They’re Only Feelings, Baby

Garbage “Felt”

So, as it turns out, Garbage can be an exceptional shoegazer band when they want to be one. I kinda wish they wanted to be one more often – whereas a lot of their new comeback record sticks to very familiar ground for them, “Felt” highlights aspects of their sound that were always in the mix, but never quite on the surface. I appreciate Shirley Manson’s bold, snarling personality, but it’s nice – revealing, even – to hear her go soft and ethereal. She conveys a lot of uncertainty in this song, questioning whether her lover “felt anything” with her, and whether she was being fair with their relationship, and whether any of it matters at all. It’s all so open-ended that it’s hard to tell whether she’s still in the thick of this drama, or looking back on it and attempting to figure out what went wrong. It’s a pensive mood and a hazy vibe, but the song has a very solid form – all of the most shoegaze-y moments are punctuated by bold, more typically Garbage-like alt-rock hooks that sound like a mind resetting momentarily to a default position.

Buy it from Amazon.