Garbage

Garbage.
*Garbage
*Version 2.0
*Beautifulgarbage
*Bleed Like Me


Garbage - Almo Sounds 1995.
Rating = 5

Pre-review comment: I just read an article in Spin magazine that says that Shirley Manson wrote all her own lyrics for this record. Rather than put forth any effort and actually correct my factually inaccurate review (which I wrote a couple of months ago), I'm going to leave it as it is - just know that I was wrong in assuming that Butch wrote the lyrics! Another thing I'd like to mention is that, in re-reading this review, I realize that I am far too rough on Butch Vig. By all accounts, he's a very nice man, and after contributing all that he has to the music world for nearly TWENTY YEARS, it's only far that he finally gets his due and makes some money. I still don't much care for about half of the album, but I'd like to take back all the mean things I said about Vig in the review - at the time, I didn't know that he and his band buddies were nearly forty. That kinda changes everything! Who'da thought that a bunch of forty-year-olds (Shirley's thirty, but the others are fortyish) could so accurately capture the spirit of today's youth music? There. I've made my peace. Now here's my obnoxious review, most of which (aside from the unnecessary personal attacks) I still stand by. I don't know why I was so rude in this review. I had been on a hiatus from my site for a while, so maybe I had just forgotten how to write a decent review or something. Ah, whatever. Here's the review!

Perfectly average. This crap is so obviously geared towards radio success and nothing more, it kind of pains me to review them alongside all the other actual BANDS of which I'm so very fond, but dammit, every once in a while a fellow's gotta touch base with his generation, no matter how embarrasingly misguided one's generation might be. Garbage is the studio creation of Killdozer catalog and Nevermind producer Butch Vig (I guess he produced some other albums too, but they were probably all as mediocre as this one), who, I must admit, certainly does have that sterile bullshit '90s production down pat - for all I know, he invented it!!!

But Butch's studio savvy ain't the main draw here, of course. No sir, not nary a unit would have sold had he not recruited sex kitten tease dominatrix whatever Shirley Manson to head up the band and give frat guys boners. What does she actually look like? Who knows? MTV can make anyone look young and sexy (that butt-ugly No Doubt girl, for example). How does she actually think? Who knows? Butch wrote all the lyrics for her!! (So the rumor goes, anyway). This is all nonsense. You buy into this crap, you're a fool. All four of the singles, or what I believe to be the singles ("Queer," "Only Happy When It Rains," "Vow," and "Stupid Girl") are really catchy in a dark club dancey kinda way, as is a great fifth song, "As Heaven Is Wide," which grooves along menacingly like old Nitzer Ebb, but the rest of the album sounds like Madonna outtakes. Really drab dull slow lifeless alternative indecencies. You don't need this kind of entertainment. I'll admit that I haven't really kept up with today's hot popular sounds of youth, so let me know if I'm wrong here, but if Garbage is typical of the kind of greed-driven drivel (or "dribble," as many a bright AC/DC fan has referred to my Ballbreaker review as, as) that MTV is shoving down the pancrei of image-hungry kids these days, it's no dang wonder that the music industry is in the toilet.

Oh, I forgot. The lyrics are shit, too. All the sorts of sultry angry young things that Butch would have his non-existent dream girl say ("I came to put you up/I came to knock you down/I came around to tear your little world apart"). Oh, I don't know. I could be way off. It could be from the point of view of an abusive husband for all I know. How much attention do you expect me to pay to this crap anyway? I've got Cows to listen to, thanks!!!! In conclusion, let me just stress once again that I have no need for music that panders shamelessly to an alternative nation of idiot kids so blinded by MTV's laughably prefabricated image of what it means to be "cool" that they'll buy ANYTHING AT ALL if the band looks young and hip and smokes rebellious cigarettes in the video and has a glossy dancey sound designed to pander shamelessly to an... - Hey, I just wrote myself into a circle! Let me apologize. I'm not a very good writer.

But hey! Neither is Butch Vig!!!

Reader Comments

khrystynah@hotmail.com (Khrystynah Foster)
um, gee...that bad eh? well, the first time i heard their stuff it was at a show. and even though i totally agree with the lyric thing, they rock live. she knows how to move a crowd. so she has no writing talent, who cares? if she can rock a live show then i say let her off. i mean, i love Beck... but live? please. i will never pay to see him live again. he's a studio man. at least shirley can take it to the street, beeotch. (but i do hate the album)

noble@mindspring.com (Chris Noble)
Damn Prindle! Why didn't you just put a picture of a pile of feces and post it in the place of that review? You've really mastered the scathing review, I must say. Your instinctive hatred of anything in the Hot 100 has paid off. Of course, slamming albums by anyone for the past couple of years is like shooting fish in a barrel.

OK, the Garbage disc is processed-pat-ready-for-consumption-market-aimed poo, but it's got a good beat and you can dance to it. All right, I admit it: I just like Shirley Manson. Everything else about this band can piss off.

G.H.A.vanHagen@kub.nl (Gilbert van Hagen)
I actually like this record. Hey, in fact, I even like some of the songs of the Spice Girls debut. Could it be that I'm brainwashed by MTV and its Dutch equivalent, TMF? Could it be that I'm just a horny 20-something year old single guy, who starts to dribble whenever Shirley Manson or spice girl Geri stick out their breasts towards the TV camera? Not unlikely. I suppose that if sexy Khrystynah (see the picture on her homepage) would be the lead singer of a band whose videos are in heavy rotation on MTV, I'd also like her songs -- whatever they would sound like. So what? I bet you also drink Coca or Pepsi Cola and eat your hamburgers at McDonalds!

SupaviXen2@aol.com
Well, I love the album. Go ahead and call me a loser but in my mind it's a brillant album. I'm a girl so i'm not so easily influenced by "sexy" women. The beats are clubby and lyrics rock. Shirley's vocals sound like she is stoned half the time though..but that's another brillant part of Garbage. The manical vocals that can drive u crazy. well it's my opinion...and i don't give a high-five fook if u don't agree.

Blademate@aol.com
I am a Grateful Dead fan, a Phishhead, a Widespread Panic guy, a... well, you get the idea. I like jam bands, the LEAST radio-friendly music in the world, and... yep, that's right, I REALLY LIKE GARBAGE! Their songs may be rather short, but what little there is is really good, no matter what anyone else says. Sure, their singles are overplayed, but nobody's perfect. Ever see them in concert? They are obviously quite creative when seen live, and you can tell even more after listening to the album for the tenth time. It's a good, solid band, and they may have sold out a bit, but they're still good... EVEN CUTE LITTLE SHIRLEY!

pmtapia@worldnet.att.net (The Chameleon)
Yeah I don't have this album...but I'd just like to say I really think this band blows. THEY FUCKING SUCK!!! I can't stand "Only happy when it rains"!! They played it to fucking death on the radio..it sucked to begin with!!! Maybe this is me talking but I hate Shirley Manson's voice. It's so...weak. Or maybe this is because I hate popular music..the fact of the matter is when will all you dumb fucks learn this music is so un-inspired and worthless!! Another thing in response to Blademate....you fucker!!!! I hate Phish..I can't stand that band. If I ever find you I will definitely fuck you up. I will shove some Danzig, Iron Maiden, Pantera, and Slayer down your throat so you can see what real kick ass music is all about motherfucker!! God I can't take it!! I hate Grateful Dead and I HATE PHISH!! Such god awful music. Alright I'll stop this insanity now.

phonz@sprintmail.com (Dan Komisar)
I agree with the Chameleon dude, Garbage does suck. Their lyrics are trendy as hell. "I'm Only Happy When It Rains" is the ultimate trendy "i hate everything" line of all time. It makes me want to puke whenever I hear it. Garbage is one of those bands that wears makeup and dances around the screen looking like they're in pain because the music is so damn uninteresting that they have to try and make up for it with their videos. I sense a little hostility in Chameleon against Phish and the Grateful Dead. He's probably a clone of one of the metal heads I see everyday that scream, "hey you damn stupid hippy! Phish sucks! You suck!!". I don't see how anyone who likes Slayer and Maiden can like Pantera and Danzig, see as the former are great and the later sucks big monkey balls. I think most of those people had traumatic experiences when their girlfriends (who all liked Phish and the Dead) dumped them because they were such assholes about music. If I said the word "Jazz" to one of them they would flip out and yell "Jazz sucks!" without ever hearing a note of it. But one things for sure... Garbage sucks royally!!

pmtapia@worldnet.att.net (The Chameleon)
In response to Dan Komiser. I say: Don't assume stuff you don't know. No, I'm not a generic metalhead that goes around wearing leather and a Pantera t-shirt. I'm not a clone of all those fucking asshole metalheads that go around wearing manson t-shirts and painting my face white. I'm not any of that. I'm just a guy that happens to have a deep hatred for phish and grateful dead because they are really terrible bands. No, I'm not a biased guy about music that will hate you if you don't like what I do. I just happen to hate phish, grateful dead and garbage. It's as simple as that. I was just in a very bad mood with Blademate because he is such a wuss. Not because of what music he likes but how he writes his comments and talks in circles, just read his U2 reviews and you'll know what I mean.

i2lapawa@unibw_muenchen.de
like almost all albums in our time.....there are only 4 5 good songs in this albums ...garbage is just a pop band donn'T serious much about them ....manson is only the sexy little thing ....just hear the songs and enjoy some hits...i think if the critiker always talk about how suck are the lyrics in these or those albums...please listen to some classical Jazz songs.......i think you can find nothing there too..anyway those songs are classic ..cuz of the instrument cuz of the melody.....well though the lyrics in this album are bad...but the rhythm and the beat can make many people dance and happy with it....well you can say it is bad album ..but for me it is not that suck ...but actually not that good too....hear it 2 months and then throw it away or sold it to secondhand cd shop.

cbunnell@ix.netcom.com (Rich Bunnell)
I completely agree with the 5, maybe a 4. There ARE some good songs like "Stupid Girl"(one of my favorites from the '90s, actually), "Queer," "Fix Me Now" and "As Heaven Is Wide" but the rest of the album is just boring, generic corporate alt-rock. "Supervixen" is such a stupid song and really starts things off on the wrong note, and very little of the album is any better. "Only Happy When It Rains" to me is one of the first offenders-- it starts out okay, but immediately the song just goes into all of that "PUUUULL YOUR MISERY DOWN!" crap. Seriously, it sounds like one of those songs manufactured for scenes in freaking teen movies where stereotypical goth guys and chicks are just sitting around being idiots and listening to crappy music like this. Where was I? Yeah, a 4 or a 5. Probably a 4.

NOSPOL@aol.com
I heard the first album and hated it! It was just genric bullshit.

The 2nd one Version 2.0 is a must buy. 10/10 for that one!

bgreenstein@nctimes.net (Ben Greenstein)
Me and my lesbian friend are both IN LOVE with Shirley Manson, so I find it kind of hard to condemn any Garbage album. Speaking from a non-sexual standpoint, though, both Garbage albums get a little old after a while - seeing as one of my other friends plays either album NONSTOP in his car - when it's over, he just lets it start over. So, I'm pretty sick of most of it, especially that one near the end of the second album, which completely rips off "Cracked Actor", one of my least favourite David Bowie songs.

That being said, I think that "I Think I'm Paranoid" and especially "Special" are two of the best songs ever written, and I will never get sick of them. But "When I Grow Up"? I appeciate the fact that such a gloomy band tries to be poppy, but why do it on such a gross song? Listen to the Cure's later albums - they were putting out pop hits at the same time as being "gothic", but those songs were all really pleasant - which is to say they don't make me want to vomit.

Oh, just thought I'd let you all know - as much as I enjoy "Special" it is a complete rippoff (or at least an obvious imitation) of one of rock's finest women - Chrissie Hynde! Everything about the song is so blatant - Shirley's vocals, the olde-style melody, even the quote "talk of the town" at the end - and the ahead of beat "looking for love" - and the standard C to Am chord progression - Hell, it's virtually a lost Pretenders song!

And if you doubt me, check out VH1's "100 Greatest Women Of Rock" - Shirley's all over Chrissie! So, it should be obvious that she's just a little posuer - and one who doesn't even look good anymore. Have you seen her lately - with that stupid slick-back ponytail? Ugh!

errado@ruralsp.com.br
Me and my heterosexual self would have Shirley Manson in a variety of ways, none of which redeem the ridiculousness of Garbage music.

ian.moss@yale.edu
Hey, I LIKE their first album! I agree it's not the most earth-shatteringly creative music ever, but I think it's really cool how they were able to create a really distinctive and catchy sound based on a very simple framework. They took what were some very standard, almost hackneyed ideas (in terms of harmonic framework, song form, etc.), added heavy distortion and industrial beats, and made it sound new and interesting. In my opinon, the first five songs are all just about perfect, and then you have "Stupid Girl," "My Lover's Box," and "Milk" on the second side too. "As Heaven Is Wide" has one of the most evil-sounding grooves I've ever heard, and I love it! I would give it a 9--it's way above the norm for "modern rock."

As for Version 2.0, well, Mark, you really need to have an official review of this one--it came out over a year ago. If you refuse to buy it for yourself, then get someone else to contribute a review instead. Anyway, my own take is that I liked it at first, but I'm liking it less as time goes on. "I Think I'm Paranoid," "Special," and "Wicked Ways" are my favorites, and "When I Grow Up" is catchy as all hell despite being a pretty stupid song. Some of the others are good, but side two drags quite a bit. Overall I'd probably give it a 7.

InMyEyes82@aol.com (Zach English)
Don't get me wrong; I have absolutely nothing against dancey beats sung by girly girls (Madonna used to kick ass), but I can't get past the blatant fucking fact that Shirley Manson's voice is chronically uninteresting. Not vital and fun like Madonna's, not unsettling and fiery like Courtney Love's, not even annoyingly precious like Alanis Morissette's...just dull. Also, apart from a few INCREDIBLE songs I've heard from this band ("I Think I'm Paranoid" and "Stupid Girl" among them), the majority of songs on both albums drag hard. Butch Vig has my eternal respect for making Nevermind sound pristine, but Garbage just leaves me cold. Oh, and "I'm Only Happy When It Rains" is NOT an acceptable rock lyric, guys.

uglytruth@hotmail.com (Hossein Nayeb)
Blah blah blah...what a whiner this Prindle guy is anyways.This is a pretty good album and I'm tired of all the hypocrite underground attitude like the one of the reviewer here.Maybe sometimes it's fun to put on an album like this when you've been listening to straightforward rock all day long.It's interesting stuff..there are a couple of lame tracks but the rest is all cool.And yes I think Shirley Manson is a babe but I still don't understand why I share this with many others.Oh well,it's good vocals...and by the way this is the only album I have with a female vocalist on.I give this a 7.

karma_j@hotmail.com (Karma J. Mustafa)
The whole garbage thing's not really all that interesting to me. What I am going to say is what the hell is that kid on about talking about them "selling out a bit"? It's their fucking debut! Even if you're talking about version 2.0, you're still an idiot. Instead of commenting on the album or the review I'm going to say that stupid kids who use buzzwords like "Sold out" or "Sell out" or even "Commercialism" piss me off. I'm not saying these things don't exist, and I'm not saying I agree with them, but it's these idiots who just throw the words around that annoy me. You know, a guy called Jeff Trotter once told me that the Venga boys were good before they sold out?

And Prindle, you're apology saddens me.

No, sickens me.

Leaves me questioning life.

You know, shirley's into that urination thing? wants a guy to "pee in her bellybutton" as she elegantly put it.

Don't go calling bands sell outs, especially on their debut albums kids. Okay, if the band sells out, go ahead, but make sure they have, right? Garbage selling out......

altrockreview@hotmail.com (Nick Collings)
I still do like Garbage's self-titled debut - it's like the other tow but better! For a start the band have watered down the songs recently and I miss the early rawness of this record from 7 years ago. And the record deserves at least a 7/10

Jes25689@aol.com
This is one of those albums that frequents in and out of my collection, and listening desires. The singles are all quite good(although the "train in vain" sample on "stupid girl" is a needless insertion; LOL, I just typed "insertion"), as is "supervixen" and "dog's new tricks". Not an essential purchase, but it definitely warrants some downloads. Certainly better than the follow-up, Version 2.0.(which creative genius spawned THAT title?) A 6.

b.t.w.: check out Garbage's great contribution to the "Romeo and Juliet" soundtrack, "#1 crush"

barnr@glasgow-ky.com
"This crap is so obviously geared towards radio success and nothing more"

Uh.. and all those early Beatles records you praise weren't? While you're only making an assumption, The Beatles openly admit that those songs were meaningless attempts at hit singles. If you think the songs are crap, fine, but this is a tad hypocritical. However, if what you say is in fact true, then I think it's pretty creative for music that's intended for a mainstream teeny-bopper audience. There's some pretty nifty noises going on there. And the fact that they're still together making another album after poor sales & little backing from their label (from what I've heard), makes me believe they may be an "actual band" after all. Or maybe they're just fulfilling contractual obligations. Whatever... I hated the next two anyway, so I won't defend them too much. But I like this one pretty well.

ddickson@rice.edu
Now wait just a ding-dang minute here. It's popular, therefore it sucks? Are you people on underground drugs? What kind of an argument is that? Do you realize that that's the SAME ARGUMENT that Bush has consistently made to justify rejecting Kyoto? You're unwittingly supporting the side of evil, dudes!

DOWN WITH WAR! AND SUV'S! AND FLORIDA! AND OHIO! AND EVERYTHING ELSE REMOTELY CONNECTED TO THE STATUS QUO!!! YEAAAH! (Howard Dean intonation)

This album isn't a classic, but it's dang good. The last three or so tracks kinda suck, but the other nine are gravy, and I mean that in a good way. In fact, they're so good, I couldn't tell which were the singles! Fancy that. Which are the singles, by the way?

Come ON, Mark. The '80's were a FAR worse decade than the '90's. You KNOW this.

btundi@emailaccount.com (Brother Dave)
I have to respond to comments of their live show. When I saw them at the 'Big Day Out' in Perth - ok so it was a hot day, ok a very hot day, but Shirley had the roadies put up an umbrella at the side of the stage for her to shade herself and its from this hidden vantage point that she did her bit as Garbage played their hits one after the other note-for-note with no improvisation or any bells and whistles of any kind whether musical, showmanship or whatever. It was just very dull and uninspiring. And no I wasn't there to see Garbage, the girlfriend (now wife) wanted to see them and she thought they sucked too.

Good to dance to in a club but don't want to hear any of it outside of one.

Add your thoughts?

Version 2.0 - Almo 1998.
Rating = 5

For the record, I completely agree with my assessment of Garbage's debut album, so a review by me of their second album would probably be roughly equivalent to what I would say were I to pick up a copy for myself.

Anyway, this album is a bit of the exact same quality as the debut album, except that the band's pretty much abandoned all of their attempts at dancey alt-rock fuzz and have now jumped on the non-existent "dance-pop bandwagon." This is especially evident in songs like "When I Grow Up" (which is apparently featured in the classic Adam Sandler cinematic wonder Big Daddy), the hit "Special" (which supposedly blatantly lifts lines from Pretenders songs, though I'm told it's deliberate) and the opener "Temptation Waits" (a decent tune and one of my four favorites from the album), all of which sound absolutely like they were pulled straight from the debut but with more of a dance beat added. Ha, I bet you forgot I wasn't wearing any pants there underneath all of those blood-sucking leeches! That's called 'passing out drunk in Madagascar'.

Anyway, the album is generally no more consistent than the debut, with the first single "Push It" sporting a terrible "dark" melody and a shitty take-off on a Beach Boys chorus and the closer "You Look So Fine" being a pretty, gentle pop song, but kind of predictable, but other than "Temptation Waits," "I Think I'm Paranoid," "Medication" and "The Trick Is To Keep Breathing," there really isn't much good on here. "Hammering In My Head" is just a horrible, directionless "tough grrl" song, "Medication" and "The Trick Is To Keep Breathing" are special ballads that I just mentioned because they're so good, and "Wicked Ways" tries to set forth a sort of novelty-esque bouncy swingin' feel with westerny guitar swoops, but the hook itself is pretty crappy. "I Think I'm Paranoid," another hit I mentioned earlier because I like it a lot, is actually very decent, but it's kind of just GOOD aside from the awesome "Bend me break me" chorus.

In conclusion, I took Rich Bunnell's review of this album (directly below this one) and simply changed a few words here and there to express my feelings about the album. Unfortunately, I have more to say, so this whole next section will not be repeated below.

This album features tons of neat guitar sounds, synth tones and up-to-the-minute studio production tricks and Shirley DOES have a very pretty voice, but too many of the songs feature one great, unpredictable set of chord changes followed by a couple others that you've heard a jillion times, including in previous Garbage songs. These tracks are mostly DARK dancey songs, with just a few moments of glee and sadness to break up Shirley's bitchy "on the rag of menstruation" mood. The dark negativity sounds a little too Nine Inch Nailsy for me, so I'm much more drawn to the lighter or more sorrowful numbers. Who needs anger in today's England? Look at Margaret Thatcher - can you believe that cunt? Maggie, you fucking cunt! Also, just to let you know where MY head's at, Mr. Person -- "When I Grow Up" makes me want to listen to the Vandals' similar-but-better "An Idea For A Movie," and "Special" features a bass line stolen either from The Beatles' "Taxman" or from one of the 14 songs by The Jam that previously stole that bass line. But believe me -- this isn't the FIRST time I've wanted to hear The Jam thrown in the GARBAGE! Hehe hhehe ehehehee that didn't work.

Garbage? More like RECYCLING, if you ask me! HAHEHAHHEheehehheehe.

CHRIST! What is this ear-SHIT? Somebody take out the GARBAGE!!!! HEHEHEHE heheheh!!! HEHAHHAOIOOHOHOHOHOHUHUHUHUHHYTHYHY!!!

Come on, give me some more Garbage jokes. I've been waiting by the phone for half an hour.

My overall point - in summation - is that Version 2.0 is a very technologically up-to-date and occasionally enjoyable album, but the band's songwriting remains really hit-your-miss. As a music fan who's heard over a dozen albums in my life, I would say I honestly REALLY LIKE four of these songs, enjoy PARTS of four others and actively fucking DESPISE the remaining four. But the whole world likes a good joke, so let me end with this: What is the best time of day to go to the dentist?

2:30!!!! HAHAHAHHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH~~~~

Oh wait, I didn't explain why it was funny. If you say "2:30" out loud, it sounds like you're saying "Tooth Hurty." HAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!! AHAHHHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!

I told that joke to my family dentist and he laughed so hard he nearly bit my dick in half!

Reader Comments

Rich Bunnell
Grade = 6/10
For the record, I completely agree with Prindle's assessment of Garbage's debut album, so a review by me of their second album would probably be roughly equivalent to what he would say were he to pick up a copy for himself.

Anyway, this album is a bit of an improvement over the debut album, in that the band's pretty much abandoned all of their attempts at dancey alt-rock fuzz and now jump on the dance-pop bandwagon. This is especially evident in songs like "When I Grow Up"(featured in the Sandler-by-numbers Big Daddy), the hit "Special"(which rather blatantly lifts lines from Pretenders songs, though it's deliberate) and the opener "Temptation Waits"(an incredibly well-produced tune and my favorite from the album), all of which sound absolutely nothing like anything from the debut. Ha, I bet you forgot there was a sentence there underneath all of those parenthetical thingies! That's called bad writing.

Anyway, the album is generally more consistent than the debut, with the first single "Push It" sporting a superb arrangement and a lifted Beach Boys chorus and the closer "You Look So Fine" being equally well-written, but other than those two songs and the three I mentioned earlier, there really isn't much good on here. "Hammering In My Head" is just a horrible, directionless mess of a song, "Medication" and "The Trick Is To Keep Breathing" are nothing-special ballads, and "Wicked Ways" tries to set forth a sort of garage-y guitar rock vibe, but it just ends up sounding dull. "I Think I'm Paranoid," another hit, is actually somewhat decent, but it's kind of annoying aside from the "Bend me break me" chorus.

In conclusion, Garbage are still a faceless studio creation and Shirley Manson is not hot.

Jeff Wilder
Garbage is one band that people seem to be divided over as indicated by the above comments for their debut album. Half of them think the album is complete shit, while the other half think it is perfect. I myself didn't like the first Garbage album at all. I borrowed it after getting Version 2.0 and liking it very much. But it was mostly generic bullshit that didn't stand out at all. Especially the hit single "I'm only Happy when it rains". "Queer" and "Stupid Girl" were the only good songs. Overall on the Prindle scale I would give it a 5.

Version 2.0 on the other hand is an album of well crafted alternative pop/rock music. I bought it after hearing the songs "Push It" and "Special" and it turned out to be one of my favorite albums.

"Temptation Waits" is the first song on the album and it sets the pace, eerie lyrics driven by industrialized rhythms. "I Think I'm Paranoid" is the sound of Shirley Manson screaming at the voices in her head to shut up while "Special" lifts lines from the Pretenders ("I thought you were special" and "We're the talk of the town") for an upbeat pop song. "When I Grow Up" is also poppy but has a hint of uneasiness beneath the surface while "Medication" recalls "Queer" but is waaay better while "Push It" is the best of the Garbage songs that became hits. Other great songs include "Sleep Together", "You Look So Fine" and "The Trick Is To Keep Breathing"

Overall one of the few really great records of 1998 and while I wouldn't quite give it a 10 a definite 9 while suffice.

foland_ratzl@hotmail.com (Roland Fratzl)
These guys are a decent pop rock band. They write a lot of cool melodies but don't ever let it get too slick...lots of cool guitar sounds, and everything they touch, no matter how commercial or mainstream it may sound, has a subtle dark edge, kinda like Blondie, another great band that deserves its own review page on this site! Their albums are still inconsistent though...I see them as more of a singles band than an album band, which is a shame. I would buy a "best of" collection by these guys any day, but I wouldn't bother with the actual studio albums.

And I'd like to bang Shirley in the ass!

edm1213@msn.com (Eric Miller)
don't know why i even bothered with this album... i only liked one song (Vow) on the first one, and to be honest i think i only like two on this (tracks 7 and 8), and they're not aging well either. 4/10 for both... I'll just state the obvious... Shirley Manson isn't Toni Halliday or Belinda Butcher, and Butch "get a good drum sound, a good guitar sound, and a great performance from the vocalist" Vig is not the production genius he'd like to think of himself as. Ah well.... why are these two albums taking up precious space in my boxes stuffed with CDs? i don't know.... I did get the second one for free. I THINK I'LL BREAK EM... YEAH YEAH BUTTHEAD! BREAK IT!!!! BREAK IT!!! STUPID GARBAGE! BREAK IT!

(various sounds from my Louisville Slugger smashing both CDs)

WHOA YEAH DESTROY! SMASH IT! YEAH YEAH! THROW IT IN THE GARBAGE! YEAH!

Antimatter rules.

Add your thoughts?

Beautifulgarbage - Interscope 2001.
Rating = 3

Although, at this writing, I have yet to hear Version 2.0 to verify that it's not comparable to Slayer's classic Reign In Blood LP, I still maintain that no other band's name has ever been more appropriate than the Rossington/Collins Band. NO WAIT A FUC

This music is garbage. Expertly-produced state-of-the-art audio with absolutely zero in the way of new musical ideas. Shirley Manson still has a nice singing voice and Butch Vig still knows how to plunder the studio for novelty effects that will make the disc sound dated as hell in three years, but most of the boring songs are pretty much unredeemable, especially with yucky yuckity yuck yucky tracks like "Androgynous" and "Untouchable" stealing tired guitar-sampling effects and irritating effiminate synth bloops from Madonna's last album, Pink's first album, J. Lo and every other weak-kneed urban r'n'b rap artist out there doing nothing new.

What happened to the BALLS of "I'm Only Happy When It Rains?" and "I'm Gonna Tear Your Little World Apart" and whatnot? There is no riot grrrrl attitude to this thing at ALL. Besides the disgusting modern-r'n'b crap, this disc is filled with nothing ballads, laughably bad show-offy electronics effect dance songs and these distorted brapps that pretend to be rock songs before abruptly shifting into the same old fake drum-driven pbbbbbbblll.

The HIGH points: The '60sy Phil Spector sound of "Can't Cry These Tears," the '60s-sounding "Little Black Egg"-style arpeggiated guitar line from the chorus of "'Til The Day That I Die," the sampled double-guitar funk riff of "Silence Is Golden" which certainly seems to be slightly ripped off from Wings' "Let Me Roll It," but you don't hear me complaining - that's the only thing I like about the song!, the pretty acoustic + delayed electric clean romantic sad guitars in "Drive You Home," that wickedass "smacking-the-drum-stick-against-the-strings" intro and catchy chorus to "Parade" and -- THE ONLY SONG ON THE ALBUM THAT I WOULD HONESTLY SAY I LIKE ALL THE WAY THROUGH -- "Breaking Up The Girl." That's a nice little song for my money. Good little melody, pretty guitar/synth wash -- the chorus would even have fit in on their first CD! Otherwise the CD is worthless. You can't even stare longingly at the Shirley Manson photo because she looks about 55 now - BLEARGH! I wish she had better material though, because seriously she's one of the VERY few female vocalists whose voice and singing style I honestly like. Off the top of my head, the only other one I can think of is that ridiculous screaming girl from that band DIRT that was on Crass's label. I love how she would yell like she was angry and then all of a sudden her voice would jump to a really high SQUEAK! to make it clear that the whole thing was just a joke to her. It's too bad that D'Arcy never sang on any of the Smashing Pumpkins albums. Because I mean her wicked bass playing MADE that band.

Does anybody still care about Garbage anyway? Do they still have hits? Are they still able to whitewash Shirley's face in the videos enough to make her seem young and attractive? Come on, you're my only barometer to the modern sounds of radio. I don't LISTEN to the shit! How do you expect me to keep up with today's hits when I'm constantly buying such classics on ebay as the entire Judas Priest catalog and Just Good Old Rock And Roll by The New Improved Electric Prunes?

Reader Comments

ian.moss@yale.edu (Ian Moss)
5/10

You know, I kinda liked this one at first, but the more I listen to it the more it sounds like a collection of faceless, manufactured slop. Maybe all you guys were right about them after all. Shirley Manson is in her usual form (vindictive) on the first track, the monolithic "Shut Your Mouth." Second follows the paleolithic "Androgyny," marking the third album in a row that G-bage has batted a major single second in the ol' lineup. Wasn't that confusing because of the dual meaning of the word "single"? Ha! That's called Semiotics.

Okay, actually I don't know what semiotics are. But you should, given the importance of obscure linguistics jargon to today's academic milieu. Who knows where postmodern poststructuralist thought would be without hermeneutics and the ever-important praxis? Somebody fetch me a phoneme.

The breakdown of the 21st-century intellectual agenda is clearly demonstrated by tracks such as "Can't Cry These Tears" and "Til The Day I Die," both of which blithely attempt to revivify mummified sociocontextual metaforms but succeed only in sucking the numerous dingleberries from my rectum. Garbage continues to live down to their name with the morose yet lugubrious "Cup of Coffee" and the charmingly stupid "Silence is Golden." Meanwhile, "Cherry Lips" could use some chapstick. (That is, unless it's about Shirley's vagina, in which case you can count me in.) (And call me Al.)

The album reaches its apotheosis with the twin tracks "Breaking Up the Girl" and "Parade," the latter obviously borrowing its name from the 1920 ballet by French composer Erik Satie. These tracks are vintage Garbage, so to speak. They both feature nice pop melodies and an earnestness that is lacking from the other selections. "Parade," in particular, almost reminds me of early U2 in this respect, as strange as that sounds.

No stranger than a piano eating hay, however, as the remaining tracks eagerly prove. "Untouchable" reaches new levels of non-obscurity and musical stagnation, while "So Like A Rose" makes me so like to apply pimple cream to my posterior. But "Drive You Home" is slightly better, even if it actually isn't, and "Nobody Loves You" was dedicated to your Mom.

And now that I have mentioned all the tracks, the circle is complete, and I am a "record reviewer." Give it five little concentric circles, for the record. In the meantime, I'm off to reify the pluralistic cultural codes ingrained in my pancreas. Call me when it's time for dinner.

ivanissimo@gmx.net (Ivan Piperov)
This is a very annoying album. Because the songsare a lil' too perfectly commercial and the production style - bah - as if it was the end of the world of something. I got it mainly because the video of Cherry Lips features them all naked or something like that. And Shirley is my favourite singerine too, because she's actually not a good one... I like the ballads best. Cup of Coffee makes me think of "Tubular Bells" everytime it's on. Just try to hum Mike Oldfield's lead guitar fills onto it. But the worst thing about this album is: IT'S TOO LONG!!! 8 or 9 songs would have been perfectly enough. After all they all sound the same. Rewrites,rewrites,rewrites... 7/10

momusm@hotmail.com (Rob Dawes)
Darcy DID sing with the Smasing Pumpkins - I'm surprised you don't mention her vocals on "Daydream" in your "Gish" review. They're unreedemably awful. It's like listening to Moe Tucker sing with the Velvet Underground, except minus the charm, musical talent and actually being in a good band.

And if I ever have to look at Shirley Manson's shitty face again I will retch. She looks like Gary Numan in drag.

octopus23@iprimus.com.au (Geoff Pola Subculture Promotions)
Well never was a band more aptly named! I have a pet hate for this mediocre bunch of studio hacks headed up by piss queen Shirley manson. Firstly anyone ever listen to JAMC "Im only happy when it rains" off of "Darklands", little similiar huh?? Well now that I brought out one of the MANY, MANY sickening musical thefts by aforemetioned hacks let me go on to tell you that this is one hell of a bland over-produced piece of shit! No surprise to hear that everyone in the band is a producer besides I have no originality Manson. No surprise to hear the rest of them are over fourty!!! Please dont mention "NEvermind", listen to "Bleach" if you want to experience how Nirvana should be produced..butch did his damdest to make even nirvana sound bland, wonder why Kurt asked Steve Albini to produce the next record??? One more sacred cow to rest. PLus L7""Smell the magic" vs ""Pretend were dead""??? Jack endino, was the sound of seatlle not fucking candy arse record company whore Butch vig!!! In final summation I have seen this band play live through-out there (Three)phases, for free I might add!! First time they were so pathetic and un-original in their stage manner it was vile. They have no more originality in their stage antics thean they do in their music! Shirls on the second unfortunate experience was singing like chrissie hynde and trying to emulate another terrible band I have seen (Also thankfully for free) No doubt!! Down to the wrist bands hair do and dance moves..it was a shameful rendition of quen de'stefanis "Look" (??). Even their change of "looks" is overly studdied..If I can say one positive thing about this band they have copied accurately from the best so I can say they are the worlds greatest music fans and tribute band! All of you who like Garbage have no sense of context or rock history. Your intellectual in-adequacies have allowed record company profits to soar from hackneyed copyists! I am afraid as often as Prindle can be a most amusing and merciless bastard with no real reason, this time he is absolutely right especially about all you mtv watching homos..you make me puke!!! PLease let me be the next one to piss on you shirley, it would be only fair as youve been shitting on us for years now! P.s. as a once part of the music industry i had a unique insight to how these "acts" were brought to the public, or should I say marketed. Never have I seen a more planned and deliberate promotion. I have seen many many gigs and love most of em, however I also am bidden to attend many I would rather miss out of social politeness, I have been recieving counselling over the garbage that has abused my senses.My counseller says I am progressing well. Oh and to the v.2 commnet ""shut the fuck up wanker all three albums are shit, utter shit""!! The only respite from their constant barrage of singles is the knowledge that she is drinking piss from someone right now,YESH!!!!!!! Lap it up baby!!!! LMAO!!

joshua_ackley@standardandpoors.com
I am actually a Garbage fan, but this is an embarrasing piece of shit-and the title is taken from the Hole song "Celebrity Skin". Get your own ideas...

uglytruth@hotmail.com (Hossein Nayebagha)
I haven't heard all of this record yet, but I never will, so here's what I have to say regarding the two songs I've heard from it, the first one which I don't even remember. "Cherry Lips" is a good pop song that I enjoy a lot, and no matter how little "innovative" it maybe faced with the edgier songs off of the debut, I'd say it's the best thing they've ever done... Apart from the 20 or so songs that I've never heard.

what.a.day.that.was@gmail.com (Alex)
I dunno exactly where this should go on the Garbage page, but somewhere... After listening to Curve's strange, compelling 1993 album Cuckoo I read that Garbage basically nicked their sound from that album. From what little I've heard I can believe it. Be warned.

opeth1213@yahoo.com
upon second listen to Version 2.0, i find i like almost half the songs, so that was really a 5/10; for those following along from my Version 2.0 reader comment, i really only broke the first album, cause that still was a 4/10. But since the first one only had two good songs and they were both Curve ripoffs (Vow and Milk), my expectations were very low for Beautifulgarbage and Bleed Like Me.

Much to my surprise, Beautifulgarbage is even worse than i expected... "Androgyny" is a god awful attempt at a hit single, with that "boys"... "girls" thing in the background being probably the most annoying thing ive heard since any Pumpkins song where the music stops and Billy starts talking fast (Zero, Everlasting Gaze, both otherwise fine songs). The rest of the album is equally lame. Everybody reading this, go buy some Curve albums instead. 3/10 for this and Bleed Like Me.

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Bleed Like Me - Geffen 2005
Rating = 4

As Cincinnati's The Hives will be the first to tell you, "Garage" is BACK -- and this time it has a "b" in the middle! (and it doesn't play garage rock). Yes, Shirley Manson has brought her band back to the studio for another fuzzy effects-processed glimpse into the world of big obvious emotion-manipulating chord sequences geared towards teenagers. Her voice holds up as well as always, but the riffs are so obvious, it's almost like Butch Vig doesn't have any talent.

If you thought the Pixies invented songs that have quiet verses and loud choruses, think again because Garbage use that trick all over this long-awaited follow-up to 2001's critically acclaimed, Grammy-award winning Album Not Recorded By Garbage. Not only that, but this uber-nu hot sounds LP eloquently transfuses that classic "Shitty Garbage Sound" with the AIDS-infected musical blood of such disparate subgenres as '70s David Bowie glam rock ("Bad Boyfriend"), early '90s Seattle Grunge explosion ("Why Do You Love Me," a terrible song and the album's first single), Beat Happening/Unrest bubble-sensitive youth pop ("Bleed Like Me"), ELOwsome strings-and-a-dance-beat ("Metal Heart"), soap opera piano balladry ("It's All Over But The Crying"), electro-dance ("Boys Wanna Fight"), deer ticks (the singer's cunny), and the Smashing Pumpkins' "1979" ("Run Baby Run"). With all such responsible influences, how can the album but fail to lose?

Garbage's disposable pop has its place in the world, and that place is in the Garbage Disposal. Which reminds me: If a dog poops on the street and an expensive plastic bag is used as a clean-up device, would you call it a "Bag of Waste" or "Waste of Bag"?

Put more succinctly, how naive would a person have to be to buy this CD expecting it to be good? Can you imagine somebody out there noticing this release in the store and picturing him/herself in twenty years going, "Hmm, let's see. Got my Sgt. Pepper's, got my Blonde On Blonde. London Calling, gotta have that. Bleed Like Me, goes without saying. Led Zeppelin IV, Sticky Fingers..."? And believe me, good fuzzy pop music has its place in the world -- laugh though you may, the wife and I are both still huge fans of Ned's Atomic Dustbin's God Fodder, for example -- but Garbage has NEVER been able to carry an entire album. Why do they still exist? For that matter, why does Weezer still exist? Why does Oasis still exist? Do these bands honestly still sell any albums AT ALL?! They just all strike me as "Spin Doctors II," but without the timeless "jam funk band" influences. I mean, I love Shirley Manson's femme fatale voice as much as the next guy, but can't she find a backup band to whom songwriting means more than simply recycling the same exact "post-Nirvana hitmaking formula" over and over again for 55 years in a row?

However, on a more positive note, wouldn't it be awesome if the title track were actually a cover of the Dead Kennedys' "Bleed For Me," but with the word "like" replacing "for"? And the reunited Dead Kennedys replacing the back-up band?

And the album Plastic Surgery Disasters replacing Bleed Like Me? See, if Garbage would just make a few basic concessions like this, I'd give 'em 9s to bustin'!

Reader Comments

soul_crusher77@hotmail.com
Who's naive enough to still be buying the new Weezer/Oasis/Garbage album? Most likely equal parts silly teenagers who think that current hit single "Beverly Hills"/"Lyla"/"Bleed Like Me" is "totally fun and catchy, and not over-intellectual like Good Charlotte can be sometimes"/"not at all a blatant ripoff of 'Gimme Shelter' by the Rolling Stones, which is old people music anyway"/"so edgy and cool for referencing both 'cutting' and anorexia, and not at all a blatant ripoff of 'Walk On The Wildside' by Lou Reed, which is old people music anyway", and people who are stuck in the 90's and in denial about the fact that their old favorite band hasn't released a solid album in 9 years/10 years/their entire existence. I don't know why, but I still post on Weezer boards, and there are actually people out there who think Make Believe is one of the best albums put out this year! That album has maybe 2 or 3 almost-good songs on it, and the rest of it is the kind of material that makes you start thinking "Man, maybe they've always sucked this much and I just never noticed it until now". And yet it's the longest album they've done so far (almost 45 minutes! that's like The White Album for them!), and while I didn't actually go out and buy it or anything, it probably has the lyrics printed out like Maladroit did (and the first 3 albums didn't) so you can read such pieces of genius poetry as "I don't feel the joy/ I just feel the pain/ you are just a toy/ I am just insane" and "You're my best friend/ and I love you/ and I love you/ yes I do!". Man, I just got way too worked up about a shitty album by a band this review page isn't even about. Oh well.

On a side note, I caught the video for "Grey Cell Green" by Ned's Atomic Dustbin on VH1 classic once, and while the video itself sure made them look like a bunch of trendy dumbasses, that song is catchy as crap! So maybe I should give a cheap copy of God Fodder a shot one of these days, being up there with Monster and Transmissions From The Satelite Heart in the Albums Most Likely To Be Found For Six Dollars In The Used Bin category and all? Heck, I think the only reason I knew of their existence prior to seeing that video is the fact that they had a silly name and there was always a section full of their stuff in used cd stores everywhere.

Alvar Aleket
I love Garbage, but I know what you mean when you can't put this side to side to a classic, most of this songs tend to dangerously go near musically generic, I mean the guitar end in Happy Home could be relaxing but written by any band with a guitar, however Shirley Manson is the one who puts more value to the whole band, before, in Version 2.0 and Garbage, the guys could at least make a little justice to Shirley's greatness like in "Vow", "Only Happy When It Rains", "I Think I'm Paranoid", "Push It" and more, however they simply couldn'ty carry the emotional heaviness that she carried inside.

And comparing this to Weezer and Oasis simply is way off, Oasis was full of ego and vacant of talent, and Weezer carry some lazy guys who try to write fun songs and hang out with the muppets, Shirley Manson is more than that, she's a woman you could be fan of, 'cause in her entire career what you judged as young things and anger was actually her dealing hardly with life, she never coped with fame in they way those other sell-out bands did and yeah I wish she had a better back up band who could carry more than just 5 hits. She's a total waste of talent and probably and probably the best woman singer in rock 'cause I can't remember any other woman in rock more "real" and "artistically ready" than her in case you don't like Janis Joplin. She didn't even thought she was going to be famous, she just loved to make music. And she had a real appreciation for the people who liked her for example what you may think was just a song to play with teen emotions, "Bleed Like Me" carry references to what she went through in her teenage years, trying to reach out for the young people, she dealt with self-mutilation she was not like some sort of idiot pop artist who thinks they know how it hurts. She was anti-MTV selling out the rock like they did in the whole 00's. (So bad that we have NOT a single mainstream valuable rock band and you can't count Radiohead 'cause they're way out of the industry.)

I know you know what goes on in the industry and Shirley Manson was so not compatible with it that Warner totally rejected her solo album effort, I wish some talented band would take her, but mainstream rock is more than dead and with this album another great real artist is gone, I hope not forever, from the mainstream.

The highlights of this album for me are "Bad Boyfriend", "Why Do You Love Me?", "Bleed Like Me", "Metal Heart" and "Sex Is Not The Enemy". All in wich the music more or less can go along with Shirley's beautiful voice. The best of the album is also the vocal melodies, she through all her career in Garbage could make the song sound different 'cause the melodies didn't sound copied from elsewhere like happens in al the 90's.

Well, even though your reviews were not all in all flattering at least you could acknowledge that Shirley's got a nice voice. And that sort of makes justice.

(Correction: I was way too harsh on the band not giving deserved credit to Butch Vig and the guys that pioneered the solid alternative sound Garbage developed. 'Bleed Like Me' is better than I described.)

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