Beautiful Garbage, the oxymoronic title of Garbage's new album, is a perfect description of the popular band's latest experimentation with noise. A rock and pop hybrid flavored primarily with pop hooks but spiced with just a pinch of dark electonica, Beautiful Garbage has achieved new heights in the group's signature sound of thrown-together styles.
Led by fiery-haired, venom-spouting Scot' Shirley Manson, Garbage has been unstoppable since its self-titled debut album in 1995. Since then, the band has released a wildly popular second album, Version 2.0, been nominated for five Grammies and toured Europe with the likes of U2.
The lineup is as follows: Americans Duke Erikson, Steve Marker and Butch Vig take care of any/all instruments and effects, as well as pulling double duty as producers. They have worked together in a few unsuccessful bands, as well as remixing songs for Nine Inch Nails and House of Pain before meeting up with front-woman Shirley Manson.
Manson, born in Edinburgh, Scotland, began her musical career at the age of 17 and has not stopped since.
The new album has been received with mixed emotions by the masses and critics. Critics raise scrutinizing eyebrows at Garbage's seemingly A.D.D-induced rotation of styles on the album, and even within individual songs. Fans jab criticizing fingers at the self-pitying ballads that seem oddly out of place with the band's history of lyrics.
But who cares about consistency? If Santana had stayed consistent over the years, there would have been no powerful, celebrity-laden Supernatural. If Madonna had stayed consistent since the early '80s, no one would remember her today. Consistency is for boy bands and oldies, not for modern, versatile artists struggling to create something new in a world of recycled music.
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The album consists of 13 tracks, with a bonus interactive program that lets beginner DJs remix Garbage songs to their liking, which provides hours of entertainment for people with short attention spans and delusions of grandeur. It also helps those of us who are not musically inclined to better distinguish between the elements and instruments involved in individual songs.
The first single, the playful "Androgyny," was released in September complete with a hilarious gender-bending video. The single enjoyed immediate success, but is by far not the best track of the album. Most of the songs have their own charm, as well as their own style, which makes for a surprisingly engrossing CD.
The fast-paced tune "Untouchable" is biting and mocking, challenging listeners to disagree with its in-your-face attitude. "A Cup of Coffee," with its haunting melody and disturbing story of rejection and obsession, makes an immediate impression and establishes Manson's talents at both writing and performing her lyrics.
"You left behind some clothes/ My belly summersaults when I pick them off the floor/ My friends all say they're worried/ I'm looking far too skinny," she croons to the eerie accompaniment as she pulls her listeners deeper into her world.
While almost none of the songs could be called happy, a lot have whimsical elements and a few even carry a carefree melody as background for depressing lyrics. And as a fun little tidbit to watch for, many of the songs have a snappy surprise ending in the last line.
Despite the band's maturation since past albums, the main appeal of its latest release remains its funky beats and futuristic sound.
Listeners can interpret and analyze all they want, but they can also just lie back and pop in Beautiful Garbage as delightful background music for an afternoon of chilling.
