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Garbage
Garbage
Retail Price (not our price): $18.98
Release Date: 1995-08-15
Manufacturer: Almo Sounds
Format: Audio CD
Discs: 1

Track List
Now here, for your listening pleasure, the tracks...

Disc 1

Editorial Reviews (supplied by Amazon.com):

1) Amazon.com
Cool, calculating, and Euro-trashy in the grand tradition of Roxy Music and the Eurythmics. --Jeff Bateman

Customer Reviews (supplied by Amazon.com):
Average Customer Rating: 4.5 out of 5

1) Still great a decade later!   [Rating: 5 out of 5]
Wow! I can't believe that it's been over a decade since I bought this CD. Listening to this CD now brings back all the memories of the times when I listened to it almost non-stop, which is what good music is supposed to do. This style of music was new at the time of this release and at first I remember not really liking it all that much. Of course the first two singles (Only Happy When it Rains and Stupid Girl) were all I had to go on, and they're not the best songs on the album. After I heard Supervixen and Vow I was sold and decided to buy the CD. It was a great purcahse becase all the songs really grew on me and I played this CD over and over again for months!

2) Has lost some of its initial edginess   [Rating: 3 out of 5]
Unlike other bands, like Curve (which I've just reviewed), whose music has an undying sort of quality, I'm afraid that Garbage, a band I used to love dearly, and even saw in concert, somehow lost a bit of their edge. I guess if I had to choose a few songs from this album that haven't really become stale, I'd choose "Only Happy When It Rains" and "As Heaven Is Wide," both tracks with a strong driving beat; otherwise, the entire album just doesn't appeal to me anymore. If you want to hear Shirley singing songs that won't ever lose their appeal, try listening to one of her earlier albums with her band "Angelfish." Songs from back then like "Suffocate Me" and "Dogs In A Cage." Most of the songs from the Angelfish cd are excellent and have true staying power.

3) Garbage scores big in their solid-as-diamond debut album   [Rating: 5 out of 5]
NOTES: Garbage is my favorite band.1=bad, 2=average, 3=good, 4=greatSupervixen: I'm totally content with what's written as performed by Shirley (who sings like a goddess here; so regal and confident that when she commands me to "bow down", I'm happy to oblige), but the true appeal of "Supervixen" is its all-encompassing, mammoth-sized din that cleverly conjures a hypnotic fever pitch (especially during the self-aggrandizing chorus). It's blaring, subversive mind control with a come-hither wink. 4 / 4In Queer, Shirley personifies a praying mantis and her provocative, alien whispering muddles the reality that you'd better watch yourself after the deed is done. Decrying her newfound date/mate for having nothing worthwhile (after tearing him apart upon closer inspection), she's grossly disappointed and it shows. Our lady may be all class but it's easy to imagine the entire affair taking place in a seedy motel room. And scarily, I don't think this is the first time it's happened. 4 / 4Only Happy When It Rains is a biting, sardonic tune that's emblematic of the period it was released in and Garbage on the whole. What I like most about it is the black humor: "I only smile in the dark" (and there's no doubt it's a Cheshire grin). Depending on your perspective, this is either a derision disguised as a parody of pessimists, or a glorious tribute to them. I spent two years "riding high upon a deep depression" but can't settle on a verdict. 4 / 4As Heaven Is Wide: Although the woman-scorned card is one that gets used all too often, this time it's played with such raw, ferocious, teeth-bared effect that I have no choice but to defer to it my complete, trembling attention. The band is at the top of its game with this apocalyptic number, using religious imagery to describe the sheer magnitude of betrayal that has transpired. Shirley lambastes her ex for excoriating her ("If flesh could crawl/my skin would fall/from off my bones and run away from here") and it's f***ing awesome. 4 / 4Not My Idea is the actualization of promised revenge as evidenced by one of the most surprising avowals the group has ever written: "Now I'm here burning down your house". On subsequent listens, it's clear that the entire song is preparing us for that remark. Initially it all feels merely peevish compared with "As Heaven Is Wide". But it's impossible not to cheer Shirley on when she ignites the lighter fluid after a few iterations of the stirring, staccato chorus.3 / 4A Stroke Of Luck: At this point in the progression of things Shirley is understandably cynical about another relationship and considers her latest to be doomed from the start ("Here comes the cold again/I feel it closing in" she laments). Her life is smeared with the colors of a sickly sunset and there's no way to wipe the canvas clean. The frosty gale blowing throughout is a reminder that history repeats itself. Note the neat reversal of the chorus during its second repetition. 4 / 4Vow: Only our favorite lead vocalist (in the whole damn world!) can describe herself as "like Joan of Arc coming back for more" and "like Jesus Christ coming back from the dead" and not elicit laughter. Shirley returns to vengeance mode with the strength (and auditory similitude) of a tornado and has apparently ditched her pyromaniacal urges for something a little more homicidal. And we clamor for more! "Vow" was a good first single because it set the standard for this disc and the next. 3 / 4I've always thought Stupid Girl never really deserved most of its accolades. It doesn't matter if the drums were sampled from the Clash as the sound design is not up to par with anything else on this recording. And vocally gutting a "stupid girl" for being fake and manipulative is been-there-done-that territory. If Shirley's referring to herself, she makes the lyrics moderately more intriguing but not enough to compensate for shallow indictments like, "Don't believe in love/don't believe in hate/don't believe in anything/that you can't waste". 2 / 4Dog New Tricks: Crunchy, adroit guitars seething beneath the surface help drive home awful truths such as, "Everyone lies/everyone cheats" and "Everyone I know has gone away/died or left or just forgot to stay". An intellectually gratifying testament to those mistakes we all make in life and don't want to acknowledge. The relationships we screw up. The ideas we have trouble articulating. It's hard learning how to change and "Dog New Tricks" has no easy answers. 3 / 4My Lover's Box: After a brief retrospection, Shirley doesn't exactly repent but asks for a path to salvation anyway. With her charismatic and sympathetic yearning to ascend higher despite her shortcomings, she becomes our fallen angel. If there's hope for someone in her predicament then is there hope for the rest of us? At the end the music intensifies, escalates, and maybe she's being lifted up to heaven after all. Garbage peaks with this majestic elegy and subsides in its two concluding tracks.4 / 4If "My Lover's Box" was the climactic foretelling of Shirley's death, then Fix Me Now is her funeral dirge. She asks to be resurrected but eventually relents ("I'll go without a fight"). It's a pensive piece in which the background wailing deflates slowly so that by the time it's over the poor woman can be laid to rest among the clouds. The whole eulogy's a fanciful daydream of course ("Things don't have to be this way/catch me on a better day"), but it's haunting nevertheless.3 / 4A postlude with one bizarre lyric ("I am red hot kitchen") and an explanation for everything that came before ("I am lost/so I am cruel"), Milk began the Garbage tradition of picking an adagio lullaby as the farewell to each album. It's a lovely way to close out the proceedings, projecting us into a starry realm where all the songs are on an infinite loop. This one reveals Shirley to be an ultimately lonely siren, willing to try for love once again. And we honestly hope that somehow, this time, it turns out well for her.3 / 4Best: As Heaven Is WideWorst: Stupid Girl

4) Still hits me right over a decade later   [Rating: 4 out of 5]
When I first heard this band, I was 15. I am now 26, soon to be 27, and have recently rediscovered what used to be my favorite band and album back in 1995. The first album does not hold as well to the test of time as the second one did, some of the songs have lost the synthetic polish they once had due to changing and improved technology, but the beats are still there, the Lyrics are still strong and Mansons vocals and moxy are timeless. "Queer" has a british trip-hop sound to it and is my favorite track on this CD and one of my favorite Garbage tracks of all time. The beat and melody are simple and do not rely on whatever protools technology were available at the time to be good. "Only Happy when it Rains" is a genre (alternative) defining song and though it was never one of my favorites as far as the beat is concerned, the lyrics are at times poetic in that twisted ironic Garbade sort of way. "Vow", "As Heaven is Wide" and especially "Stroke of Luck" have surprised me with how well they have held up. I still like these songs so many years and life experiences later. and "Milk" is a quaint little song I always find myself skipping to while driving late at night.Surprisingly, one of my favorite songs at the time has lost alot of its luster today. Perhaps I overplayed "Stupid Girl" at the time, or perhaps the song just had a unique sound which has since faded, or maybe the message about the "stupid girl" she is referencing just doesn't resonate with me the way it once did with a somewhat jaded 15 year old who moved around alot as a kid. Whatever the reason the song, though still good, does not stand out like it once did. "Not my Idea" is another song I once really liked but has fallen abit as far as my preferences go. It actually sounds very similar to modern top 40 pop and I am surprised I liked it so much when Grunge was still big.anyways, This is a great band and this is a great Album. Dark, Brooding and Mysterious but not just made for teen angst. There is a real maturity to this band I am just noticing now, having revisited them and their second album, Version 2.0, is incredible. I am upset with myself for skipping that second album when I was 17, but then again, that is when Grunge and alternative was dead or dying and I had just discovered Hendrix, Morrison, Zeppelin, Santana and some other great classic artists. But the band Garbage will always be something special to me.

5) I like to wear sheeps' clothing   [Rating: 5 out of 5]
This CD never gets old. I love the sprite on a downer energy of Manson and the infectious rhythms of the music. It's incredibly dance-worthy and quite amusing with the lyrical S&M overtones. Pop music that stands up to such comedic and relatable darkness is nothing short of art. Despite being pop the songs on this release are amazingly crafted, such that even if you didn't listen to the words, the music evokes the feeling they impart.