Shirley Manson on the album that’s “great to have sex to” and “great to cry your eyes out to”
Although their sound synchronised eerily well with the contemporary Britpop movement, Garbage hailed from Madison, Wisconsin, and reinvigorated pop-rock for a new generation throughout the 1990s. With the iconic Scottish vocalist Shirley Manson front and centre, the tight-knit four-piece seemed to conquer the world in just a few short years after forming in 1993.
Despite their comically humble name – which made for some amusing album names, such as 2007’s compilation Absolute Garbage – Garbage were far from it. Crucially, their eponymous debut album of 1995, home to ‘Only Happy When It Rains’ and ‘Stupid Girl’, was a huge critical and commercial success, selling over four million copies during the first issue and achieving double platinum certification in the UK and the US.
Before Manson joined the band, Butch Vig took on vocal duties for early gigs, but they agreed that they would need a strong female vocalist to guide their envisaged aesthetic. “Debbie Harry, Patti Smith, Chrissie Hynde and Siouxsie Sioux—all really strong, unique personalities,” Vig told Louder in a 2015 interview while recalling their search for a vocalist in 1994.
Incidentally, Vig met Manson for the first time while visiting London on April 8th, 1994. Later in the evening, Vig recalled hearing that the Nirvana frontman and one of the band’s biggest influences, Kurt Cobain, had committed suicide. As if picking up Nirvana’s threads, Garbage brought a fresh, grunge-inspired sound to the masses, updated by the use of synthesisers and progressive production techniques.
Remaining active in their initial run until 2005, Garbage reached another peak in the late 1990s with 1998’s UK number one album, Version 2.0. Just a year later, the band had their theme song accepted for the soundtrack of the Pierce Brosnan-starring James Bond movie The World Is Not Enough.
Garbage reunited in 2010 and have so far released three albums in this new chapter, the most recent being 2021’s No Gods No Masters. Maintaining their associative electro-rock sound, Garbage have remained relevant amid these latter releases, especially in their chosen themes.
“This is our seventh record, the significant numerology of which affected the DNA of its content: the seven virtues, the seven sorrows, and the seven deadly sins,” Manson told Spin of No Gods No Masters in 2021. She added that the album was “a critique of the rise of capitalist short-sightedness, racism, sexism and misogyny across the world”.
These eternally vital messages are joined by a fresh and ever-infectious sound. Discussing some of their influences, new and old, in a feature with Amoeba in 2018, the band picked out the recently released eponymous debut album by Cigarettes After Sex.
“We have this record by Cigarettes After Sex, who are a band that we took on tour last year and fell madly in love with, and they’re just beginning to explode,” Manson said, holding up the LP.
“They just have this incredible, stripped-down, melancholic sound that makes me, and I think the rest of my bandmates, feel really good,” Vig added. “It’s like taking drugs listening to them, I swear to God.”
“This is a beautiful record. It’s great to have sex to, and it’s great to cry your eyes out to,” Manson added passionately.
Watch Garbage discuss more of their influences in the video below.
