#21

I genuinely would like to hear what @deep-blue has to say in this thread. It’s clearly a band who mean a lot to them, so just want to make sure they know this thread exists.

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#22

I find them very insincere and quite a cynical band. Every song I’ve heard is slightly different in style but rather than it being a showcase of a band not being pigeon holed, it always felt to me like a band trying to present themselves as an outlier to the genre they were trying to be in.

Like the video to When I Grow Up has Manson doing some dance routine which seems to be a sneer to other pop rock artists, but then you realise the song was featured prominently in an Adam Sandler film and it just feels like oh, they did get that paycheck they wanted then

#23

Ive got some fond memories of playing 2.0 on repeat while caning urban chaos and the original gran turismo. Also loved a fair bit of the debut too and rains is one of my fave 90s songs…

After that, just poo. Proper poo. Young me felt betrayed when they went pop along with no doubt. As I write this I realise i still do.

1 Like
#24

Quite liked the first few singles, however, there always something a bit contrived about them. Seemed like a record company construction of what would sell in 95/96.

#25

Don’t think I’m alone here, but…

First album was incredible at the time - I listened to it so, so much that I’ve not really heard it since that initial flurry. Might give it a nervous try later today and see how it sounds all this time later.

Didn’t get on at all with the 2nd album. However, whenever they play something from it on the radio I’m always of the opinion that it came from the first album so maybe it’s not as bad as I remember.

Not really heard anything since, and forgot all about the Bond theme.

I’ve gone for a 3, but not sure if that’s a tad generous. Might lower to a 2 if the album hasn’t aged well.

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#26

6 albums!!!

Another one who’s only heard the first two but they were exactly what 15 year old me wanted, so catchy, as much so as anything in the charts, but with an MTV ready alt rock veneer. Gulped it up. I liked the debut, Vow is a belter, but I preferred Version 2.0 just because it’s so much more pop, You Look So Fine was the soundtrack to much navel gazing and I still find I Think I’m Paranoid exciting, it’s a great chorus. By the time Beautiful Garbage came around I’d moved on, haven’t heard a note since. Oh yeah, Shirley was a teminator, that was good. The 3-est of the 3.

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#27

Thought they’d be much more well-loved on here for some reason.

First album is great, second one is ok, beautifulgarbage is not very good and the rest could be anything because I sure as shit haven’t heard it. 3/5 mainly for Only Happy When It Rains, When I Grow Up and for using the Train In Vain drums on Stupid Girl.

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#28

I think I’d be more into them had streaming been a thing in the 90s. I always liked their singles on TV, but never listened to an album, partly as none of my friends seemed to be into them. I did see them headline the Other stage in 2002 and thought they were superb, but again, as a poor student, couldn’t afford to go home and check them out and forgot to ever since. Should give their early stuff a go, really.

#29

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#30

Only really know a couple of the singles, and can only really remember stupid girl, which I didn’t like

#31

Had the first LP as seemingly everyone did at the time. Remember enjoying it but can’t remember bugger all except the rain song. Will try later probably but not expecting much. Had checked out massively by the 2nd album and have always been surprised when their name pops up since. Thought they were very much of their time/one hit wonders. In my head they are very bland, stale sounding radio rock. Can’t say i have much of an inclination to listen to much more…in fact…what am i even doing here?

The story in the NME about Shirley shitting on her boyfriends cornflakes always stuck with me though so i suppose that deserves a point.

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#32

They were my favourite band when I was 10-12. I played those first two albums to DEATH.

Still enjoy them when I put them on, but don’t go back often. The first album sounds surprisingly good imo.

Outside of those albums as far as I know the Bond song, Androgyny and Cherry Lips are the only good things they’ve done.

They’re also one of those bands where I can remember exactly how I discovered them- on the Lady Killers double CD compilation. I’m guessing I was 10 when I listened to it, and discovered Garbage, Lush, Sleeper, Echobelly, The Cardigans, Everything But the Girl, Moloko and Cocteau Twins through it. Quite the education.

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#33

Not particularly arsed either way but surprised at the polarised opinions between the first and second albums. I really liked Version 2.0 when it came out, and occasionally get a little nostalgia kick from sticking it on. Overly clean, yes, but quite alright.

After that yeah dogplops.

#34

Not for me.

#35

A very nostalgia-powered 4 for me - those first two albums were pivotal to teenage me, I really did love both of them very hard and still get a kick out of listening to them on occasion. They were one of the few bands that everyone could agree on at school so when I’d go to someone’s house we’d always end up listening to them and I have some fond memories of that way.

I wonder if the downbeat reviews here are a gender thing (don’t mean this as an accusation just an observation), as a teenage girl I completely idolised Shirley Manson and everything she stood for. There was like the holy trinity of her, Gwen Stefani and Courtney Love at the time who inspired a lot of teenage girls like me to try and get in to music. As an adult I do think there were better or more interesting role models out there but they were a good primer. I like that they’re all buds as well. But I think that definitely had an effect on me in a way that all-male bands at the time didn’t.

I also tagged along with a DiS writer to interview them in Manchester. Their press guy has arranged it on their tour so smaller and local publications/zines could interview the band as a group which I thought was a really lovely idea seeing as they were so huge at the time. All of them were really friendly, encouraging and positive, and Shirley signed my S/T cover. Even though I don’t listen to their new stuff it will always be a treasured possession of mine!

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#36

What now?

#37

She played the T-1001 in the short lived Sarah Connor Chronicles! Or as a pal called it the Sarah Connicles

image

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#38

Liked the first album, didn’t like the 2nd because of the orange cover, other albums don’t exist

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#39
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#40

5 for MTV2 nostalgia alone.

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