Today’s random selection is a bonus track from Garbage’s 2012 album Not Your Kind of People.
This and other bonus tracks were released as part of a “deluxe edition” of the album, a practice that became more and more common during the CD era. Deluxe editions seemed to fade a bit as CDs gave way to streaming, but I’ve seen more of them creep up lately.
After two excellent electronica-fueled alt-rock albums, the band Garbage released 2001’s Beautiful Garbage and evolved their sound in interesting ways. Today’s song is a great example.
‘Can’t Cry These Tears’ is the band’s stab at a Phil Spector-style production, marrying 60s pop with their own electro-grunge aesthetic.
‘Automatic Systemaitc Habit’ is the lead track on Garbage’s 2012 album Not Your Kind of People, their first record after a seven-year hiatus.
Garbage is very much a late 90s band, with their first three (and best three) albums coming out between 1995 and 2001. 2005’s Bleed Like Me was a misstep and for a while seemed like the end of the band. But this album showed a renewed spirit and a sound very much like the one they mastered back in the day.
Ah, the summer of 1995. I was working as a production assistant at a video studio in Boca Raton and befriended a couple of hip employees who introduced me to Garbage’s debut album.
They were hard rock types, and this album was a little harder than I normally go for, but I fell for it entirely anyway. Credit goes to the sexy, Scottish Shirley Manson, with whom I remain smitten to this day.
Garbage has a muscular industrial sound that could be accurately described as hard rock with an electronic flavor. They’re not exactly balladeers.
But the band has a tradition of ending each album with a slow, usually sad, song. On 2001’s Beautiful Garbage, the band’s third album, that song was ‘So Like a Rose.’
Meet Me In Montauk 