a virtual directory of the sounds, themes and styles of '90s post-grunge. By beefing up the guitars, the band have muted some of the electronic notes that have been present since their debut - they haven't been removed, just muted, so this is still recognisable work from the band. But Garbage don't just revisit their early work on Bleed Like Me, they pull in all sorts of '90s imagery, building the song "Sex Is Not the Enemy" on Kim Deal's bass line, and for the album's first single, "Why Do You Love Me," they used a guitar riff from Stone Temple Pilots' "Purple" and the chorus from Elastica's classic "Stutter."
Since the band's drummer and chief sound architect Butch Vig helped create this sound on albums he produced for Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Sonic Youth and L7, it's neither surprising nor disappointing because the music isn't bad at all. He and his colleagues are still talented, capable professionals who have created an attractive, tightly-composed album that plays to the band's strengths."
- Stephen Thomas Erlewine. allmusic.com
