Absolute Garbage: Greatest Hits (Audio CD)

Goodbye to an ace group I really feel that there should have been more tracks on here from 'Bleed Like Me' and 'Beautiful Garbage' as they are fantastic albums dispite what anyone says, and although commercially those albums sold less, critically they were better received than their two previous albums. It was a shame when they seemed to disappear off the face of the earth after version 2 as I felt their music had got stronger and stronger with each release. Sure, there was a certain glossy sheen to Beautiful Garbage and it wasn't perhaps as raw as their previous efforts but you cant deny it's a fantastic album and the same goes for Bleed Like Me. I'm well gonna miss them and I hope that they all do well as they are all clever people and Shirley is a legend in my book!

Misunderstood Well, yet again it happens . . . People expect certain things, for no other reason than that's how *they'd* do it, and when they don't get it, they become angry. Okay. Well calm down and breathe. You can't please everyone. Reading some of the reviews below, someone complained because not enough of the latter two albums were included, despite the (comparatively) low sales of these records as opposed to Garbage and Version 2.0 (generally agreed to be their best work). Well, there's your answer. The fans, band and pundits all preferred their first two albums, so that's why there's so few of their later songs. Secondly: yes, Tricky's remix of Milk and Subhuman were absent. But there's the original version of Milk present (they can't fit every remix onto one album) and Subhuman is practically unheard of outside the realm of extreme Garbage fans. So Garbage's later albums weren't as good . . . but that's only because we hold them in comparison to the brilliant first two albums. On their own, the latter two albums stand competitively against any and all of the modern rock crap from the UK and US, and look pretty good. The challenge has been, I imagine, that with each album Garbage have wanted to develop and adapt theit sound, so that they don't repeat themselves. This has meant that Version 2.0 contains more electronic and pop elements than Garbage, and Beautiful Garbage contains even more yet again, this time with R&B and 80s notes, whilst Bleed Like Me was a simpler, more stripped-back album that strived to be more like modern rock. That is their sole flaw. Because every time you change your formula, you're bound to upset someone who loved the status quo. However, in order for a band to keep their integrity, they do have to evolve. It's a difficult situation, where they find themselves clinched between two alternate problems. Anyway, regardless . . . this is still brilliant, and so I give it five stars. And I *am* a music critic (for Bent magazine).

nice, but definitely not 'the best of' go for the albums instead It IS about time Garbage produced a 'best of' collection but I'm not sure this is it. It's always difficult to have every single favourite track included on a compilation but this one doesn't seem to have had much in the way of TLC in the process. Not sure if this is because the band is splitting up and can't be bothered, or if a record company git just cobbled it together. Where is the Tricky remix of Milk or Breaking up the Girl? Would also like to have seen a couple of album tracks from 3rd album Beautiful Garbage, esp, Can't Cry These Tears and Drive You Home. Favourite tracks included here are Stupid Girl, Happy When it Rains, I Think I'm Paranoid, Special and Cherry Lips (Go Baby). To be honest i would recommend buying the first 3 albums instead of this compilation. good to hear The World is Not Enough again though, which isn't on any other Garbage album

Not a bad introduction, but not designed to please the fans Perhaps, not entirely fairly, Garbage have been following the law of diminishing returns for almost a decade. As most bands go on, record releases get further apart as they start to overthink their work, and sometimes, this means that the public loses all interest in their work during these gaps. The three years between "v2.0" and "beautiful garbage", and the four years between that and the underwhelming "Bleed Like Me" have seen Garbage not bother tinkering with their magic formula to what could be their detriment. "Absolute Garbage" is a handy value for money package and a good entry point for the casual listener. It's also like a Big Black album, in so much, as it start well and gets progressively worse as it continues. By the end, Garbage are sounding a little one-dimensional, trying variations on the same limited palette. As if it stopped being fun, and started being a job, a bad habit they can't break. Now, this isn't to say this is by any means a bad record. It isn't. it's the crème de la crème of Garbage's work, and exemplifies exactly where their particular strengths lie : in writing slightly odd, heavily-processed, weird pop music. Garbage are the poor man's Curve : stealing the schtick of crunchy guitars and semi-engimatic breathy female vocals into a handy package. And some of the stuff is brilliant : "Stupid Girl", "Queer", "Milk", "I Think I'm Paranoid" are all concise, brilliant pop moments that tap into a particular mood and achieve a very singular vision within the space of four minutes. With tunes you can sing along to. Sadly, as time wears on, the band fail to develop their sound or vision and start to sound as if they are going through the motions. Instead of the sense of compulsion, the sense of release, that these songs had to be sung, had to be written, it starts to feel as if the band are doing this because it's their job and they don't really know what else to do. When the music can't convince itself of it's essential need to exist, it's sometimes difficult for a listener to care either. It's probably best then to skip the middle portion of this set : as time progresses the band become steadily less inventive and the songs less brilliant, which is a great shame. New track "Tell Me Where It Hurts" sounds like Garbage parodying Phil Spector : its by no means a bad thing, but nothing exceptional and lacks the punch-in-the-gut-WOW factor of great music. That said, "Absolute Garbage" is no bad thing - it's a compact précis of the bands best work, and, for a two CD set seems keenly priced. The second CD compiles largely inessential remixes that will pique the curious, running the gamut of styles from generic and dated dance/club mixes (the type where the song being remixed is largely an afterthought), to entertaining diversions that sounds almost exactly like the remixers main work - UNKLE's remix of "The World Is Not Enough", contributions from Massive Attack and Fun Lovin' Criminals : worth a listen, but not an essential part of any collection. Overall, "Absolute Garbage" is a pretty good compilation : almost all the singles, presented sequentially, with a bunch of remixes at a good price. Musically, it's not amazing and suffers slightly from the law of diminishing returns as the band run out of tricks as time progresses, but as an introduction to the bands work, you can't go wrong here.

Good, but - essential? Curious. Still scratching my head over some choices here. If it's purely a singles collection then why #1 Crush but not Supervixen or Androgeny? What's here is pretty fine, though on a genuine 'best of' I'd certainly choose several (mostly earlier) album tracks rather than the more recent 60's girl-band-with-added-electronic-sheen pastiche singles. The new song also suffers from this failing. If you have the earlier albums there seems no reason to go and buy this. You probably already have all the tracks you really need from 'Shirley and the Boys'. A fair primer though for anyone who likes one or two singles and wants a tidy compilation.