[3] In 1994, as Vig became "kind of burned out on doing really long records", he got together with Duke Erikson and Marker, and they started producing remixes for acts such as U2, Depeche Mode, Nine Inch Nails and House of Pain, featuring different instrumentation and often highlighting new guitar hooks and bass grooves.

"[4] A major part of the work involved Manson rewriting the song lyrics, which Vig said the band attempted to "write from a woman's perspective and I think, initially, some of them were a little pretentious.

Vig and audio engineer Billy Bush were able to track down an archived, but rather incomplete and damaged, set of 16-bit 44.1 kHz safety DAT mixes.

Despite the condition of the backups, mastering engineer Emily Lazar at The Lodge in New York City was able to reverse-engineer the missing songs from the damaged archive.

"[17] The band went overboard with experimentation, with Erikson adding that throughout they liked to include "sounds that we found accidentally, like Steve's sample of a tape deck backing up, or the bit in 'Stupid Girl' that was initially a mistake, but when we slowed it down, actually fit the timbre and pace of the song and became the hook.

"[4][18] The lyrics on the record were described by the band members as "a collaborative psycho-therapy session wherein personal demons of various sizes and importance are exorcised, vilified, taken revenge upon and laid to rest."

Vig said they tried to deal with "dark themes that I think a lot of people can relate to in some way or another", which included voyeurism, hedonism, perversion, obsession and "the art of self-destruction.

"[14] Manson remarked that while the content was "a lot more poppy" than most of her previous work, the songs invoked the dark side of her nature, as "sometimes I'm a wee bit creepy, and that definitely comes out in the music.

[14] Vig added that the band was eager to exploit the contrast between words and music: "The initial idea was to make this a dark lyric with a shiny, happy, pop sensibility.

[21] Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic stated that the album "has all the trappings of alternative rock—off-kilter arrangements, occasional bursts of noise, a female singer with a thin, airy voice, but it comes off as pop" because of Vig's "glossy production".

"[23] Newsweek remarked that the album "has an impressive swirl of acoustic and electric guitars, keyboards and swanky pop hooks that actually push alternative rock in a new direction.

"[24] About.com's Tim Grierson stated that the album "was steeped in alt-rock, but hits like 'Only Happy It Rains' had a dance element to them that distinguished the band from many of their angst-rock peers."

"[26] Billboard noted that "acting on the premise that more is more, foursome Garbage thrashes out power pop with enough skill and passion to rate among the cream of the alternative crop.

[12] To perform the complex and layered tracks live, the band hired Los Angeles bass player Daniel Shulman for the tour, and figured out ways to trigger samples on stage, such as having Marker play a keyboard along with his guitar.

[28] Garbage then headed south to Asia and Australia to promote the album, beginning with shows in Singapore on September 28 and ending in Osaka, Japan, on October 18.

He added that the music's mix of ambience, rhythms, and noise "gels and rises above the din thanks to catchy hooks and killer song construction.

"[18] Sharon O'Connell of Melody Maker hailed it as the closest to "perfection as a pop/rock record" as can be,[39] while Emma Morgan of NME called it "a reminder of how sweet angst can be in the hands of talented players".

[41] Keith Harris wrote in The Rolling Stone Album Guide that the record's electronic guitar hooks and Manson's "pop-star-as-one-night-stand" persona were seductive but had a "tawdry disposability".

"[43] In 1997, Garbage was named the 71st greatest album of all time by The Guardian, which polled a number of renowned critics, artists, and radio DJs worldwide.

[45] According to Los Angeles Times critic Mikael Wood, the record's techno-minded sound and Manson's alluring persona complemented and countered the contemporary post-grunge music Vig had helped pioneer after producing Nirvana's 1991 album Nevermind.

[52] The album was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on February 24, 1999,[53] and by August 2008, it had sold 2.4 million copies in the United States.