Garbage "Copy/Paste" (2024 Record Store Day Black Friday LP)
For Record Store Day Black Friday in 2024, Garbage issued a vinyl LP titled Copy/Paste, pressed in magenta-colored vinyl and limited to 1,300 copies. The album collected 10 cover songs recorded by the Shirley Manson-fronted alternative band over the course of their 30-year history, nine of which were previously released. An abridged version of the album was made available digitally, featuring six of the ten tracks (marked with an asterisk in the track listing below). The other four tracks can be found digitally as bonus tracks on the Deluxe Editions of the band's first four studio albums.
The album begins with a cover of David Bowie's classic "Starman", a song for which Garbage's futuristic sound is well matched; the result has a convincingly cosmic aura. The band's futuristic ethos was equally appropriate for their cover of U2's "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses", one of the songs which helped to redefine U2 as a futuristic band in 1991; Garbage's rendition originally appeared on an Achtung Baby tribute CD included with a 2011 issue of Q magazine, whose tracks are now available digitally from Apple Music. For their rendition of Patti Smith's "Because The Night", Garbage collaborated with the New Jersey indie rock band called Screaming Females (only one of whom was actually female), with Shirley Manson sharing the lead vocals with Marissa Paternoster. This version is clearly more faithful to Smith's original than to the popular unplugged version by 10,000 Maniacs; by contrast, this one is given a more blistering guitar-rock intensity than even its co-author Bruce Springsteen would be likely to impart. This album's version of Tim Buckley's 1970 "Song To The Siren" might be based more on the This Mortal Coil new wave version from 1983, but Garbage's ambient treatment of the song has its own distinct feeling, just a shade less melancholic than those other two versions were. Siouxsie and the Banshees' "Cities In Dust" was a natural for Garbage to cover, and this band adds their own effective edge to the lyrics' apocalyptic imagery. The one previously unreleased track on Copy/Paste is the cover of the Psychedelic Furs' "Love My Way", another '80's new wave song that seemed like a less likely fit for Garbage, despite both bands' tendency to make heavy use of technology. The track turns out to be a mostly, though not entirely, harmonious mating of '80's and '90's styles of electronic alternative pop.
Interestingly, the four tracks omitted from the abridged digital version of Copy/Paste were covers of songs from pre-punk or early-punk bands who were considered to be among the most seminal influences on alternative rock. One of those tracks is a rendition of the Velvet Underground's "Candy Says". Instrumentally, it has an authentic neo-Velvets vibe; vocally, Manson shows sympathy for the song's troubled subject. The band's version of Big Star's "Thirteen" transforms the original's acoustic sound into electronica, and offers the twist of Manson providing the voice of the bad influence in an early-teen romance. The cover of The Jam's "Butterfly Collector" is no great shakes; the 1979 original was a Kinks-like putdown of groupies, but Garbage's rendition (an early B-side from 1995) now sounds like a dated post-riot grrrl sneer. Their cover of the Ramones' "I Just Want To Have Something To Do" appeared on the 2003 various artists album We're a Happy Family: A Tribute to Ramones; it is almost the equal of the 1978 original, with an agitated alt-rock sound that underlines the song's sense of frustration.
Copy/Paste in itself serves as a good tribute album to Garbage's influences.
Garbage "Copy/Paste" (BMG BMGCAT960LPC) 2024
Track Listing:
1. Starman * -- (David Bowie cover)
2. Butterfly Collector (2015 Remaster) -- (The Jam cover, available on 20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition of Garbage)
3. Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses * -- (U2 cover)
4. Thirteen (2018 Remaster) -- (Big Star cover, available on 20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition of Version 2.0)
5. Song To The Siren * -- (Tim Buckley cover)
6. Love My Way * -- (Psychedelic Furs cover, previously unreleased)
7. Cities in Dust * -- (Siouxsie and the Banshees cover)
8. Candy Says -- (Velvet Underground cover, available on 20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition of Beautiful Garbage)
9. I Just Wanna Have Something To Do -- (Ramones cover, available on Deluxe Edition of Bleed Like Me)
10. Because the Night * -- (Patti Smith cover)
* -- available on the abridged digital version of the album
The album begins with a cover of David Bowie's classic "Starman", a song for which Garbage's futuristic sound is well matched; the result has a convincingly cosmic aura. The band's futuristic ethos was equally appropriate for their cover of U2's "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses", one of the songs which helped to redefine U2 as a futuristic band in 1991; Garbage's rendition originally appeared on an Achtung Baby tribute CD included with a 2011 issue of Q magazine, whose tracks are now available digitally from Apple Music. For their rendition of Patti Smith's "Because The Night", Garbage collaborated with the New Jersey indie rock band called Screaming Females (only one of whom was actually female), with Shirley Manson sharing the lead vocals with Marissa Paternoster. This version is clearly more faithful to Smith's original than to the popular unplugged version by 10,000 Maniacs; by contrast, this one is given a more blistering guitar-rock intensity than even its co-author Bruce Springsteen would be likely to impart. This album's version of Tim Buckley's 1970 "Song To The Siren" might be based more on the This Mortal Coil new wave version from 1983, but Garbage's ambient treatment of the song has its own distinct feeling, just a shade less melancholic than those other two versions were. Siouxsie and the Banshees' "Cities In Dust" was a natural for Garbage to cover, and this band adds their own effective edge to the lyrics' apocalyptic imagery. The one previously unreleased track on Copy/Paste is the cover of the Psychedelic Furs' "Love My Way", another '80's new wave song that seemed like a less likely fit for Garbage, despite both bands' tendency to make heavy use of technology. The track turns out to be a mostly, though not entirely, harmonious mating of '80's and '90's styles of electronic alternative pop.
Interestingly, the four tracks omitted from the abridged digital version of Copy/Paste were covers of songs from pre-punk or early-punk bands who were considered to be among the most seminal influences on alternative rock. One of those tracks is a rendition of the Velvet Underground's "Candy Says". Instrumentally, it has an authentic neo-Velvets vibe; vocally, Manson shows sympathy for the song's troubled subject. The band's version of Big Star's "Thirteen" transforms the original's acoustic sound into electronica, and offers the twist of Manson providing the voice of the bad influence in an early-teen romance. The cover of The Jam's "Butterfly Collector" is no great shakes; the 1979 original was a Kinks-like putdown of groupies, but Garbage's rendition (an early B-side from 1995) now sounds like a dated post-riot grrrl sneer. Their cover of the Ramones' "I Just Want To Have Something To Do" appeared on the 2003 various artists album We're a Happy Family: A Tribute to Ramones; it is almost the equal of the 1978 original, with an agitated alt-rock sound that underlines the song's sense of frustration.
Copy/Paste in itself serves as a good tribute album to Garbage's influences.
Garbage "Copy/Paste" (BMG BMGCAT960LPC) 2024
Track Listing:
1. Starman * -- (David Bowie cover)
2. Butterfly Collector (2015 Remaster) -- (The Jam cover, available on 20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition of Garbage)
3. Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses * -- (U2 cover)
4. Thirteen (2018 Remaster) -- (Big Star cover, available on 20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition of Version 2.0)
5. Song To The Siren * -- (Tim Buckley cover)
6. Love My Way * -- (Psychedelic Furs cover, previously unreleased)
7. Cities in Dust * -- (Siouxsie and the Banshees cover)
8. Candy Says -- (Velvet Underground cover, available on 20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition of Beautiful Garbage)
9. I Just Wanna Have Something To Do -- (Ramones cover, available on Deluxe Edition of Bleed Like Me)
10. Because the Night * -- (Patti Smith cover)
* -- available on the abridged digital version of the album
Comments