Garbage has to be one of the coolest supergroups with an indie
\nattitude in the 90s. A category shared with…no one, I guess.
\nButch Vig and a couple of his middle-aged mates invented Garbage
\nout of a studio. They got a sexy vixen with a panther-like atitude
\nwith Shirley Manson. But each artist has proved their worth. They
\nwear their Wisconsin roots (Steve Marker and Manson exempt from
\nthat) with honor. Therefore, the pressure to prove something was
\nrelatively nil when it came to making their newest album,
\nVersion 2.0<\/i>. Or…was it?<\/p>\n
Their self-titled debut was a refreshing mix of hard rock and
\ndance club beats. Their lyrics were deliciously dark. And it was
\nsuch a surprise that you couldn’t help but like the mix because it
\ncaught you off guard. You’re supposed to hate studio-conceived
\nsuper groups, right? Well…the surprise has worn off. And
\nVersion 2.0<\/i> had to offer something to keep listeners
\ninterested. To Garbage’s credit, they did just that on
\nVersion 2.0<\/i>.<\/p>\n
It’s more intense than their self-titled debut. Far more
\nelectronica than rock. Each song seems to ache for about a dozen
\nremixed versions to come out on a single. The loops on tracks like
\n“Sleep Together” and “Temptation Waits” are far more in your face
\nthis time out.<\/p>\n
Given Vig’s knowledge of music (producer of Smashing Pumpkins
\nand Nirvana’s best works), it is little surprise that pop history
\nis evident on
\nVersion 2.0<\/i>. “Sleep Together” is a nice play on the classic
\nchorus, “I might like you better if we slept together”. Brian
\nWilson gets props with a sample of his song, “Don’t Worry Baby” on
\n“Push It”. Pink Floyd gets a nod in “Medication” when Manson’s
\nsiren-like voice declares, “I don’t need an education.” Even the
\nintense “Wickid Ways” sounds like Pat Benatar on some really
\nintense substances.<\/p>\n
Manson still knows how to sound like an obsessive while still
\nmaintaining her inner strength. “I’ll be back to frame you\/when I
\ngrow up”, she croons on “When I Grow Up”. Still, the rapid-fire
\ndrum beats threaten to make some of the tracks on
\nVersion 2.0<\/i> sound repetitive.<\/p>\n
Sadly enough,
\nVersion 2.0<\/i> sounds exactly like that. You expect a better
\nversion in one or two albums. A deeper groove, something that has
\nalways been Garbage’s trump card would have elevated
\nVersion 2.0<\/i>. The sultry swagger of “Stupid Girl”, the
\npensive “Milk” and even the strutting and slightly disturbing “#1
\nCrush” all had a slower groove that burned in your consciousness. A
\ncouple of those type of songs might have made
\nVersion 2.0<\/i> a key contender for album of the year.<\/p>\n
If any album comes to mind when I hear
\nVersion 2.0<\/i>, it is U2’s fan-panned
\nPop<\/i> album. Realistically enough, U2 did about the same thing
\nGarbage tried to do on
\nVersion 2.0<\/i>, but did it in a better way with more shifts in
\ntempo and better lyrics. Still,
\nVersion 2.0<\/i> is an album with heart. It’s one of those albums
\nwhere you can put on at a party and still mope. And even as I type
\nthis, I can feel this album growing on me with each listen. For
\nright now though, it’s a new dose of a band that promises to do a
\nlot in the next millenium. And
\nVersion 2.0<\/i> is not a bad way to end off the 90s for
\nGarbage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":27554,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5872],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-38929","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-garbage","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38929","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=38929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38929\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38929"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38929"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}