Garbage, 'Version 2.0'

Picking up from where the debut left off, ‘Version 2.0’ does exactly what it says on the tin. The album may not make a great musical leap forwards, nor astound you with its originality but a more satisfying set of songs would be hard to find.

Three years had passed between these two albums and, as Butch Vig and his merry men (and Shirley Manson) were so adept at crossing genres in the first place, ‘Version 2.0’ works as a worthy follow-up. Manson had spent the time in-between recharging her batteries and listening to her heroes. Lead single ‘Push It’ unashamedly sampled from the Beach Boys’s ‘Don’t Worry Baby’ and Brian Wilson gave his rock royalty agreement to its inclusion. Chancing their arm even further, ‘Special’ heavily borrowed from The Pretenders ‘Talk Of The Town’, for which permission was granted by Chrissie Hynde, a fact that would have delighted one of her biggest fans in Manson. The sampling and dance tendencies are a constant theme throughout. Meanwhile, ‘I Think I’m Paranoid’, ‘When I Grow Up’ and ‘You Look So Fine’ stomped there glitzy way across the planet’s hit parades.

The record is ever so slightly knowing in places. Despite being an album highlight, witness how ‘The Trick Is To Keep Breathing’ talks about how “everything's about to fall apart”…and right on cue the instruments promptly stop working. But these are minor flaws and certainly no good reason to not add ‘Version 2.0’ to your essential 90s purchases.