You free your mind in your androgyny (Beautiful Garbage - Garbage)

Member Name: Modena

Product:	Beautiful Garbage - Garbage
Date:	19/09/01 (168 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A few very good songs, excellent vocals

Disadvantages: Nothing as hard hitting as I am used to, far too many bad songs, ineffective plagiarism here and there

Garbage return after years (well it felt like years) of absence since the single “The World Is Not Enough” and the 1998 album “Version 2.0”. I’m a big fan of them, I have both their albums, I’m attracted by the angelically evil vocals of Shirley Manson blending in with what I consider to be a unique kind of multi-layered electronic rock. Garbage is/was released on the 1st of October 2001. Does “Beautiful Garbage” continue this innovative trend, or is it more garbage than beauty?

01 – Shut Your Mouth (3:28)
“Just shut your mouth”

On the first few notes, this would seem like a fairly hard rock song, with heavy guitar notes and Shirley talking through it, but the chorus of this is in an almost exact tone to Robbie and Kylie’s “Kids”, but the words ate “shut your mouth”, all the familiar electronics sounds are there, a fairly evolved version of Garbage it seems, it’s difficult to decide if subtle is the word here… You’ll only remember this for the chorus I think.

02 – Androgyny (3:11)
“Boys in the girl's room, Girls in the men's room, You free your mind in your androgyny”

The first single to be taken from this album, this seems to be the Garbage sound mixed with some RnB elements, very reminiscent of Ace Of Base, but it works very well. As you can tell from the title, this is about a fairly strange subject, but it seems quite natural for this band. If you can imagine Ace Of Base going all alternative rocky, then you have a good idea of what this song is like, this is one of the better songs on this album and one can see why it was chosen to be the first release.

03 – Can’t Cry These Tears (4:18)
“I just don't care anymore, I've reached the end of the rope, I just don't care anymore, Won't cry these tears anymore”

The song jumps
straight into the lines above, with the symphonic atmosphere and the sad lyrics, this song should have what it takes to be an epic. This song is very powerful, it is not the best epic ballad I heard, but nevertheless it deserves a lot of credit, it sounds really nice but I can’t help I’ve heard it all before, maybe something like Blondie (well before my time though)

04 – (I Will Love You) ‘Til The Day I Die (3:28)
“The more I gave to you the more you grew bored, And making love became the waging of war”

This is very average, the tune is average, very typical Garbage, there’s the stuttery music present in the other albums. This is far too repetitive, I wouldn’t mind if this was good, but I don’t think it is.

05 – Cup Of Coffee (4:33)
“You told me you don't love me, Over a cup of coffee, And I just have to look away”
A million miles between us, Planets crash into dust, just let it fade away”

As you can tell by the lyrics above, this song is dark, this is a dark ballad, the only other Garbage “ballad” I remember is “You look so fine” this is faster and more confusing. This song expresses itself by drawing the picture to the listener, it’s linear as opposed to repetitive, I don’t think you will remember anything apart from the first line, it’s a good song to listen to if you like this kind of stuff, but once again fairly average. Thank goodness it ended with “It took a cup of coffee, to prove that you don't love me”

06 –Silence Is Golden (3:50)
“If I raise my voice, Will someone get hurt?
And If I can feel it, But I won't get touched
If no truth was spoken Then no lies can hide”

This song on first listen is just stuttering guitar verses that build up to bottlenecked middle part, and I have listened to this several times and I still
think the same of this.

07 – Cherry Lips (Go Baby Go) (3:14)
“With your cherry lips and golden curls, You could make grown men gasp when you go walking past”

I was told this may be the second single. This starts off nothing like Garbage, it sounds like a pop tune, the singer does not even sound like Shirley! In fact, I think it’s a young Madonna! This is an energetic electronicish pop tune, I would not be 100% surprised if you told me it was the Vengaboys either, ewww! I am not sure about this song, but I have liked everything Garbage have released as a single, maybe with time, this will be liked…

08 - Breaking Up The Girl (3:35)
“One mistake's all it takes, And your life has come undone, Walk away cause you're breaking up the girl”

This is more of the usual, Garbage guitar/drums/bass sound. I wished this was a slower version of Special (my favourite Garbage song) but unfortunately this is not in that league (it’s happy for a start though the lyrics are not). Fortunately, I can tell this is Garbage, the distinctive multi-layered sound is still there, I think this song will grow on me if released.

09 – Drive You Home (4:00)
“I never said I was perfect, But can you take me home”

A slow ballad, in an apologetic tone, this is the kind of song I expected in this as I always believed that Shirley’s versatile voice suited this, I really like this, there is nothing I can point to, the lyrics are not that awe inspiring, I think it may be a combination of the vocals and the atmosphere of the tune.

10 – Parade (4:09)
“The color of the night The glory of a sudden view The baby in your arms The smile he always shoots at you”

A very vibrant intro, a la “When I Grow Up”, then it gets to the machine gun pace of “Hammer In My Head” and calms down to a more normal tune. The t
une is very fast paced, but the quiet as opposed to the usual loud type of fast. This sound like the sound you would hear when you are at the final stage of a computer game I think. This song moves very fast, you have to listen to it a few times to admire this full force rock tune. One of the better songs on this album.

11 – Nobody Loves You (5:10)
“Coughing up feeling just for you To find something real to hold on to But there is a hole inside my heart Where all of my love comes pouring out”

Set in a “The World Is Not Enough Tone” but more spookily, this slow eerie tune is one of the tunes I like. There are a lot of pace changes here, it is not necessarily thrown together, but the lyrics run smoothly enough so the listener still likes this. The end of this song builds up to a stunningly complex multi-layered background lyrics outro and ends on a kind of “ta da”, well something like that…

12 – Untouchable (4:05)
“It must feel good to believe, You're always right, And you're never wrong”

This is just an eerie take on some kind of pop song really, I’m sure I’ve heard something similar before but obviously the concept has changed. It’s a peaky (is that the word?) pop song, I mean Britney Spears’ song writer could probably manage half of this. This is classily done, I have a fair idea of what this is about, but it is not that good really. However, to be fair, this does have what it takes to be a half decent tune, but as Garbage say in their first album “this is not my idea”…

13 – So Like A Rose (6:15)
“The stars are out tonight Only they can hear you breathing”

The album ends with this nicely titled song, it starts off with a very long and quiet intro, and then the lyrics “Baby thinks he's dying, Lost inside his bedroom” it’s very simple, nothing dram
atic, nothing complex, it builds up slightly and sounds like some kind of hymm to get a baby to sleep. It sounds moderately like one of Feeder’s slower songs actually, probably something from Polythene or Yesterday Went Too Soon, but clearly this lasts for much longer. Not really my kind of tune either…

>Extras
This comes in 2 versions, the standard one (costing £10 at Amazon) and a Limited Edition one (Costing £5 more), now my guess is that the Limited Edition is either in terms of the packaging or it has some enhanced elements, so I will update this opinion in due course.

>Cover and Inlay
As this has not been officially released at the time of writing this opinion, I cannot comment and will update in due course. But the cover (as you can see) is a pink dominated affair with a nice rose on it, sweet.

>Verdict
As you can see, I don’t like this too much, I think the other 2 albums are superior, you remember the first one for the likes of “Stupid Girl”, “Only Happy When it Rains”, “Heaven Is Wide”, “Special”, “Push It”, and “You Look So Fine”. Apart from Androgyny, I don’t think anything here matches that class.

Having said that, some people may see Beautiful Garbage as a progression, there are clearly arguments that this is a more mature Garbage etc who have learnt a lot after this 3 year absence etc etc… Obviously my mind is subject to change, but as it stands, I will not be wishing to purchase this.

Beautiful Garbage??? More like the best female covers album in the world, ever!!!

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