Given Rubbish’s grunge-adjacent beginnings, it might’ve been straightforward to group them in with different different acts that dominated the mid-90s pop music scene. However the quartet, fronted by Scottish singer Shirley Manson, has confirmed distinctive many instances over. Quickly after Manson joined forces with drummer/producer Butch Vig and guitarists Duke Erikson and Steve Marker, Rubbish broke into the mainstream with confessional guitar-pop songs that touched on relatable anxieties and insecurities. Musically, they innovated by combining a number of on-trend genres, constructing a muddy-grunge basis, and layering in dance, electronica, and hip-hop, amongst others.
As alt-rock gave solution to a glossier, futuristic aesthetic, Rubbish additionally advanced their sound whereas by no means altering their trademark edge. Over the course of three many years and 7 albums, Rubbish have explored thrilling new methods to problem themselves musically, whether or not it was modernizing their sound on the slick Model 2.0 or paying homage to 60s lady teams on the criminally underrated Lovely Rubbish (2001). Lyrically, they’ve been fixed truth-tellers, particularly on the politically minded Unusual Little Birds (2016) and No Gods No Masters (2021), which sort out polarizing sociological points like systemic racism and company greed.
Beneath, we’ve rounded up a number of the greatest Rubbish songs, from different radio staples like “Only Happy When It Rains” and “Queer” to hook-heavy pop cuts like “Special” and “Androgyny” to protest anthems like “The Men Who Rule The World” and extra.
The Gritty, Grungy Confessionals
(Solely Comfortable When It Rains; Silly Lady; Repair Me Now; Not My Thought; Queer)
Early within the quartet’s profession, Rubbish made their mark on pop radio by each leaning into – and constructing on – the 90s omnipresent grunge development. (After all, it didn’t damage that drummer and producer Butch Vig had a glowing resume, having produced style touchstones Nirvana’s Nevermind and Smashing Pumpkins’ Gish and Siamese Dream.) Whereas the muddy guitar aesthetic is represented on Rubbish’s early singles like “Only Happy When It Rains,” “Queer,” and “Stupid Girl,” the band was additionally extraordinarily intentional of their determination to layer in myriad different influences of the period – trip-hop, electronica, punk, and hip-hop.
And it wasn’t simply that Clinton-era sound the band explored on their multi-platinum debut: Every of the aforementioned Rubbish songs had been deeply introspective, rolling out like diary entries that dug into self-immolating emotions of insecurity, nervousness, and doubt. Moody trip-hop standout “Queer,” for instance, was adopted by the LGBTQ+ group as an anthem about tolerance (the band has applauded this, whereas explaining that the one was not written explicitly about being homosexual). Elsewhere, the sulky single “Only Happy When It Rains” supplied a poppified punch to depressive days spent indoors. Electro-rock bop “Stupid Girl” each laid the groundwork for the band’s slicker follow-up album, Model 2.0, whereas telling a narrative about “a girl who won’t settle for less than what she wants,” as lead singer Shirley Manson defined on the time.
Equally, the irresistible “Fix Me Now” blends pop hooks with hard-driving guitar, whereas a self-loathing Manson sings about an immense private discomfort, and the angst-ridden “Not My Idea” actively pushes again on the notion that an individual’s coming-of-age years are those value remembering.
The Anti-Institution Anthems
(The Males Who Rule The World, So We Can Really feel Alive, Empty, No Gods No Masters, This Metropolis Will Kill You)
Rubbish’s later cuts – particularly the tracks on 2021’s No Gods No Masters and 2016’s Unusual Little Birds – are reflections of tumultuous instances. With out sacrificing their experimental, genre-diverse sound, the band digs deeper into sociopolitical problems with the day: local weather change, wealth inequality, authorities corruption, and world poverty, simply to call a couple of.
“The Men Who Rule The World” kicks off with slot machine samples and thudding percussion, earlier than evolving right into a collection of disjointed guitar licks, with Manson calling out these with energy who “have made a f_cking mess.” The band goes simply as onerous on the hook-heavy “No Gods No Masters,” which chronicles a visit Manson took to Santiago, Chile, through the nation’s protests towards corruption and inequality.
On the orchestral ballad “This City Will Kill You,” Rubbish sound nervous about Manson’s adopted metropolis of Los Angeles, which could possibly be a stand-in for anyplace the place “the lights are shining / And the girls are dancing / All the lights are sparkling / And the drugs are working.” It’s extremely straightforward to fall sufferer to a spot wealthy with shallow distractions, a spot the place “everybody is praying that it rains / It’s been promised now for days / But the sun is high in the sky again.”
Unusual Little Birds standout “So We Can Feel Alive,” in the meantime, is certainly one of Rubbish’s extra sonically aggressive tracks, crashing in with an electro-industrial melody. Lyrically, it’s rife with frustration round what the band sees as a crumbling society. Their warning speaks for itself: “Be careful what it is you break / Every broken thing can’t be fixed.” Lastly, Rubbish direct their ire to the leisure business itself, utilizing Unusual Little Birds single “Empty” as a sharply worded automobile to select aside the music enterprise’ fickle nature.
Totally Trendy Melodies
(I Assume I’m Paranoid, Particular, Androgyny, Breaking Up The Lady, The World Is Not Sufficient)
By the late 90s and early 00s, Rubbish’s sound had noticeably advanced from gloomy grunge-pop to slicker, clubbier compositions, whereas nonetheless conserving their rock-band foundations intact. Nowhere is that this extra evident than on 1998’s Model 2.0, which homes the rave-ready “I Think I’m Paranoid” and the glossily harmonized “Special.” Every of those futuristic electro-pop classics discover the band tinkering extra with their trademark genre-mashing sound, whereas Manson’s vocals are extra up-front and assured than ever, particularly on “Paranoid,” as she pivots to a positively demonic alto.
When their extremely underrated third album, Lovely Rubbish, arrived in 2001, the band delved into much more experimental territory, fusing digital and hip-hop rhythms with 60s girl-group pop. That album’s lead single, the sensual “Androgyny,” is an ahead-of-its-time ode to gender expression (take into account, it got here out 20 years in the past). The extra simple “Breaking Up The Girl,” in the meantime, fused the band’s penchant for classic-rock rhythms with Phil Spector-era pop. The end result was in contrast to something their friends had been doing on the time, which may maybe clarify why Lovely Rubbish was so underappreciated upon its launch.
And let’s not pass over Rubbish’s entry to the better James Bond cinematic universe: “The World Is Not Enough,” which soundtracked the 1999 007 movie of the identical identify. The band’s one-off single was an enchanting hybrid of concepts and falls properly into line with different Bond themes, incorporating cinematic strings and a slow-building construction.
The Roll-The-Window-Down Bangers
(Cherry Lips (Go Child Go), Computerized Systematic Behavior, Until The Day I Die, Run Child Run)
Some of the constant qualities of Rubbish is their potential to jot down pop banger after pop banger, and so they’ve been doing it now for nicely over *checks calendar* three many years. Although each certainly one of Rubbish’s albums options radio-friendly pop jams, one of many stickiest hooks they’ve ever written got here a couple of years into their profession: “Cherry Lips (Go Baby Go),” featured on 2001’s Lovely Rubbish, kicks off with energetic womp-womp-womp-womp keystrokes earlier than blossoming right into a heady, adrenaline-surging refrain. (Is it any marvel Manson as soon as stated that “Cherry Lips” was “probably the most celebratory song we’ve ever written”?) That very same bombast is current for “Til The Day That I Die” (additionally on Lovely Rubbish), which chugs with a extra aggressive guitar line however remains to be rooted in pop sensibility.
Later in Rubbish’s discography, particularly on 2012’s Not Your Form Of Individuals, the band had little interest in slowing down. Their fifth studio album got here bashing in on “Automatic Systematic Habit,” which includes a pulsating, club-ready rhythm. Likewise, Rubbish’s undersung 2005 report Bleed Like Me got here full of songs perfect for hitting the open street. One such reduce was “Run Baby Run,” which opens an echoing, U2-inspired guitar line and evolves into an explosive anthem about love’s bittersweet rush.
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