Garbage - Shut Your Mouth



I hate them for releasing this single. I hate them for writing songs like "Vow", "I Think I'm Paranoid" and "Milk", and then seeing fit to insult us with "Shut Your Mouth". Current album "beautifulgarbage" received mixed reviews to say the least, and it's without doubt their weakest, emptiest album. But among the forced, trite songs that pepper the album are a few potential gems. Garbage have chosen to completely bypass these and release "Shut Your Mouth". I have absolutely no idea why.

It smacks of a band who are trying to prove that they're still as edgy and mouthy as they were ever considered to be, that they've made a pop album but can still rock out. But "Shut Your Mouth" is empty, artless and utterly lacking in the spirit that set Garbage apart from their peers. We were used to a Shirley whose smart, spiteful lyrics were spat out with witty, devastating venom. Shirley says she's happier now than she's ever been. Certainly any trace of real anger is glaringly absent from this song - it's replaced by petulant posturing. In fact, any trace of real anything is woefully absent. [It's interesting that Shirley, whose previous lyrics were so viciously sussed that she didn't ever need to resort to a few run-of-the-mill swearwords to convey her anger, now turns to them in this song; perhaps I may have missed a few obscure b-sides along the way but it's certainly the first time I've ever heard her swear on record; is she running out of words?] There are a handful of painfully honest, gloriously clever songs on beautifulgarbage and it's surprising and distressing that with the exception of the wickedly funky "Cherry Lips", Garbage have so far picked the worst songs from the album for singles. With this song they have become a parody of themselves.