Review of Garbage's 'Version 2.0' Album: Their Second Coming

Man, if I were still a smoker, there is nothing more I'd want to do than play the first two albums by Garbage and chain-smoke, diving into the lyrics and melodies blue-skying from the afternoon till the next morning, feeling my fantasy. The band did it again; this album contains some of the greatest Garbage hits and serves as a great continuation of the wave they are still riding. The second studio album came out in 1998, but now I am listening to the remastered version from 2018 on Spotify. Shirley Manson sounds incredible, injecting the same vibe into the project while creating a new sound with the whole band, moving them forward into the new millennium. In the second album, 'Version 2.0,' many songs that didn’t make the final cut found a place here. The first two albums of the band reek of high school in the best way possible. We were dirty teenagers—parties, weed, cigarettes, and alcohol, lonely nights, school yards, missing appointments, sleepy youth. An absolute emotional rollercoaster.

Singles from Version 2.0:

• "Push It" - Released: April 20, 1998
• "I Think I'm Paranoid" - Released: July 6, 1998
• "Special" - Released: October 5, 1998
• "When I Grow Up" - Released: January 25, 1999
• "The Trick Is to Keep Breathing" - Released: February 15, 1999
• "You Look So Fine" - Released: May 24, 1999

Here we have six new singles that are absolute masterpieces. It is really hard to repeat success, to remain at the top of your game, after such a strong entry as the first album. But as the saying goes, they don’t make them like this anymore. To be fair, I never paid enough attention to the hits from this album, but after listening to the band live this month, I am revisiting their discography chronologically, and I found myself amazed at how much I missed. From the celebrated singles here, hearing 'Push It' and the pure rock that came from the stage during the live performance blew my mind away. I often listen to the live version, not paying attention to the bad phone quality, just because the outros of the song were so intense that I couldn’t believe it. This song quickly became an anthem and found a place in my heart. During the last month, at some point, the other songs changed their position on my playlist, but 'You Look So Fine' seems to deliver every time I play it. In the original version, this song ends the album. Like most of their songs, their albums also deliver great outros. The lyrics are powerful, relatable, and resonate with my existence in this moment. I love the energy that the song carries, the softness, femininity, and the beauty that radiate from it. From those singles, this is the only song I didn’t hear Shirley perform during the concert, which only gives me more reasons to follow the band up close so I can experience it live.

There is something about going to a concert. To be honest, I loved Garbage before this event, but after it, I LOVE Garbage. I don’t know the name of every member, neither of the people involved in their projects, more like I feel the energy encapsulated in their music, feeling the art that they created. Today I paid more attention to 'When I Grow Up'. I felt like a joke because often I feel like the only one experiencing those feelings, and here Shirley sings them years before I found the group. I feel stupid even admitting this, but beyond that, I feel understood. One time I told a colleague of mine, 'I am happy when other people suffer.' I know, it sounds harsh. She immediately asked me, 'how come?'. After answering the question, I realized how swiftly I answered that question. How can you recover from that dumb comment? Well, I answered truthfully, without missing a beat, 'because that way I know I am not alone'. Not that I encourage suffering, all I am trying to say is that we can find meaning everywhere, and suffering is inevitable, and sometimes it feels like you are the only one who goes through these things, especially when you are a young teenage gay boy in the middle of nowhere. Music is therapy and gives different perspectives. We relate through music; songs are the key to different cultures, and this year I am diving into Scottish and Arabic music. 'When I Grow Up' opened the door to a private therapy session, giving a fun twist to the struggle, apparently a lot of people have, which is the false expectation and the letdown of not reaching them. I found 'The Trick Is to Keep Breathing' while I was looking for 'Kick My Ass' from the previous album a couple of years ago. This month, I made the comparison and realized that for the last two years I lied to myself, thinking that the song I found is the right one. In this way, it wasn’t, but in many other ways, it remains one of the most powerful and truthful songs the band ever made. The live performance and the honest talk to fans by Shirley right before it will keep the song in the charts 'Soundtrack of my life'. 'Special' and 'I Think I’m Paranoid' I have known for years, and the excitement of newly found music now is gone, but they pop up every now and then, regaining their powerful messages and vibe. The whole album cements the band, and soon I’ll be moving to their third project named 'Beautiful Garbage'. Share if you have favorite songs from this album down below.

Let's sound the alarm to RuPaul's Drag Race and let them invite Garbage as judges, so the girls can perform some of their songs.

Iliya Badev