Garbage - Garbage

A garbage album to end this project

And there it is, the end of the Birthstospter™, the traditional yearly project that ebbed and flowed with varying degrees of regularity. First, I want to thank everyone who took the time to participate and write reviews all year long. It’s always nice to see people responding positively when you harass them. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it, and that I wasn’t too annoying (or at least not more than usual). I’ll see you next year for the new project.

This year, I felt that being intentionally vague with the prompt actually led to a lot more variety in the album choices than usual. If I had just said “pick your favorite album from your birth year,” we probably would have gotten a stronger selection overall than with “pick what you believe is the most interesting one.” Or maybe not (after all, we all have terrible taste here). But it definitely would have been more homogeneous. This year we had pop-country, hip-hop, ambient, and even tejano in addition to the usual metal. So I think the project as a whole was interesting, even if most of the albums were, to quote Goldicot, “neither good nor interesting.”

Then came the heavy task of choosing the final album of this project. At first I had no idea what to pick. Most of the metal from 1995 is already very well known around here which makes it less exciting to “discover” (though the playlist is absolute fire: Symbolic, Storm of the Light’s Bane, King for a Day… Fool for a Lifetime, Bergtatt, Written in Waters, The Angel and the Dark River, etc.).

I considered going with Three 6 Mafia – Mystic Stylez, an album I know well, one that pioneered horrorcore and the southern rap scene. But I wanted to discover something new, so I kept digging through 1995 albums across various genres and countries. For a moment, I almost chose Bodun (Бодун) by Auktyon (АукцЫон), a Russian experimental folk-rock record that actually slaps. Very groovy, nicely composed, though a bit disjointed at times. Still, I wasn’t completely sold on it, so the search continued.

That’s when I remembered a song I heard back in February at a music quiz with the theme “the year 1995.” I decided to give the whole album a try… then listened to it again, and again, and again. It turned out to be my favorite discovery of the year, and amazingly, the perfect way to close out this project. Since I said the most interesting part of the birthstospter was (maybe) the variety of genres, ending with an album that blends vastly different styles together felt like the perfect reflection of what this project was all about.

Garbage is a band that embodies all of this, even in the way it was formed. The group was born in Wisconsin in 1993, founded by three veteran musicians from the local scene: Butch Vig, Duke Erikson, and Steve Marker (all of them essentially multi-instrumentalists). Their previous bands, Spooner and Fire Town, never broke into the mainstream in the mid-80s, so they shifted toward producing and recording to make a living. Vig, in particular, gained serious recognition as the producer of Nirvana – Nevermind, as well as records by Smashing Pumpkins and Sonic Youth. Around this time, the trio began experimenting with guitar sounds, synthesizers, samplers, drum machines, and odd production techniques. When they shared these experiments with friends, the reaction was that it “sounded like garbage.” The name stuck.

Their initial plan was to operate as a studio project with multiple guest vocalists but that idea was scrapped when they saw Shirley Manson from Angelfish on MTV performing “Suffocate Me”. They reached out, but the response was hesitant. Not surprising, Shirley was still reeling from the breakup of Angelfish, and now three unknown dudes in their 40’s were asking her to fly from Scotland to Wisconsin to be their singer. She hated it there at first, but stuck with them, and soon began writing lyrics that channeled themes of self-destructive relationships, lust, and anguish. As recording went on, she gradually connected with the band, and it began to feel like a real group rather than a studio experiment. When the debut album finally came out, the veterans who had never tasted wide recognition and the young struggling singer on the edge of quitting suddenly found themselves touring to support a record that would go on to sell over four million copies.

I had no idea about their history when I first listened to their albums, I only learned it while researching for this article. But does an interesting backstory actually translate into interesting music? In this case, yeah, and it shows right from the opener, ‘‘Supervixen’’. The song kicks off with a massive, noisy riff that abruptly cuts out and restarts, almost stuttering, throwing you off balance immediately. Then it pulls back, giving space for Shirley’s seductive and suggestive delivery that really sells those edgy lyrics. From the start, one of the album’s greatest strengths becomes clear: the immaculate production. The layered sounds never drown Shirley’s voice or the drums, and while the song structures are fairly simple, making them catchy, they keep the dense arrangements from becoming overwhelming. The result is an album that sounds crystal-clear, showcases creativity, and manages to be both coherent and varied.

Take “Queer”, a broody yet groovy track, that is immediately followed by the catchy pop-rock of “Happy When It Rains” before switching to the dance-infused pulse of “As Heaven Is Wide”. Next comes “Not My Idea”, opening with a riff that could easily sit on a Nine Inch Nails record. “A Stroke of Luck” drifts closer to trip hop, with beats you’d expect more from Massive Attack rather than a rock band. “Vow”, on the other hand, is the most straightforward pop-rock song of the album, in line with contemporary women-led bands of the time like The Breeders or No Doubt. Then we head to the dancefloor with ‘’Stupid Girl’’, a very groovy and a bit silly song with a chorus that sticks a bit too much in your head. “Dog New Tricks” pushes a fat, distorted bass line that could have inspired Muse, showing once again Garbage’s instinct for great riffs and rock melodies. “My Lover’s Box” and “Fix Me Now” are probably the least memorable cuts, but still deliver with strong choruses. The closer, “Milk”, ends the album on a melancholic vibe with the ethereal arrangements reminiscent of Cocteau Twins and a spotlight on Shirley’s voice.

Ultimately, this debut has great replay value. It’s immediately pleasing, easy to remember, but layered enough to reveal new details on repeat listens and to stay interesting every time, which is the perfect note to end this project on.