My FAVORITE Album of All Time

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.

Here is my favorite song of all time from my favorite album of all time------ "You Look So Fine."


Okay, I have decided to post all of the singles from Version 2.0 for all of you who are unfamiliar with Garbage.

"Push It" was the 1st single off of Version 2.0. I effing love this video. It is sick and twisted, just the way I like my Shirley Manson.


"When I Grow Up" was used in the movie Big Daddy, starring Adam Sandler. I for one cannot stand Adam Sandler, so instead of using the video with clips from Big Daddy, here is the second video made for "When I Grow Up." It is a live video, and it rocks.


"The Trick is to Keep Breathing" is another one of my favorite songs of all time. Check out this great performance video.


"Special" is a great homage to the Pretenders and Chrissy Hynde. See if you can figure out why.


"I Think I'm Paranoid" is a great single, and the video is one of my favorites.