The Official Needles and Grooves 1001 Album Generator Project

Garbage - Garbage
I don't remember 'I'm Only Happy When It Rains' sounding like this, perhaps I remembered a completely different song?!

I heard that if you put the CD case down on any surface, even the most perfectly flat surface known to man, it would slide off because the production on this is so slick.

(I made that up)

'Not My Idea' is a terrible song.

'Stupid Girl' sounds like I remember.

'As Heaven Is Wide' and 'Stupid Girl' are alright, everything else is fairly forgettable, except 'Not My Idea' which is fucking awful and something I imagine everyone involved with the band says whenever they hear the song again.

2 / 5 stars.
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This is one where I pretty vehemently disagree with some of the takes on it. While I think maybe it's fair to say it's a marketing experiment of a band cooked up in a laboratory of over-production, as mentioned there are a lot of bands that fall into that category to varying levels of success, personal taste, and talent.

For me Shirley Manson put a unique stamp on the music and on women fronted rock. They were one of a very few woman fronted mainstream alternative bands that broke through the male dominated rock scene in the 90s without being one of the Lilith Fair types (lots of great musicians in that scene who created their own space, just not directly comparable to most mainstream alternative at the time). Some comparisons to Portishead are to be expected, but I don't think it's fair to say Manson wishes she was Beth Gibbons. That sounds like a subjective off the cuff statement by someone who's a fan of one and not the other, rather than anything that there is evidence to support. Other than some superficial similarities, Garbage and Manson go in a very different direction on future albums. I think it's clear Manson was way more interested in creating a personality as a front woman than Gibbons ever was.

Finally, I'll point out how many of their songs broached topics that were not otherwise hitting the mainstream and alternative airways. If not always on the hits, the CDs that they put in kids hands did a lot of that work. Of course there were other bands doing it more explicitly, but not so many as with their reach.

I still love these albums and the first two are both solid 5/5 for me.
 
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Hemotep said:
This is one where I pretty vehemently disagree with some of the takes on it. While I think maybe it's fair to say it's a marketing experiment of a band cooked up in a laboratory of over-production, as mentioned there are a lot of bands that fall into that category to varying levels of success, personal taste, and talent.

For me Shirley Manson put a unique stamp on the music and on women fronted rock. They were one of a very few few woman fronted mainstream alternative bands that broke through the male dominated rock scene in the 90s without being one of the Lilith Fair types (lots of great musicians in that scene who created their own space, just not directly comparable to most mainstream alternative at the time). Some comparisons to Portishead are to be expected, but I don't think it's fair to say Manson wishes she was Beth Gibbons. That sounds like a subjective off the cuff statement by someone who's a fan of one and not the other, rather than anything that there is evidence to support. Other than some superficial similarities, Garbage and Manson go in a very different direction on future albums. I think it's clear Manson was way more interested in creating a personality as a front woman than Gibbons ever was.

Finally, I'll point out how many of their songs broached topics that were not otherwise hitting the mainstream and alternative airways. If not always on the hits, the CDs that they put in kids hands did a lot of that work. Of course there were other bands doing it more explicitly, but not so many as with their reach.

I still love these albums and the first two are both solid 5/5 for me.
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You are correct about them being forerunners of women fronted rock bands at the time. And I kinda agree with everything else you write too. And the whole verisimilitude/authenticity debate that I snared myself into is really besides the point. But I would still say that Garbage was one of the last good bands that emerged out the the whole grunge thing and breached the mainstream.
 
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Garbage ~ Garbage

I was excited to see this album come up, its been a favorite since it was released. I enjoy the overall production on it, taking the distortion of grunge but putting putting some clear edges on it made for a very distinct sound at the time if that makes sense, and there is enough going on with layers of instruments & vocals to really keep my ears interested. Great hooks throughout - like the bassy-synth line on "As Heaven is Wide".

I never heard the Shirley Manson / Beth Gibbons comparison before - while they both went in a 'cool' direction, I think Shirley's delivery is much more aggressive and she's definitely a captivating front woman. 4/5.
 
I was actually excited to see the Garbage album come up because I'm a big fan of 90's alternative and this is an album I've never listened to it. That being said.... it left me a little disappointed. The singles are good but nothing else really stood out to me.

Edit: To be fair, I typed this about 3/4 of the way through the album. There were some better songs towards the end.
 
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Hemotep said:
For me Shirley Manson put a unique stamp on the music and on women fronted rock. They were one of a very few woman fronted mainstream alternative bands that broke through the male dominated rock scene in the 90s without being one of the Lilith Fair types
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I think Skunk Anansie are another standout for female fronted rock at that time. I think they tend to get forgotten but he first couple of albums were really great
Edit: and to kinda quote a wise man: they were more political than you remembered
 
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Bohnjaggs said:
It sounds like your love of this album really depends on if you've listened to it since the 90's or are just discovering it now. If I made a top albums of the 90's list it would definitely be somewhere in the top 25.
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I heard it for the first time in college (around 2008 probably) but I guess to your point I was already familiar with it prior to it coming up on this list.
 
Bohnjaggs said:
It sounds like your love of this album really depends on if you've listened to it since the 90's or are just discovering it now. If I made a top albums of the 90's list it would definitely be somewhere in the top 25.
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Nah, I was around Garbage’s music throughout the 90s and am completely lukewarm to this album. It’s not bad or good it just exists.
 
3-17-2023
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