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= Untitled =

Untitled is the eighth studio album by American rock band Garbage. It's the band's second studio album released through BMG. The album represents a shift in themes compared to the band's previous record, being less socio-political and more optimistic.

Background
In July 2022, vocalist Shirley Manson said Garbage had started writing for the follow-up album to No Gods No Masters earlier on in the year. The album's recording and production would be subsequently halted by two tours and marked by personal incidents, like Manson's hip replacement surgery and the death of her dog Veela. Consequently, over the following two years several deadlines were missed and the album would eventually be pushed back to 2025, from an initial plan to finish it by spring 2023.

During the album's recording, the band released the Witness To Your Love EP in 2023 and the Lie To Me EP in 2024. The same year, their fourth record Bleed Like Me was remastered and reissued, breaking the consuetude of reissuing their classic albums on their 20th anniversaries. The band possibly decided to reissue the album one year earlier than its 20th anniversary to focus on their eighth album in 2025.

After two albums released independently on the band's own label Stunvolume, this will be the second album to be released through the major label BMG.

Recording and production
The album was recorded at sound engineer Billy Bush's Red Razor studio in Atwater Village. Bush would record the band jamming and then the band would proceed into editing down the long jam sessions into songs. Drummer Butch Vig explained, "we sort of take those jams and we'll start to edit them down into what we think is, 'this part's cool here', 'I really like what Shirley sang here'. We'll take the 20 minute jam and edit it down to like four or five minutes and try to distill a song out of that."

Recording for the album began after the band's performance at the Hollywood Bowl for Audacy's 9th annual We Can Survive on October 22, 2022. In January 2023, Manson underwent hip replacement surgery, whilst the rest of the band continued to work on the album. The operation and subsequent rehabilitation left her unable to work with the band for two months due to writer's block. She resumed writing for the album in March.

On February 13, Garbage announced their Summer 2023 co-headline North American tour with Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds featuring Metric as special guests. The same week, Vig affirmed the plan was to finish the album by June 1. By the end of march, when interviewed by Rick Beato, Vig affirmed the band was still recording the album. On April 28, on Record Store Day 2023, Garbage released the Witness to Your Love EP, featuring the newly recorded "Cities in Dust" cover of Siouxsie and the Banshees and two outtakes from No Gods No Masters, "Blue Betty" and "Adam and Eve".

In June, inbetween rehearsals for the Summer co-headline tour, Vig told Nick D'Virgilio the album was still in the works, with 15 or 16 work-in-progress songs, which are "quite varied - some are very Garbage-esque sounding as usual, some are quite strange, but I think those are the ones that we like the most." Vig added the band hopes to finish the album in the fall, with a spring 2024 release. In an interview by Scott Lipps on the Lipps Service podcast, Vig admitted a couple songs on the album were inspired by socio-political themes. "A couple songs sound like Pink Floyd on the new record and some are strange pop songs - they're really hooky but sort of strangely constructed in a way. It's hard to tell with a Garbage record until we mix it 'cause a lot of the songs get final focus when we decide what to leave in or leave out of the mix", he added.

In September, Garbage performed three more shows in Latin America and in December they performed at the KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas, their last date of 2023. When interviewed by Megan Holiday, guitarist Duke Erikson said the band was still in the recording process. In an Instagram post, Manson affirmed the band would reconvene on January 22 to "start nailing down our 8th studio album before we hit the road again later in the year". On January 27, Manson said she recorded the first complete vocal for a song on the album and guitarist Steve Marker added Glamour Box effects on it. On February 23, Garbage posted an Instagram video where Duke plays an Otamatone with the caption "we are serious musicians on the long road of creativity and discovery." The same day, an Instagram story was posted with a studio board where work-in-progress track titles could be discerned, such as "R U Happy Now", "Have We Met (The Void)", "Don't Moan To Me" and "Was A Life". On February 28, the title "Sober & Sorry" could be spotted on the board.

In April, Manson told NME that the band was on track to complete the album by the end of May. After a series of updates on social media, on May 25, Manson wrote on Instagram that the band "had a deadline which we failed to meet", suggesting that the band wasn't able to finish the album by the end of May, whilst also adding that they had just completed a song that had been left unfinished for a year. In June, Manson affirmed the album was finished and just needed to get mixed, with a possible release date slated for summer or late 2025.

Composition
Manson said the album would represent a shift compared to the band's previous effort, being less socio-political, abrasive and aggressive, and more optimistic and melodic: "As a society, we’ve become so beaten down and broken-hearted. I’m trying to reach for something that’s a little bigger than me, because if I don’t then I’m going to drown in my own dismay", adding "It’s a searchlight, this record. After scorching the earth, we’re coming out of a filthy cave with a searchlight. We’re looking for shards of life and humanity," she told NME.

The hopeful nature of the record was inspired by incidents that Manson experienced during the making of the album: in January 2023 she underwent hip surgery to recover from damage she suffered after a fall on stage in 2016, and in August of the same year her dog Veela died, an event she conceded "literally ruined my life". Manson also tried to stay positive through all that's happening in the world, saying what she witnesses daily on her social feeds "feels demonic" and that "we all need to fight to not let our hearts become ice-cold". Indeed, during the making of the album much of the band's posts and stories on social media focused on the Gaza–Israel conflict.

In an interview with Manchester Evening News, Manson explained the album has "some great pop melodies": “There’s a lot more focus on the vocals and the harmonisations," she added.

Personnel
Garbage


 * Shirley Manson – vocals, keyboards, production, cover photo, band photo
 * Duke Erikson – guitar, keyboards, percussion, background vocals, production, band photo; piano (2.2), bass (2.4, 2.5, 2.8)
 * Steve Marker – bass, drum programming, drums, guitar, humming, keyboards, programming, background vocals, production, band photo
 * Butch Vig – drums, guitar, keyboards, background vocals, production, band photo

Additional musicians

Technical


 * Billy Bush – production, mixing, engineering

Design


 * Ryan Corey – art direction, design

Reference list
= Witness to Your Love EP =

Witness to Your Love is an EP released by alternative rock band Garbage for Record Store Day 2023, on April 22.

It contains "Witness to Your Love", a track that was first released on the fifth volume of the Urban Outfitters and Filter Magazine charity compilation Give Listen Help in 2008, during the band's seven-year hiatus from releasing studio albums, and then released as a single to promote Anthology the previous year; a cover of "Cities In Dust" by Siouxsie and the Banshees; and two previously unreleased tracks from the No Gods No Masters sessions.

Background and recording
The origin of title-track "Witness to Your Love" dates back to 2008, when singer Shirley Manson was approached by friend Jeff Castelaz, founder of the Pablove Foundation, to include a Garbage track on the fifth volume of the Give Listen Help charity compilation benefitting the Children's Hospital Los Angeles helping to fight cancer in children. Manson wrote the lyrics of "Witness to Your Love" to unfinished tracks from the Absolute Garbage sessions and finished the track with drummer Butch Vig in his GrungeIsDead home studio in Silver Lake, with guitarists Duke Erikson and Steve Marker sending guitar parts through online collaboration. Additional drums were played by Matt Walker.

"Witness to Your Love" has been described as a personal track dealing with the sudden death of David Williamson, the husband of Morag Williamson, one of Manson's closest friends in Scotland. Manson was inspired to write the lyrics to the song after Williamson's funeral and some of the lyrics directly reference the poem read at the memorial. The song's lyrics also mention the Edinburgh district of Canongate and Manson's episodes of shoplifting in her youth. In 2022, Manson further explained that the song was written as an attempt to comfort Williamson about the loss of her husband saying "I saw him. I know he existed. And he was somewhere else, but he was there. And I'm your girl, and I've got your back. And your history is my history, and our history together is something that will move forward throughout our lives. It's a joyous song in a funny way although it's based in Debby Downerisms." Vig called the song "a pretty obscure track of ours, but one of the most beautiful songs Shirl sung."

On November 21, 2009, Manson performed a live acoustic performance of the song at the Pablo Castelaz memorial at Avalon, in Hollywood, with Vig on guitar. At the event, Manson explained the song is about "acknowledging someone's life, and in doing so, acknowledging our own and how lucky we are to be alive." The performance brought Vig and Manson close and prompted them to contact the other band members to start making music again.

Release
Witness to Your Love was released on World Record Store Day 2023, April 22, ahead of Garbage's co-headline summer tour with Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds. The EP was released a week later on digital platforms. Promotion and reviews of the EP largely focused on the "Cities in Dust" cover, also due to Siouxsie going back on tour in summer. "Cities in Dust" was heavily performed live during Garbage's summer tour.

Critical reception
Critics were praiseful of the "Cities in Dust" cover, calling it faithful to the original and complimenting the "soaring" vocals and guitars.

Charts
= Fake Is the New Dope = Fake Is the New Dope is Hooverphonic's twelfth studio album. It will be the band's seventh album featuring Geike Arnaert as singer and the second since her comeback in 2020. The album was anticipated by the singles "Mysterious", "Don't Think", "Por Favor" and "And Then I Found You".

Background
On September 16, 2022, "Mysterious" was released as the lead single from the album. The single was included in the soundtrack of the Australian TV series Love Me. "Mysterious" received a music video. On November 11, a remix of the track was released as single.

On March 23, 2023, "Don't Think" was released as second single, with a music video uploaded a week later on the band's YouTube channel.

On May 5, "Por Favor" was released as third single from the album. A week later, the music video directed by Nick Rosseel was uploaded to the band's YouTube channel.

On September 29, "And Then I Found You" was released as fourth single from the album. The track received a music video on October 20.

= Damaged Gods = Damaged Gods is the third studio album by British rock band Republica, due for release in 2024. It's the band's first album since Speed Ballads, released in 1998.

Background
- Story of band's dissolution

- Band's reformation

- Live tracks

In 2013, the band released the "Christiana Obey" single, backed with the new tracks "Suck Baby Suck" and "Whiskey Jack". In late 2018, the band teased the new album in a YouTube video serving as an electronic press kit. The video previewed the tracks "New York", "Hallelujah", and "Chase the Night".

On November 10, 2023 "New York" was released as single, backed with a re-recorded version of "Whiskey Jack". A music video followed on November 11.

= House Builder =

House Builder is a simulation game developed by Freemind and published by PlayWay for Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. It was initially released on 21 November 2021 on Steam and GOG, with an Xbox One version following on 24 June 2022 and a PS4 and Nintendo release on 15 July.

Gameplay
Gameplay involves building a house from scratch in eleven locations around the world, across different periods in history, beginning from simple structures, like an igloo in the polar regions or a mud hut in Africa, progressing to more complex and modern buildings, with each region providing different materials and climatic conditions. The player controls the character from a first person perspective and has the chance to buy the materials from a store or gather primary resources from the environment and mix them together. Next, the player has to carry them to the building locations and place them in the correct position. The spots where to place the materials are outlined in light blue in the game world, so building follows a predetermined scheme. However, the player has the freedom to decorate the building buying items from the store. Skills served in form of a technology tree allow the player to gather resources and build faster.

Reception
Gareth Brierley gave the game a 3.5 out of five review for The Xbox Hub, praising the game for its intuitive mechanics and addictive gameplay, and recommending it to fans of House Flipper. However, he criticised the visuals, soundtrack and occasional glitches. Similarly, Adam Dileva gave the game a score of 6.0 out of ten on Xbox Addict, commending the game for its Minecraft-like gameplay, but criticising the technical aspects of the game and lamenting the lack of creative control allowed to the player.