Garbage’s new LP is driven by a message above all, and there are some truly exquisite moments in which music and lyrics merge and soar even in the face of social collapse.
Among the central pillars of the Garbage approach to music is an unflinching resolve. It comes through in music and lyrics alike, in songs about love, hate, sorrow, and struggle. Throughout the highs and lows of the last band’s three decades, it has been their hallmark, providing them with a structural integrity that has endured through all manner of sonic experiments.
The latest addition to the Garbage corpus, Let All That We Imagine Be the Light, emerges from this same principled core. It sees the band push against social and political injustice with darkwave-tinged determination. Pleasantly unsurprising given the state of the world: they don’t shy away from anger. As pleasant, more surprising: they haven’t given up on it all.
It’s a righteous duality, hope and fury. The opening song, “There’s No Future in Optimism”, sets the tone, painting vivid scenes of dystopia and insisting on loving and thriving in spite of them. Embedded in the middle of it is a lyric that is key to the whole album: “There is no future that can’t be designed / With some imagination and a beautiful mind.” This is a work that is mostly about finding new ways forward, rather than giving in to inertia.
Sometimes, this is as simple as slamming the status quo. On “Chinese Fire Horse”, frontwoman Shirley Manson addresses sexism, ageism, and other such isms directly, drawing very clearly on her own experiences as an artist who has lived most of her life in the public eye. It’s not subtle. Neither are anti-fascist anthems “Get Out My Face AKA Bad Kitty” (“You hold the power / But we hold the feeling”) and “R U Happy Now” (“Make no mistake, friend / They hate your women / They rob your children / And they love their guns”).
Sonically, these tracks are dense, plugged-in rockers, Manson’s lyrics embedded in walls of bass and synth. It’s familiar musical territory for them, but they’ve never been more blunt. They’re past playing it cool on these: they have points to make.
The rest of the tracks are just as pointed in their own ways. Smoky synthpop tracks “Have We Met (The Void)” and confessional “The Day That I Met God” come across as starkly diaristic. In contrast, “Love to Give” and “Sisyphus” are motivational ballads with strong hooks. Manson’s voice takes on softer, more intimate tones throughout, allowing the whole band to dwell in a darker palette that peaks with the trip-hop-adjacent “Radical”, the oblique poetics of which culminate in a layered refrain: “Let all that we imagine be the light / It’s radical.” Vaporous downtempo is another comfort zone for the group, but something about the tranquility and closeness of Manson’s lyrics is especially transcendent here and feels like fresh ground.
The band have made a career of binding strong points of view to catchy melodies, and in that sense, Let All That We Imagine Be the Light is something of a surprise. This album is driven by a message above all, and there are some truly exquisite moments in which music and lyrics merge and soar even in the face of social collapse. Garbage will not compromise their beliefs or technique, and are more worthwhile for that. Pop charts be damned.