Review GARBAGE ‘Anthology’

Garbage from Madison, Wisconsin, belong to the bands that is inevitably associated with the 90s. Formed in 1993, the quartet rose to the top of alternative rock bands in a very short time.

Already the self-titled debut album was a commercial success and reached the charts before the second album, ‘Version 2.0’, finally established the group as one of the great acts; top 10 rankings included.

The band never really disappeared, however fans also needed a lot of patience as the wait for a new studio album was rather long. Thus, the band took a hiatus in the early 2000s before returning with ‘Not Your Kind of People’ in 2015.

The last studio album ‘No Gods No Masters ‘ was released last summer and now it’s a compilation highlighting the work of Shirley Manson, Butch Vig and Co.

Photo: Brian Ziff

Titled suitably ‘Anthology’, the release covers all 30 years of the band and even features the more recent ‘No Gods No Masters’. Even though newer tracks have found a place on the tracklist, it’s the old hits that catapult the listener back to the heyday of alternative rock. Songs like the melodic ‘Only Happy When It Rains’ spread a melancholic charm.

It is well known that Garbage supplied with ‘The World is Not Enough’ also the title song to a James Bond movie and therefore the most commercial single of the band may not be missing on this compilation.

My personal favorite from Garbage is the wave-ish ‘Run Baby Run’ which is represented as well as the groovy ‘Blood for Poppies’. Also worth mentioning is ‘Witness to Your Love’, one of the band’s rarer songs and the first new track the band released after ‘Absolute Garbage’ featured on the Give.Listen.Help charity compilation in 2008.

‘Anthology’ comprises 35 songs and is a comprehensive retrospective of the creative output of a band that has been a major force in shaping alternative rock and continues to do so to this day. Fans of the early days will find this release a blissful journey into a time gone by, and music lovers who haven’t heard the band before will now have a chance to catch up on lost ground.