Garbage

(Geffen)
by Chris Adams

Remember Curve? Well, chuck that wall of shoegaze haze, toss in a few funky beats (courtesy of Butch Vig, who both produces and drums on this album) and you have a rough blueprint for Garbage. Singer Shirley Manson doesn’t sing so much as breathe heavy, but it works in an ice-queen vampy kinda way. Granted, she’s pretentious as hell, but she’s equally engaging – imagine an existentially imbalanced Pat Benetar in heat, writing questionable poetry. Best of all, the record is stylistically diverse, so you haven’t heard the whole thing after you’ve heard the single. Garbage may be nothing to kill for, but at the very least they’re the 120 Minutes fodder that it’s OK to like.