Fridae

To call someone an androgyne is to describe him or her as somebody who gives the impression of having both a male and a female sexual identity.

Yeah, honey, that's probably half of the world's gay population we're talking about. I'm sure many of you have spent countless sleepless nights trying to figure out what shade of eye shadow would go well with your new cream three-piece suit you're wearing for tomorrow's 8 a.m. meeting. Now don't you dare deny it!

For those still in denial, Garbage has some words of wisdom in Androgyny, the first single off beautifulgarbage. "Boys in the girls room / Girls in the men's room" describes succinctly what happens in gay hangouts around the world when drag queens powder their noses profusely after casually using the urinals. I'm sure Garbage didn't have this in mind when writing the lyrics�or did they?

An oxymoron in itself, beautifulgarbage fuses both the "feminine" and "masculine" aspects of their music into a palatable and radio-friendly concoction. The usual masculine Garbage is here in tracks like Shut Your Mouth, Til The Day I Die and Silence Is Golden while the "beautiful" feminine elements come forth as ballads (yes, real ballads!) such as the heartrending Cup Of Coffee and Drive You Home. The latter succinctly describes how sometimes it seems that your faults are so great that the only thing left to say is "I never said I was perfect".

Then there are some unusual but not dissonant bits here and there. Examples are those church bells in Can't Cry These Tears Anymore, which remind me of '50s wedding songs, and those corny claps (no, not the kind you get after a bad date) in Cherry Lips (Go Baby Go!) that is reminiscent of something the Go-Go's might have put out.

Devastatingly beautiful.