Garbage - Version 2.0 [2LP UK Import]

Garbage's Version 2.0 arrives as a remastered 2LP UK import, a fine format for an album that pushed alternative rock deep into the digital age.

After their self-titled debut made them stars, Shirley Manson, Butch Vig, Duke Erikson and Steve Marker faced the classic second-album question and answered it by doubling down. Released in 1998 and produced by the band themselves, Version 2.0 sharpened everything: the hooks, the beats, the attitude and the sheer density of sound. Vig's studio instincts, honed on some of the biggest rock records of the decade, meet the band's love of samples, loops and electronic texture.

Temptation Waits opens with a crunch of programmed drums and distorted guitar, and I Think I'm Paranoid turns anxiety into a stomping anthem. Push It is gloriously over the top, layered with glitches and Manson's commanding vocal, while Special shows off the band's gift for sweet, sixties-flavoured melody wrapped in modern gloss. When I Grow Up bounces with bright, sugary rebellion and a chorus built for shouting along.

The Trick Is to Keep Breathing and You Look So Fine slow the pace for the album's most haunting moments.

Nearly three decades later, Version 2.0 still sounds slick and dangerous, and this remastered vinyl gives every layer room to shine.