On The Road Again: Garbage "Version 2.0 (2CD Special Live Edition)"

viernes, 14 de junio de 2024

Garbage "Version 2.0 (2CD Special Live Edition)"

Version 2.0 is the second studio album by American rock band Garbage. It was released on May 11, 1998, by Mushroom Records worldwide, with the North American release on Almo Sounds the following day. With this album, the band aimed to improve and expand upon the style of their 1995 eponymous debut rather than reinventing their sound. Lead singer Shirley Manson wrote dark, introspective lyrics, which she felt complemented the songs' melodies.

Version 2.0 was a commercial success, topping the charts in the United Kingdom, France, and New Zealand, and earning platinum certifications in several countries. The album has sold 1.7 million copies in the United States and four million copies worldwide. Garbage embarked on an 18-month-long world tour, and released a string of commercially successful singles backed with innovative music videos. Version 2.0 received generally positive reviews from critics, and was included on year-end lists of 1998's best albums by several publications. In 1999, it was nominated for Grammy Awards for Album of the Year and Best Rock Album. The album's third single "Special" was further nominated the following year for Best Rock Song and for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group.

Garbage began writing their second album, which would go under the working title of Sad Alcoholic Clowns, in March 1997 in the band's label head Jerry Moss's vacation house in Friday Harbor, Washington. The group demoed and made rough outlines for new songs. When they felt they had made a good start, Garbage took the work they made in Washington back to their Madison, Wisconsin, base at Smart Studios and begin fleshing out the ideas and rough sketches over the following year. The group recorded all of their work for the second album through a 48-track digital system digitally, direct to hard drives utilizing a 24-bit Pro Tools rig. While only one recorder was up in the early sessions, eventually another was installed to edit, and ultimately a third so Manson could record vocals while the other members fiddled with recordings. Vig estimated that the sample collage approach led to "probably have five albums' worth of music", and songs featuring up to 120 audio tracks. After the digital file was ready, mixing was done in an analog tape deck, which held only 14 tracks.

Much of the percussion was recorded in a disused candy factory located in Madison; Vig, Steve Marker and sound engineer Billy Bush set up a drum kit within the factory and recorded various fills, utilizing the acoustics of the dilapidated building. Forced to stop after local police officers responded to complaints about the noise, some of the percussion was later incorporated into "Temptation Waits", "I Think I'm Paranoid" and "Hammering in My Head".

Garbage completed recording by December 1997, as Manson wanted to return to her family in Scotland for Christmas, and asked her bandmates to just move onto the mixing. Vig added that otherwise more time would be spent recording, and "it was kind of scary—because we had to commit to what these songs were going to become." Production was done until mid-February 1998. The eventual title, Version 2.0, was a tongue-in-cheek take on how computers were heavily involved in the album's production, with Manson adding that "in the studio, at any given moment, someone would come in and find the four of us in front of the screen."

Building on framework sound and style Garbage established on their debut set, Version 2.0 featured musical references to the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, songs featuring live strings, over 100 recorded tracks, and an interpolation of the Beach Boys and The Pretenders. The band said that the goal of Version 2.0 was to create a "rapprochement between the high-tech and low-down, the now sound and of golden memories." Butch Vig stated that the band did not want to reinvent their sound, as they "felt that we had carved our own turf on the first record and we wanted to take everything we did and make it better". This meant to "have the guitars noisier and write poppier melodies", showing how the band had grown together: "With Garbage, we were struggling to find an identity and to get comfortable with Shirley – and vice versa. After touring so much, there's a better camaraderie and sense of communication."

Shirley Manson declared that "we didn't want to totally embrace the world of electronica", so Version 2.0 juxtaposed "the super-hi-fi with the super-organic". The band wanted there to be echoes of music they like in the record, "and that means not just Björk and Portishead and Radiohead but the Beatles and Beach Boys and Frank Sinatra", Manson said, concluding that the album is overall "more diverse—it goes to extremes." The increased usage of techno beats emerged from frequent exposure to electronic music during the Garbage tour, both in clubs and listening to The Prodigy and The Chemical Brothers. Steve Marker stated that the band used as a reference point the Garbage song "As Heaven Is Wide", "but with a more technoey [sic] and dance end." The band also aimed to channel some of the energy of their live shows into the rhythm parts of the album. Vig remarked that "the songs sound looser, tougher" that way, as by the last concerts, "we'd speeded things up and toughened up a lot of the grooves" and in the album "we wanted that to be apparent from the get-go."

While Garbage had lyrical input from all band members, Manson was responsible for all the lyrics in Version 2.0. Consequently, it was described by Manson as "more direct and more personal than the first. I was able to verbalize things a little clearer this time—I mean, I'm no Nick Cave, I'm never gonna be Bob Dylan. I do what I can to express myself." The singer "tried to let the darker undercurrents come through to offset some of the pop melodies", adding that "like human beings, songs shouldn't be one-dimensional". The singer declared that the introspective nature of Version 2.0 served to "reassure myself while I'm going crazy" due to her experiences during production, as she was "living by myself in a hotel, and I had no one to really talk to" and every day coming back by herself really late after working on the studio. Manson added that only "The Trick Is to Keep Breathing" had something that was out of her life, being inspired by her friend Ruthie Trouble. "Medication" came about from a frightful, isolating experience with the US medical system. The song, Manson explained, is "a reflection on past ills in a way ... about taking blame on yourself for things that you had no control of at the time, and finally pushing off and realizing that this was not my fault. It wasn't all my fault. There's a huge relief and release that comes from that".

The entire visual campaign for Version 2.0 was tailored to play off the album cover artwork, the icons designed to represent each single release, provided point-of-sale and the band's videogenic sensibility. Garbage spent three weeks in Europe providing interviews with music journalists from a multitude of territories, while Manson continued on her own to Australia and Asia.

Version 2.0 was released in Japan on May 4, 1998, a week ahead of the international street date, to counteract parallel imports. The album was released in two editions, a standard album with a bonus remix of "Push It" by Boom Boom Satellites and a limited run of 20,000 copies featuring two international B-sides, "Lick the Pavement" and a cover version of Big Star's "Thirteen". Version 2.0 debuted at number four in the Japanese international album chart.

On May 11, Version 2.0 was released worldwide, with the North American street date a day later. Mushroom Records released the album in the United Kingdom on CD, LP and cassette. In North America, Version 2.0 was released on CD and cassette by Almo Sounds in partnership with Interscope Records, who shipped 500,000 copies to stores in the first week.

Version 2.0 debuted at number 13 on the US Billboard 200, selling 88,000 copies in its first week. As of August 2008, the album had sold 1.7 million copies in the United States. In the United Kingdom, the album debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart, with first-week sales of 31,476 copies. It had sold 579,912 copies in the UK by May 2012. Elsewhere, Version 2.0 topped the charts in France and New Zealand, while reaching the top five in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Norway, and Portugal.

The album received its first gold discs on May 22, 1998, in the UK, Belgium, France and New Zealand, and by early October, it was certified platinum in New Zealand, Canada, and the UK, and certified gold in the United States, Australia, and seven European countries. It was eventually certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on February 24, 1999. During the week of March 8, 1999, Version 2.0 was officially awarded the European Platinum Award by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) for sales of one million copies across Europe.

On June 3, 1999, Version 2.0 was certified platinum in Spain, and claimed the fifth-longest chart run on the Spanish Albums Chart on June 20, while an airplay-only single, "Temptation Waits", was released to Spanish radio. The album's sales continued into 2000; it was certified platinum in the UK for the second time on February 11, 2000, before re-charting in the UK for the final time on July 15, 2000. As of May 2018, Version 2.0 had sold four million copies worldwide.

Track listing

All tracks are written by Garbage, except where noted.