 After Marker saw Shirley Manson 's group Angelfish on 120 Minutes , the band invited her to Vig and Marker 's Smart Studios to sing on a couple of songs . One of the compositions was " Queer " , whose incomplete lyrics forced Manson to ad @-@ lib in an audition that was described as " dreadful " . The singer afterwards returned to Angelfish , which folded shortly later . Manson eventually returned to Smart for a successful second audition and then began working on the songs Vig , Marker and Erikson had created . Manson rewrote " Queer " into a trip hop arrangement and added ambiguous lyrics that allowed the listener to make up their own mind about what the song was about . She also re @-@ sang the " Queer " vocal in an understated style . It was then that the band knew that Garbage was going to work . 
