Amazon.com It's not that Garbage is doing anything particularly new. At times, singer Shirley Manson borrows Chrissie Hynde's phrasing, Patti Smith's rock beat poetry, and Brian Wilson's chorus from "Don't Worry Baby." But producer Butch Vig provides a modern sheen to Version 2.0 that makes it sound fresh and distinctly modern. Purists may blanch--the album is a hybrid of rock guitars, dance rhythms, and pop choruses--but songs such as "I Think I'm Paranoid" (a rip of Elastica) and "The Trick Is to Keep Breathing" (Depeche Mode, without the chill) sound great no matter what they're called. --Keith Moerer Product description NEW Combo BLUWAVS CD and FLAC FILE Review Version 2.0 is a beautifully engineered piece of modern design.... It's woozy and sleek on "Temptation Waits" and "The Trick Is to Keep Breathing," [and] revved-up and politely abrasive on "Hammering in My Head" and "Dumb".... Version 2.0 is state-of-the-art corporate software: virus free, millennium friendly, functional and slick. But, outside of office hours, pretty damn forgettable. -- NME Beneath this CD's slick, danceable surface lurks a menacing, unpredictable animal ready to pounce--as well as a reason for pop music fans of all stripes to rejoice. Here's a band unafraid of mixing the latest sonic bleeps and blasts with references, both lyrical and otherwise, to classic guitar rock. On its 1995 debut, the result was occasionally like listening to Top-40 radio while vacuuming the living room. But not here, thanks to consistently strong songwriting and a sophisticated, multilayered sound that prevents any one whizbang musical element from stealing the show. -- People It's rare to hear a rock record so carefully put together that still sounds so fresh and playful.... On Version 2.0, [vocalist Shirley] Manson uses her sultry voice to drag Garbage's intricate guitar textures out of the studio and into the real and scary world of pop emotion, where they belong. -- Rolling Stone You'll find extra effervescence in Garbage's new songs.... Everywhere they can, the foursome push the improbable, mixing the ghostly sound of a theremin with serrated guitars or working up a series of screeches and bleats into a sturdy pop bridge. But it's [Shirley] Manson's persona that makes these songs more than just clever exercises in avant-pop. -- Entertainment Weekly [S]pending the better part of '97 in the studio has paid off massively for the [Shirley] Manson family; Version 2.0's super-fussy electronic textures give Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails a serious run for their knob-twiddling. Garbage have the edge ... when it comes to taking aural avant-gardism to the masses.... Garbage have reached back for songwriting and performance inspiration, even while their sound-processing penchant embraces the future. Real strings, treated woodwinds, and plenty of artificially flavored but utterly yummy ear candy sweeten up a consistently catchier batch of soon-to-be-hits, while also broadening the debut's sulkiness with greater extremes of darkness and light. -- Spin, ISBN13: B000006NZV ISBN10: B000006NZV Material Type: audioCD
