![Garbage [CASSETTE]](http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/516EYJCPFXL.jpg)
| Set up by Nirvana producer Butch Vig, featuring two veteran session musicians from Madison, Wisconsin and singer Shirley Manson of no-hit-wonder 1980s Scottish band Goodbye Mr Mackenzie, Garbage surprised themselves as much as anyone else when they hit payout with their debut album. Their success made sense, though. Although it's guitar rock, Garbage were plugged into state-of-the-art studio software, generating a cybergoth sound as black, flexible and synthetic as PVC, capable of odd morphing effects to match the plunging mood swings of tracks like "Vow". In the over-cheery mid-1990s, dominated by Britpop and boy bands, songs like "I'm Only Happy When It Rains" were a welcome antidote, while Shirley Manson emerged as the most potent, self-aware and no-nonsense rock frontwoman since Chrissie Hynde, flaunting the darker side of her psyche with the same menacing intent as she flaunted a pink feather boa onstage. --David Stubbs |
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