Artists Condensed: Garbage (part two)

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Submitted by msarko on 12/3/09 6:44pm
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I once had a friend describe Garbage to me as "three producers and one singer" and while that's not entirely accurate, it gets to the spirit of what made the band a source of unique music in their time. The best sound engineers and record producers are aware of their ability to dodge the unfortunate realities of the music business. They don't hew too close to genre or image and they're more concerned with coaxing something technically excellent from a band's raw creativity. The real stars of any number of albums are their producers. When Brian Eno went into the studio with U2, for example, he helped reinvent the band at least three times. Garbage's Butch Vig contributed to the newfound accessibility of Nirvana on Nevermind, no small feat considering how abrasive early grunge tried to be. Listening to some of Garbage's non-standard recordings, it's easy to hear a team of producers fiddling around with a hint of reinvention.

All in all, the eponymous debut album was high-energy and still rather rock-based. The most glaring exception is the closing track, "Milk", and a B-side companion song called "Sleep" that only appeared on some of the single versions of "Only Happy When It Rains". These two tracks embrace the kind of trip-hop that made Portishead famous and they reveal Shirley Manson to be a kind of high-tech chanteuse rather than just an alterna-rock lead.

One of the most interesting crossover acts of the 90's was The Prodigy, but one thing that group could never really pull off was pretty. Garbage's "Hammering in My Head" from Version 2.0 cribs a lot of speedy insanity from the London underground scene, but cuts it with Manson's cooing interludes so it can stand on its own as more than just an echo of more ambitious music.

James Bond movie themes occupy a discreet category of pop music. They don't seem to change a given artist's career, especially considering that most of the bands are already established before they're given the nod. Ultimately, I think these songs are a demonstration of an artist's creativity or limitation. Garbage's contribution to The World is Not Enough is an excellent, sleek, sexy and very Bond-y track. It's an unqualified success compared to, say, the irritating Goldeneye theme written by U2 and performed by Tina Turner.

As discussed in part one of this feature, Beautiful Garbage couldn't have been more poorly timed, but it's still a mostly successful evolution of the band's sound. Had the progressive, optimistic tone of our culture in the 90's continued into this decade I have no doubt that songs like "Androgyny" would have become pop anthems for changing social mores. On a smaller scale, Beautiful Garbage saw the band embracing hip hop, Top 40 pop and even antique styles like glam and doo wop. "Drive You Home" is a beautiful, heartbreaking slow dance song if I've ever heard one and it's surprisingly organic for Garbage. Unfortunately, this album is a bookend, not a sign of things to come.

Garbage released a lot oddities and non-album tracks over the years but only a few of the loose ends are notable on their own. Take the funky-meets-trippy "April Tenth" or the jumpy electronica of "Happiness part 2". Neither of these tracks really fit on a given album, but they're still interesting enough to be included in the essential canon.

 

Garbage is a band wholly of its time, but that's what I like about them. Should I ever want a dose of the 90's I know exactly where to go. I can't call Garbage influential or even all that important to the overall landscape of pop music, but they were at least a unique synthesis of a lot of new ideas.