"Shirley Manson sings like a pissed-off angel and has attitude to spare": Garbage's classic electro-grunge-goth-pop debut, revisited

Many artists that have released their finest work on their first record become totally defined by that moment, but, as this list proves, Garbage aren’t one of them. Saying that though, they deserve enormous credit for managing to escape from the shadow of a debut album that still sounds like a greatest hits set decades after its release.

No one quite sounded like Garbage when they emerged with this album in 1995. Taking Portishead and Massive Attack and combining it with Nine Inch Nails and the Smashing Pumpkins still sounds like a great elevator pitch for a band, and they never got that mix quite so perfect as they do here.

Queer is terrifyingly seductive, Stupid Girl is dance pop with the sharpest of fangs, Only Happy When it Rains sounds like the alt-rock generation taking a baseball bat to a glitterball and Vow seethes with restraint before exploding.

But it’s the songs you’ve possibly forgotten about that cement Garbage’s position at the top of this list: Supervixen's quiet-loud-stop-start dynamics are incredible, Not My Idea chops and swings playfully, Fix Me Now takes the zeitgeist sound of BritPop and makes it sound dangerous, and As Heaven is Wide pulses with urgency.Garbage is one of the best debuts of the '90s, and, although they came close, they never bettered it.

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Other albums released in August 1995

• Answer That and Stay Fashionable - AFI
• Fight for Your Mind - Ben Harper
• Set Your Goals - CIV
• Wholesale Meats and Fish - Letters to Cleo
• Hot Charity - Rocket from the Crypt
• The Sacrilicious Sounds of the Supersuckers - Supersuckers
• Dogs of War - Saxon
• Dirt Track Date - Southern Culture on the Skids
• Stranger In Us All - Rainbow
• I Just Wasn't Made for These Times - Brian Wilson
• Soup - Blind Melon
• ..And Out Come the Wolves - Rancid
• The Damnation Game - Symphony X
• Methodrone - The Brian Jonestown Massacre

What they said...

"With a name like Garbage, paired with Shirley Manson’s orange hair, the band exuded a punk ethos. Add in the fact that drummer Butch Vig was riding high after producing Nirvana’s Nevermind and Smashing Pumpkins’ Siamese Dream, still two of the highest-regarded rock albums of the era, and it’s hard to imagine the band being anything else. Yet Garbage only feels like this at certain moments." (Consequence)

"Garbage's self-titled debut has all the trappings of alternative rock -- off-kilter arrangements, occasional bursts of noise, a female singer with a thin, airy voice – but it comes off as pop, thanks to the glossy production courtesy of drummer Butch Vig. Not only is the sound of the record slick and professional, but all the tracks are well-crafted pop songs. Unfortunately, only a handful of the songs are memorable, but those that are – Vow and Queer, in particular – are small, trashy alternative pop gems." (AllMusic)

"The album ends on a lovely two-song coda comprising Fix Me Now, a wracked appeal for togetherness, and the lush Milk, a ballad in which Manson and Garbage go grunge torch, and she explains her previous moments of cruelty in terms of having been “lost.” Oh, was that it? Garbage teems with such disjunctions of tragedy and junk. Like so much fun and important rock'n'roll, it’s the product of brilliant misunderstandings." (Rolling Stone)

What you said...

Greg Schwepe: Funny how one thing leads to another (no song pun intended). Heard a band while on vacation last week who played a few good 90s rock songs. That lead me to finding an entire 90s Rock Playlist. Wow, lots of good alternative stuff from back then! And lo and behold there were several Garbage songs on that playlist. Which lead me to exclaim “Man, I need to listen to their debut album again, haven’t listened to the whole album in a while.” And then like magic, Garbage gets selected as this week’s album to review.

I bought the CD when their debut came out after hearing it on our local alternative station. The re-listen this week brought me back to the realisation that this is a sum of all the really, really good things to come out of 90s music.

First, you have the obvious Nirvana connection with Butch Vig being in the band. Producer of some of the biggest albums back then brings his expertise to the band.

Next, for me you have that distinct 90s sound; techno-ish drumbeats, cool swooshy keyboards, and throw in a little grunge-y guitar.

And lastly, you have the snarling and swirling vocals of Shirley Manson. While their were females in rock way before the 90s, it seemed like there was explosion of bands with female vocalists and female musicians. Lots of great women-fronted bands kicked down the door.

Along with the Only Happy When It Rains and Stupid Girl, favorites include Not My Idea, Vow, and A Stroke Of Luck. A solid album with a wide range of moods.

9 out of 10 for me on this one. This one will get played more again (along with the rest of their catalogue).

Mike Canoe: I passed over Garbage when they came out in 1995 because I bought into the "three producers and a girl" narrative propagated by the music press. And, hey, on the surface, it made sense. Who could blame Butch Vig for wanting to make the same kind of money as the acts that he was producing?

Then there was the band name. It seemed a cynical ploy to cash in on the "ugly is beautiful" ethos of the now fully commercialised and corporate alternative rock genre. Song titles (because I didn't listen to the actual songs) like Stupid Girl or Only Happy When It Rains sealed my belief that Garbage was a suspicious money grab.

I finally started paying attention to Garbage over the pandemic when I finally caved in and got a Spotify account and started listening to 2021's No Gods No Masters and thought it was pretty great. Same with Let All That We Imagine Be the Light, released earlier this year.

All of this is to say, I was wrong. Garbage is a pretty good album by a pretty good band. Yes, Shirley Manson is the focal point but it's not only because she's attractive, she can sing like a pissed off angel and has attitude to spare. Manson's not a shrieker, barker, or screamer. She sings in a controlled voice that at the same suggests that this is as angry as you want to hear her get.

Unsurprisingly, the "three producers" back Manson up with great sounding music. They play a tight and cool blend of trip hop, indie rock, and electronica that leaves plenty of hard edges but is far from the full-tilt aggro that Vig built his reputation on.

Come for any of the five singles, such as Vow, Queer, or (007 demo?) Milk and stay for songs I was surprised weren't singles like As Heaven Is Wide, Not My Idea, or (007 demo?) A Stroke of Luck.

It's hard to stand out when suddenly everyone is alternative, but Garbage has stood the test of time. I'm glad I finally caught up with them.

Garbage - Vow - YouTube

Watch On

Mark Herrington: I was familiar with the singles on Garbage (1995), but had never heard the album before .

I would say the poppier, familiar songs don’t represent the darker, industrial leaning heart of most of the album. For example, Only Happy When It Rains is fairly forgettable, but is then followed by the wonderfully dark and Gothy As Heaven is Wide.

For me, when the mood turns grim, or a bit more industrial, this album is at its best.

Steve Pereira: It's well produced, but to the point of being so well mannered it becomes bland. This is professional manufactured chart music. Looking into this did point me toward the singer's previous band, Angelfish, who made one half decent and promising album.

It was a track off that album, the sultry, smoky, atmospheric, Suffocate Me, which led to her being selected as lead singer for Garbage, after one play on MTV. It would have been interesting to see what would have happened to Angelfish if Shirley Manson had not been stolen to front Garbage.

I did give the album a couple of spins just to see if I was missing something. But no. It's nice. It's commercial. It's empty. Ditch the Garbage, and go spin Angelfish.

Gary Claydon: Dark, spiky alt-pop. Trippy electro-grunge with a Goth heart. Manson is magnificent, swinging effortlessly between sultry and sneering menace. A band who's members had already been around the block delivered an assured, well produced debut but it's the singer who truly elevates it.

Chris Elliott: A record I bought played a couple of times and promptly forgot. I enjoyed it less than I expected when I played it this week.

I think my issues (ignoring my irritation with the term alternative used purely as corporate marketing) is it's such a polite version of it's influences. It's almost entirely reliant on the vocals for interest - and that pales after a couple of tracks especially given most tracks run out of steam after three minutes.

They work better as a singles band - I half get the appeal but they're one of those bands I never clicked with.

Garbage - Queer - YouTube

Watch On

Philip Qvist: It's late 1995 and we are listening to the radio in our shared office, when I hear a song that is totally different to what was on the airwaves at the time. That song was Queer and I was surprised when the DJ said it was Garbage. Of course I didn't realise at the time that it was the name of the band (the fact that down here in South Africa we usually say "rubbish" rather than "garbage" should have been a big clue).

Anyhow, I was even more intrigued with this band when the radio stations started playing Only Happy When It Rains, and by early 1996 I was on the lookout for their CD when Stupid Girl started to saturate the airwaves.

By then I knew that it was drummer and producer Butch Vig's project - but who was the female singer with the intriguing voice? A lot of research later I discovered that she was Edinburgh native, and former Goodbye Mr Mackenzie member, Shirley Manson - and that she ended up fronting a band from Wisconsin by pure chance, after band member Steve Marker saw her on MTV singing Suffocate Me by Angelfish (an album that's well worth a listen).

Needless to say I did buy the album early in 1996, and it has been a regular on my playlist ever since. I guess it just sounded so unique and different at the time - and it's probably the main reason why I personally rate it so highly. However, I also suspect that Garbage's debut won't be everybody's cup of tea, and that I have probably nominated another polarizing record.

The big hits such as Vow and Queer do stand out, but it is the deeper album tracks like Supervixen, A Stroke Of Luck and Heaven Is Wide that keep me interested - while closing track Milk is my highlight of the album.

Version 2.0 was a worthy follow up, and the band is still going strong; even if their other albums, as good as they are, could not quite match the band's first two offerings. I will admit that I am biased here, but I'm going to score Garbage's debut very highly this week.

Steven Black: Very middle of the road, and very radio friendly, not necessarily a bad thing

Andrew Bramah: An album that stood out from all the other carbon copy bands. Immaculately produced and played by musicians who are on a completely different level. Shirley Manson set her own vocal style and attitude which gave Garbage their unique sound.

Neil Immerz: A great album for its time with some great songs and still sounds great today. I hear songs over the radio at work and it’s an instant Time Machine.

John Davidson: Undoubtedly a classic album. Garbage appeared out of nowhere, part dance, part pop-rock but imbued with a sullen rage and a heavy dose of melodic anguish.

Fronted by Shirley Manson and backed by a band of highly experienced and professional musicians led by Alt Rock producer Butch Vig, this doesn’t feel like a debut effort.

Every song adds something to the album, the deep cuts keep you coming back for more and the singles are alt pop/rock dance floor fillers and singalong classics all at once.

Nominally alt-rock, this has more in common with The Prodigy than REM or The Cranberries and foreshadows the scratchy dance loops of the poppier end of nu-metal. Theres even a hint of industrial in the synthesised drums and guitars at times. Significantly though the ‘rage’ isn’t against the machine. This is an album for tortured lovers to dance to and then mourn their broken hearts when they get home.

Honestly, there isn’t a duff track on the album and at 51 minutes it doesn’t outstay its welcome (like so many CD era albums did).

I’d give this a 9/10. It is one of the best albums of the 90s and deserves to be revisited.

Final score: 7.84 (38 votes cast, total score 298)

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