Garbage - Version 2.0
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Free Music Notes for Version 2.0
Free Music Review: The best album from Garbage, the best album in recent years
Hit: 5 Stars
This album is literally perfect. One could go on forever about the subtle nuances in the immaculate production of the album, but even more outstanding is the quality of the songwriting and hooks. Version 2.0 contains the modern rock classics "Push It", "I Think I'm Paranoid", and "Special", the latter also being a huge Top 40 hit along with "When I Grow Up".These key tracks are almost singlehandedly responsible for breathing new life into the modern rock genre when it was rapidly dying off, due to the onset of teen pop and nu-metal.
Other gems include:
-The sexy, airy opener "Temptation Waits" in which Shirley Manson's sultry voice floats over cool electronica
-"Hammering In My Head", an ecclectic track featuring jungle, techno, ambient, and speeding electronica. Butch Vig names this track as his favorite of the album.
-"You Look So Fine", a heartbreaking ballad reminiscent of The Carpenters. This album closer was released as the final single outside the US, and was an instant smash.
-"Wicked Ways", a good old fashioned rock song, still with that Garbage electronic edge. The "head banger" of the album.
-"The Trick Is To Keep Breathing", a slow, rumbly trip-hoppy song released in Europe as a single in early 1999.
Overall, the "key" tracks are the incredible rock masterpiece "Push It", the almost equally stunning "I Think I'm Paranoid", and the essential pop hit of 1999, "Special".
There actually are NO bad tracks on Version 2.0. Six songs total were released as singles,(HALF THE ALBUM!), proving the unmistakable broad appeal and quality of the album. Any other of the six non-single tracks could have easily been singles as well.
In summary, Version 2.0 deserves every bit of the tremendous critical acclaim and commercial success it received. It was nominated for FOUR Grammy awards--Best Rock Album, Best Rock Song ("Special"), Best Rock Performance ("Special"), and even Album of the Year. "Push It" was nominated for 8 VMAs in 1998 and "Special" won a VMA and VH1 award in 1999. Rolling Stone named it one of the Best 100 Albums of all time.
Do yourself a favor, and pick up this great album today. (The landmark self-titled debut and 2001's beautifulgarbage are also excellent and essential to any album collection).
Free Music Review: Garbage does what no other 90's bands could do
Hit: 5 Stars
Garbage's self-titled debut was a critically hailed triumph. It was a combination of sleek neo-feminism, gothic undertones, and alt-pop rhythms. Vocalist Shirley Manson could do it all -- she was Debbie Harry of Blondie, Dolores O'Riordan of the Cranberries, she was Chrissy Hynde of the Pretenders -- but she was still a leather-clad skanking flirt with a mean growl and a playful attitude. Her familiar yet simultaneously unique personality helped usher in the new era of alt-rock that dominated the late 90s. Despite Manson's in-your-face affectations, their first effort, while remarkable and refreshing, wasn't altogether groundbreaking. After nearly 3 years of intense recording and polishing, Garbage returned with a newer, glossier, and more catty version of their former selves.Sidelining -- although not totally adbandoning -- their grittier roots was a shrewd choice in the 90s, when a long attention span was hard to find. Garbage is still in all of their glory here -- the insane guitar riffs and acidic lyrics are intact. Here, it's just done better. They take the guitar riffs and skewer them until they're nearly indistinguishable, they take Manson's growl and strecth it out to elastic proportions. Such intense experimentation is usually suicidal -- here, it's more like a steroid shot to an ailing genre. Perhaps the most effective revelation on 2.0 was the full-on implementation of technopop. It's everywhere here -- in between the beats of the punk chorus in "I Think I'm Paranoid," backing the ingeniously distorted guitars of "Push It." Garbage didn't only write the book on crossover alternative pop/rock, they have it memorized and, for all intents and purposes, copywritten.
Garbage is sugared up on romps like "When I Grow Up" and the double-entendre laden "Hammering In My Head" -- they're echoic and icily profound on "The Trick Is To Keep Breathing" and "You Look So Fine" -- they even manage to combine caustic wit and catty come-on with "Sleep Together." Manson and Co. know no limitations when it comes to musical stylings, and this sort of unpredictability is what rock was meant to sound like.
Free Music Review: Their 2nd Album is definitely not garbage
Hit: 5 Stars
I've listened to alot of music over the years, (that is once I was allowed to.) and have found that more times than not, a groups second album just doesn't come to par with their first. When I bought Garbage's self-titled album in '96 (other than being blown away by the shear amazingness of the album) i started to think "Can they do it again, will they do it again?"
and for awhile there was but the one album.
Then one day in the spring of '98, I was at home watching MTV (as i got older i was pretty much allowed to watch) and here comes a premiere video from Garbage; called "Push It". I totally went berserk, running through the house screaming! Once i sat down to watch, i was once again blown away by the sound resonating into my ears, and i knew that their second album would be just as good as their first. Little did i know it would end up being better.
When "Version 2.0" came out in the fall of '98, i was one of the first to get it. (I worked at a music store, and bought a copy when we closed) As i drove home, i was drenched in a morbid, heavy metal, glam rock, techno world. The songs on the album were once again sensative to my inbreed feeling as a teen. As each song played i once again found myself crying. They had done it again. And after getting home and comparing it to their first; i decided that it was better.
With the sexually obsessed song "Temptation Waits", then the paranoid delusioness of "I Think I'm Paranoid" these songs hit close to home. Dealing with other issues that i was going through. Finding a place for myself in society (When I Grow Up),
Feeling like killing yourself (Medication) to being an overactive sexual being (Sleep Together) all these songs became very special to me. But after listening to the entire album, i found myself drawn to the immense sound and morbid feeling in my favorite song "The Trick Is To Keep Breathing".
As a pop album, "Version 2.0" doesn't fair well, but it's not a pop album. This is glam rock; industrial rock at it's very best.
Different, and better than it's predecessor; "Version 2.0" is the quanticential Garbage album.
Free Music Review: Garbage's slam-bang sophomore album is pure gold
Hit: 5 Stars
I listen to "Version 2.0" more than any other album in my collection. It's a fantastic piece of work, an endlessly entertaining album that seamlessly melds rock, pop, and electronica into one unified whole.
Even the best albums tend to have one or two stinkers, but each song on "Version 2.0" is a winner - there isn't a misfire in the bunch. What's even more remarkable is that even though the songs have been mixed, mastered and polished to absolute perfection, they still seem incredibly natural and organic, the complete opposite of the manufactured bubblegum (...) that we've been subjected to for the past half decade. The album's opener, "Temptation Waits", starts things off with a bang and a hook (the best way to go, in my opinion), and "I Think I'm Paranoid" continues the fun. It begins with a charming keyboard intro and a deceptively simple beat, but quickly morphs into a pounding rock anthem that hits like a sledgehammer. Indeed, there are quite a few of these "soft-to-loud" transitions on the album; from the upbeat, melodic "Special" to the furious electronic assault of "Push It", the album's best track. If "Version 2.0" were a person, it would be a manic-depressive schizophrenic with violent mood swings. But in a good way.
"Version 2.0" also has its quieter, more introspective moments, which help balance out the killer rock bits. "The Trick is to Keep Breathing" is a surprisingly effective soliloquy, laced with smoky radio static and ethereal strings. And "You Look So Fine", the album's closer, floats a piano solo over a throbbing, muffled beat, working like sonic Valium. "Version 2.0" is defined by its polar opposites - soft and loud, fast and slow, happy and angry - but what unifies the whole thing is the distinct "Garbage sound", first introduced in 1995 and refined here to tremendous effect.
"Version 2.0" is a pleasantly varied yet coherent collection that truly pleases the ear. Such a solid and often brilliant album only comes around once in a long while, and "Version 2.0" is a must-buy for anyone who considers him/herself a music fan. Get it. You won't be sorry.
Free Music Review: Garbage still has what it takes.
Hit: 5 Stars
After waiting in anticipation for nearly a year for this album to come out, i had a lot of high hopes for Garbage's second CD. And all of those expectations were met and even surpassed with "Version 2.0". After rushing home with it the day it came out, i listened to "Version 2.0" the whole way through. I was amazed at how much their sound had changed since their last CD. It's true to say that everything has been "updated" since Garbage appeared on the scene nearly 3 years ago. Everything from the style and format of their CD to the their own physical appearence to the sound of their music seems to be "more advanced" now. Garbage has always been known to have unique sound that combines loops, electronic elements,and raw guitars. Their latest attempt has more of an electronic based sound that some rock/pop purists may cringe upon...but Garbage has never been one to follow the rules. All 12 songs on "Version 2.0" are! all well developed and could all be very successful singles, similar to all the songs on their debut. What exactly does this mean? It means that every song has some sort of catchy riff or insightful phrase that'll have you'll be humming and singing long after you've taken the CD outta the CD player. "Push It" is one example of this...the first single off "Version 2.0" and similar to a bomb that is about to explode. The riffs and loops gradually get louder as the song procedes and will energize even the most dull of people. Having heard dits and dats of "When I Grow Up", "Special", and "Dumb" about a month before its release, i could tell every Garbage fan ( or alternative rock fan for that matter.) was in for a treat. Despite the fact that the lyrics arent as gloomy as last time( i.e. only happy when it rains, vow, not my idea.), everything about the songs on "Version 2.0" are still very well done. But make no! mistake, Garbage still has what it takes to depress ur day! :o). This CD is a must buy the hardcore Garbage fan and alternative rock fan alike.