Hi, I’m Sean McCarthy. I had an order for the Italan beef
\npastrami sandwich, the works and hot peppers. Yes, I’d like to
\nchange that order — instead I’ll have the crow special. Make it a
\nlarge, please.<\/p>\n
Goddammit, I hate it when I misjudge a band. It was 1994 and I
\nwas getting sick of the “alternative album of the week” that was
\nbeing played on our radio stations three times an hour. Better Than
\nEzra, Dig, Love Spit Love, and the worst offenders, Bush, was just
\nabout to break out. Two other artists that I wrote off, Radiohead
\nand Garbage, came out with their releases around this time. Well,
\nRadiohead blew me away with their two later albums. And Garbage,
\nwell, I was apprehensive about Garbage. They “sounded” like an
\nalternative paint-by-numbers band. Worse, they were a supergroup! A
\nmodern day Asia came to mind.<\/p>\n
Thank god for roommates. My roommate brought this CD home and we
\nproceeded to listen to it one Saturday night after “The Young Ones”
\naired on Comedy Central. With several rum and cokes and even more
\nbeer in me, I was forced to listen to the entire album because I
\nhad no motivation to do anything else. Sober or not,
\nGarbage<\/i> rocks.<\/p>\n
It shouldn’t have. Shirley Manson has a siren like voice that
\nfits in well with the current batch of pissed off female rockers,
\ndrummer Butch Vig produced two of the seminal alternative albums of
\nthis decade — Nirvana’s
\nNevermind<\/i> and the Smashing Pumpkins’
\nSiamese Dream<\/i> — and the band got signed to a label
\npractically before doing a few gigs. The album seemed to be David
\nGeffen’s wet dream. What is truely unique about the album is that
\ndespite all the marketing potential, the band actually delievers
\nthe goods musically.<\/p>\n
“Supervixen”, “My Lover’s Box” and “As Heaven Is Wide” all have
\na rock star feel to them. As Manson croons “Bow down to me,” Vig
\nlayers the guitars on heavy. Garbage has the feel of a supergroup,
\nbut at least they have the skills to back them up. Duke Erickson
\nand Steve Marker give a towering display of guitar virtusoity.
\nMarker also plays bass.<\/p>\n
Nihilism has rarely sounded as sweet as it does in “Not My Idea”
\nand “Vow.” While a lot of bands were reveling in their self pity
\nand squalling feedback, Garbage produces some tight rhythms.
\nManson’s no bullshit lyrics:”I’ve come to shut you up, I’ve come to
\nsuck you down, I’ve come to tear your little world apart..break
\nyour soul apart” speak volumes.<\/p>\n
The song that really hooked me was “Stupid Girl.” Hooking you
\nwith a clever sample of the Clash’s “Train in Vain,” endless loops,
\nabrasive guitars of course, Manson’s voice produce a truly
\nintoxicating mix. The moodiness of the lyrics only strengthens the
\nquality of the song. It’s no surprise that
\nGarbage<\/i> is one of those albums that has landed on the remix
\nfloor at disco clubs as often as more techno-oriented albums like
\nProdigy’s
\nThe Fat Of The Land<\/i>.<\/p>\n
The more subtle arrangements of
\nGarbage<\/i> are on the last three songs. “Milk,” the last song
\nfeatures some sparse percussion, a few FX features but the
\nattention is fixed on Manson’s voice. Manson winds up running the
\nshow throughout
\nGarbage<\/i>. As a member of a few failed bands in Scotland, she
\nwas recruited to be the vocalist of Garbage. Neither a flaunting
\nsex object nor a rabid feminist, Manson refuses to be
\ncatagorized.<\/p>\n
Since most of the band has been in the music industry for
\nseveral years, Garbage lacks the ambition to be “the” band of the
\n1990s. Instead, their laid back attitudes seem to be focused on
\ngeling as a group. Sober or not,
\nGarbage<\/i> is an engaging listen, as I said before. If you feel
\nlike shaking your groove thing, but can’t handle the sunny lyrics
\nof Hanson or the Spice Girls, request a remix of one of Garbage’s
\nsongs. For the unitiated fan, make a couple of Captain Morgan’s
\nSpiced Rum and cokes, kick back and listen to
\nGarbage<\/i>….and wait for their new album to come out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":24589,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5872],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-35793","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-garbage","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35793\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35793"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=35793"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=35793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}