Garbage - beautifulgarbage - C/D

The hate is surely something to do with Garbage being seen as Butch Vig's vanity band and with Shirley as his willing pawn. (extra-musical concerns, right? - although it's valid for me if you just can't deal with Nirvana's producer or something). Also, they were pretty much born with a record contract. The problem with this is that tons of producer vanity bands don't go anywhere production wise, and don't appeal to as many people as Garbage certainly have.

I like songs from every album and I've even seen them do a more than decent show in San Francisco. I think that Garbage (and Smashing Pumpkins too) are the unacknowledged commercially successful spawn of the more propulsive shoegaze bands. They give me noise and sugar-sweet melody and interesting production and that's why I lurve 'em. "You Look So Fine" is f'ing hot too.

As for beautifulgarbage, search "Parade".

And now I *duck*

The difference being that the Pumpkins are gods and that Garbage should be smacked in the face with all the idiotic reviews they got from simpleton critics in the mid-nineties saying things like "Isn't it great that a techno band can show influences from *real* bands like Big Star?" Ne'er were group and Rolling Stone drones trying to seem modern more made for each other.

My apologies if I am not clear enough on this point.

Sure, for a while I wasn't too thrilled w/ their 1st album (in light of their 2nd album), and their 3rd album (for that very same while) just weirded me out, since everything that made them Garbage (that is, their willy-nilly synthesis / of every possible goldarn musical thing) wasn't really there, or else metamorphed into something "new", but, in retrospect, I like 'em for what they are, and I like them BECAUSE of their glaring flaws (most of which have been mentioned here).

Nostalgia forbids me from really dismissing the 1st album (because "Queer" was super awesome once upon a time), tho _Version 2.0_ does everything that record did, but 100X better. And _beautifulgarbage_ sounded just fine from the handful of spins in rec'd in the House of Dave. Instead of sythesizing their influences, _bg_ sounded more like full-on mimicry, which is what jarred me. But once I got over the fact that Garbage wanted to create static-riden pop music, I liked the album just fine.

And, for the record, all the reviews I ever saw re: Garbage were of the middle-of-the-road variety - variations on the idea "good, but unoriginal" were de rigeur. They ARE a three-star band. If any body of people is praising the G to the high heavens, it'd be the fannies (who don't seem to be reprazenting on this thread, except for m'man Spencer). So, to actually respond to the question posed about 35 death threats ago, I will align myself with the "classic" portion of that axis, though I'll be taking a good number of steps towards the middle in doing so.

Now, the VIDEO for "Breaking Up the Girl", that was godawful. And that new hairdo on Ms. Manson - egads.

The only thing unfair about the hatred is that there is not enough of it. I made the mistake of watching their Behind The Music episode and after listening to their simpleton whining about being disaffected and isolated The Industry my indifference turned to disgust.

I'd probably lighten up a bit if Garbage paid a minimum 10% licensing fee to Curve, but they don't and so I won't.

Discuss.

Also their singles are ace, and "No. 1 Crush" is one of those great High School songs that still floats around with me. Just the idea that Shirley went through "Only Happy When It Rains" with those boots... it was like a wet dream...

I didn't buy "Beautifulgarbage" - all of the singles so far have sounded so hamfisted. What was that second-tier band who appeared in the wake of Garbage's success? Transistor? Yeah, them. "Can't Cry These Tears" is pretty great though.

Plus, last year there was talk of a Missy Elliot remix which doesn't seem to have happened. I was really looking forward to that so I'm disappointed.

That said, their live show is excellent. Now, has anyone heard the song by West London Deep that samples "You Look So Fine"?

Were I so inclined, I would call this a personal insult. As it is, I'll just say = ah, no. Not at all. ;-)

distinguished from Curve by their sleek pop-ness

Can't go with this -- Curve is sleekly pop as it is (or was, rather, if we look at the early singles and first two albums in particular). In attempting to make it more so, Garbage crosses the line from noise/pop in excelsis to mid-nineties U2 support band.

Ouch...but true.

As for Garbage... hmm. I liked how Stupid Girl sampled the sound of someone sucking the dregs of a strawberry milkshake through a plastic straw... but their new one is a bit shite to my ears. 'Shut Your Mouth' is a crap song title, anyway.

I love people. But I hate music. ;-) Well, not all of it, but you get the point!

I think I was one of the two or three people in America besides Butch Vig to hear the Angelfish album that Ms. Manson released back in 1993 or so. I thought it was smoothed-out Julee Cruise goth with a couple of good points, no more. And then she got worse!

Having a co-worker describe in lavish detail Shirley Manson's outfit at their live show, including mind-numbing explanation of her faux-pageant sash saying "miss understood," (geddit?): that, dear hearts, is a DUUUD.

I'm with JM on this. Of course we both WERE angsty teenagers when they hit, but so what? Only Happy When It Rains still captures the capricious dramatic shallow desirability of goth girls oh so well. Also, #1 Crush and Lovefool hit at the same time and there were these two back & forth notions of desire from afar that stand perpendicular to Born To Make You Happy. And somewhere in the mix was Poe. Also, Ja Rule influenced them:

"Babygirl would ya bust ya gun with me?
Lie to the feds to come get me?
And if I died Kill for me?
Are you trustin me?
Are you lovin me?"

That was fairly tame on my part, Spencer. ;-)

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)

They had a Behind The Music? Really? I didn't think enough horrid crap had happened to them to warrant one.

Just heard "Cherry Lips" in a Microsoft TV ad.

i only recently paid much attention to this album and it's fine. not as good as 1 or v.20 but it has plenty of good songs. garbage hate at the beginning of this thread seems so quaint now. I think people regard them more favorably now? I always loved the first 2 albums and regretably never saw them live but will in October.

"parade" rules so much