April 2, 2002
Garbage : Breaking Up The Girl
Where's the electronically-enhanced dusk-rock? The goth-lite undertone? Gone, the way of all certainties...
In a world of sliding goalposts, where no-one can be sure of anything anymore – who really won 'Pop Idol'? Will drukqz still be illegal come summer? – at least Garbage
have always been a constant. Their buffed AOR grunge, topped off by Shirley Manson's steely purrs, has long provided a safe port in pop's ever-changing seas.
But who are this perky band, with their "doot doot doo"s and chugging pop-rock? Where's the electronically-enhanced dusk-rock? The goth-lite undertone? Gone, the way of all certainties. 'Breaking Up The Girl' sounds like Blondie after Deborah Harry learned to sing 'properly' (ie boringly). If Garbage
were sleek before, now they are positively non-stick: politely plodding through the characterless guitar pop that will have been described as "sunny" at whichever meeting we missed.
Kitty Empire
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