What might an album by Shirley Manson and Paul Buchanan have sounded like?

THE new albums by Garbage and Paul Buchanan seem like musical polar opposites - one is sleek, hard-edged guitar pop that seems tailor-designed for daytime radio. The other, as you’d expect from the former frontman of the Blue Nile, is music for listening to late at night - slow, sparse, full of quiet ache and longing.

Their releases seem worlds apart too - Garbage grandly announced their return after seven years with a teaser trailer, months ahead of the album’s release, which contained barely any music - the slightly divaish implication being that we should be thrilled they were returning at all, regardless of what kind of music they had to offer.

By contrast, few people knew the self-effacing Buchanan was even in the studio until a few weeks ago.

It’s strange, then, to think that these two albums are intimately connected - and not just because they’re being released within a week of each other (Garbage’s came out on Monday, Buchanan follows next week).

As Buchanan revealed a few days ago, his album, Mid-Air, emerged from abandoned efforts to write material for a solo album by Garbage’s Shirley Manson. That album, as any Garbage fan will know, was rejected by her record label - a rejection that was part of the reason for getting Garbage back together.

What would a Shirley Manson album written by Paul Buchanan have sounded like? It’s fascinating to speculate.

Since 2009, Manson has posted three demos on her Facebook page, Pretty Horses, In The Snow and Lighten Up, co-written with Greg Kurst, producer of the aborted album, rather than with Buchanan.

All seem to confirm what Manson has said in the past - that this reflective, understated music wasn’t commercial enough for a major label.

Listening to them, though, two thoughts leap to mind.

One is that these noirish songs are pretty great, and that Manson’s voice benefits from the production around her being a little more low-key - but that the songs would be even better with the magic dust of the Blue Nile’s frontman sprinkled on them.

The other one is that they sound a little bit like Lana Del Rey - and that, given Del Rey’s runaway success this year, dismissing Manson’s efforts as not commercial enough was more than a little insulting.

Get these two formidable Scots back in the studio, I say.

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