Saturday, November 05, 2022

Trash talk

Garbage aren't a band I listen to or even think about a great deal these days. But the fact is that - as the BBC's Mark Savage suggests - they did indeed create a pioneering formula. What's more, those first two albums were responsible for tempting me (and, I suspect, many other fans of Butch Vig's production work with Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins etc) into expanding horizons and discovering the delights of electronics and the formerly forbidden fruit of pop.

Savage's walk through the band's biggest hits, with commentary from Shirley Manson, is a timely reminder of how they started out sounding like a slightly sanitised Nine Inch Nails ('Vow') before releasing what remains to this day an undeniably great pop single in the form of 'Stupid Girl'. Everything about it - sultry verse, fidgety bridge, big chorus, the video, the bassline - is perfect. Am I the only one who didn't know it borrowed from The Clash's 'Train In Vain', though?

No comments: