Garbage - classic or dud

What I think is interesting about Garbage is that they fetishised the digital at a point when the obvious influence - namely, hip hop - was actually still in a fairly naturalist mode, so that they were forced to instead tie their mast to "electronica" (of course they might have decided to do this anyway to suit their audience). "Electronica" has receded in terms of influence on pop-rock (replaced by an electronically reinvigorated hip hop), and now what seemed like really obvious musical choices for Garbage to make at the time appear quite curious. The songs on their second album are quite light on groove in the conventional, hip-hop sense; they're much monolithic, in that they're so cluttered that the treble and the bass are essentially fused together. The closest modern reference I can think of is Max Martin; the obvious other one is Phil Spector. It means though that they sound much more unambiguously pop now than they did then... at least to these ears. It's a pretty "white" sound obviously, which is where I think they stand out quite clearly as predecessors to the more electronic end of nu-metal.

I don't have the recent album as both the singles annoyed me, the bridge of "Cherry Lips" excepted.

CD80 Garbage "portable" go!

Vow
Only Happy When It Rains
Supervixen
Queer
Stupid Girl
Milk
#1 Crush
Push It
Temptation Waits
I Think I'm Paranoid
Special
When I Grow Up
The Trick Is to Keep Breathing
You Look So Fine
Thirteen
The World Is Not Enough
Androgyny
Cherry Lips (Go Baby Go!)
Breaking Up the Girl
Parade

(chronological according to first release - single or album - and missing "Shut Your Mouth", replaced by key album tracks. 80:20)

over-produced angst rock with average vox, no sex appeal, and darkish-i-mean-it-man lyrics.
and the men in the group were just 40ish frat rockers

Garbage Vol. 2 sounded great at the time and in a funny way even better now as the sort of lost ancestor for Linkin Park-style digi-rock - only not much of the current digi-rock is as burnished and kaleidoscopic as tracks like "Temptation Waits", "Push It" and Hammer In My Head".

OTM!

did the new one tank that badly?

w. garbage, i dunno why they bothered playing live and stuff. they were really a prefab sprout type studio band?

Hits package out Tuesday

Fuck the remixes, where's the b-sides?

Tim Finney unsurprisingly OTM about Version 2.0 odd charm (can a record be an anachronicism yet ahead of its time?).

Their singles hold up fairly well. In a fit of euphoria I once called the above album the Parallel Lines of the nineties.

i think they have about two pretty key singles: 'vow' and 'i think i'm paranoid'

i think i've still got that debut s/t record sitting around somewhere.

"Cherry Lips" has to be the best thing to come out of the whole JT LeRoy affair.

The special limited edition 2-CD set adds to the original CD a bonus disc of remixes by some of the world s most renowned DJs, including U.N.K.L.E., Massive Attack, Todd Terry, Crystal Method, Fun Lovin Criminals, and Felix Da Housecat.

Fun Lovin Crims ? worlds most renowned DJs ?

what next a free prince album in a Sunday newspaper.

oh hang on ..

Where's that thread where ned and I argued endlessly about garbage? That was a good one.

where's that thread where ned and tim argued endlessly about rubbish?

that's just about every thread!

j/k :)

When was the last time you thought, "You know, I would love to hear some Garbage"?

When I saw this thread!

1995

1 month ago i put version 2.0 on. the debut still kicks its ass, but Push It is something else.

I stuck Supervixen (aka Only Shallow II) on the other day!

Always made me car-sick.

Bunch of fat dads squeezing into those tight pants.

I re-discovered 2.0 year ago and I still listen it to it pretty regularly. I like it much better than the debut

Surely Shirley's debut should have been out by now, no?

When was the last time you thought, "You know, I would love to hear some Garbage"?

Three weeks ago! I really wanted to hear "Hammering in My Head."

I had the hits album out the other day (the regular albums are in storage). Speaking of Shirley, I read in TV Guide that she's going to appear in a semi-regular role this season on Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles.

I spent an afternoon a few weeks ago scouring the web in the hopes that some enterprising nerd compiled & illegally uploaded a collection of Garbage b-sides.

And that's all I'm saying about that.

they have some good songs

The first album singles SOUND fantastic, with awesome hooks, and I love them... but god are they inane. "I'm Only Happy When It Rains"? Just look at that title. Couldn't find a worse example of packaged DARK NINETIES NIHILISM AND BADDITUDE. Obviously this was essential to their success but it'd be kind of nice if they had less aggressively stupid lyrics.

Still great though. "I'm only happy when it ray-heeens!" So much fun to sing along to. This was great car music.

They're also your one-stop shop for alt-rock videography cliches, if you're into that kind of thing. Dirty, chemically damaged film... illegible writing scrawled everywhere... flares between over- and under-exposed shots...awkward stop-and-start speed changes... watching "Stupid Girl" just brings back hours and hours of MTV.

dud becuz lol 90s

They're also your one-stop shop for alt-rock videography cliches, if you're into that kind of thing. Dirty, chemically damaged film... illegible writing scrawled everywhere... flares between over- and under-exposed shots...awkward stop-and-start speed changes... watching "Stupid Girl" just brings back hours and hours of MTV

One of the basic hd TV channels in my area is a Latin music channel. I was channel surfing the other day and and happened upon a video by a singer/group that I missed the name of which was practically a cover of the "Stupid Girl" video (similar visual effects & sets, even the singer looked like a latina Shirley Manson).

Alternacandy is the best!

Shirley's lyrics haven't got any better since the last album (which, no, stop saying things) but it really doesn't matter.

Opening of "Even If Our Love Is Doomed" reminds me of the melody of "Take Me Out". Like how part of "Night Drive Loneliness" seems to hark back to "You Look So Fine".

The enthusiasm in this thread is making me excited. Version 2.0 is like my original favourite album of all time but the last two were so not the direction they should have been following.

Empty seems like a very strange choice of single. It's one of the weakest songs on here.

Wish "We Never Tell" had had the megapop chorus it sounds like it should have had, and "So We Can Stay Alive" does but sounds like it shouldn't. Still like both of them! This is so much better than the last two records it's not even funny.

revisited most of the catalog over the past two days, and yeah, this is the best since version 2.0. gets better every time i listen to it

Nice to see this getting some pretty good reviews.

That feeling when your old favourite band releases their best album in 18 years!

I was really wanting to like this, but I didn't think too much until Magnetized. And thought the rest of the album was solidly great from there.

also not that impressed. 'Sometimes,' 'If I Lost You,' and 'We Never Tell' are great, though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcfOmhGJ8G4

their best song/video combination in... idk how long. reminds me of "push it' in moood

I came around to tear your little world apart!

these guys have an amazing second act

been going through the whole discog and it's very striking how not your kind of people, strange little birds, "no horses," and no gods no masters are cumulatively way way way better than albums 3 and 4 (beautifulgarbage still kind of an underrated mess)

Listening to "Wolves" now, it occurred to me how Garbage still respect the vacillations in behavior we see in adolescents and respect how we can still have'em after 30.

also, i really really really wish i could buy the dress shirley manson wears in the "stupid girl" video. i bought a polka-dot dress this week just to appropriate her "i think i'm paranoid" look. as with madonna and janet jackson, when i first saw shirley manson i thought "wow i want to be her," and that's never really stopped

Wailing "Only Happy When It Rains" at karaoke was one of my finest moments in spring '23.

briefly meeting Shirley Manson a decade ago at a coffee shop was one of the better brushes w/fame i've had.

Androgyny really was an insane choice of lead single

Beautiful Garbage is almost my favourite of their LPs (over the debut) but I don't think it starts well, which was reaffirmed by a relisten only a few weeks ago. The Timo Maas remix of Breaking Up the Girl would be a welcome bonus on my copy.

Larry Mullins, subbing for an ill Butch Vig, kicked ass on "Cherry Lips" when they opened for U2 on the final leg of the Elevation tour in Miami.

I drank a pinot grigio next to Butch at Eataly in Vegas, but was too shy to say hello.

Androgyny really was an insane choice of lead single

Beautiful Garbage is almost my favourite of their LPs (over the debut) but I don't think it starts well, which was reaffirmed by a relisten only a few weeks ago. The Timo Maas remix of Breaking Up the Girl would be a welcome bonus on my copy.

― you can see me from westbury white horse

I quite like that song, but it was a insane choice indeed. Shut Your Mouth being put out as the last single was an even weirder pick and is probably their worst single. Take off that, Til The Day I Die and Untouchable and it's a fantastic album. Some really excellent album tracks on there. Cup Of Coffee is devastating and a career highlight. Parade should have been the first single really.

Also, I revisited Bleed Like Me recently and it was a lot better than I remembered. I'm still disappointed Run Baby Run was cancelled as a single. It's one of the most obvious hits in their career. The title track is so great too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8uuUkyv1x0

this remix is sooooooo much better than the album version of "bad boyfriend," can't believe it's the same song

so you're saying i should listen to the later albums i guess

are there not some clunkers on there?

Fewer than you think.

"The World Is Not Enough" pretty great bond theme

Just chiming into say their cover of 'Thirteen' is really lovely.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dO7fMJpUZoM

"Lovesong"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6C5i89F6nvM