28-05-2025
'They'd never ask this of men': Garbage album tackles sexist ageism
It is almost 30 years since the Scottish-American band Garbage gained notice with such songs as "Only Happy When It Rains" and "Stupid Girl." Their music - a mixture of sombre rock guitar, electronic elements and cool pop sounds - to this day does not fit into any single genre.
The same applies now to their eighth studio album. "Let All That We Imagine Be The Light" is somehow different, yet is unmistakeably still Garbage, as made clear in a dpa interview with singer Shirley Manson in London.
Not a band for streaming algorithms
"We're an unprogrammable band. We don't fit into the algorithms that this streaming services rely on so heavily. We just don't fit in with any of it," the lead singer says.
"It really bothered me for a long time that we didn't belong anywhere. But now I realize how beautiful that is and what freedom it allows and to be be able to enjoy a unique identity, sonic identity, at a time when there are 100,000 songs uploaded onto the internet every single day."
According to Manson, the new album is a "companion piece" to the previous LP "No Gods No Masters" which she said "full of outrage and fear." (All the things she was worried about have since come to fruition, she notes.)
The new LP is tangibly more positive, said the Scottish singer, who for years now has been living in the US with her husband, Garbage sound engineer Billy Bush. She has since acquired US citizenship herself.
Developments in the US - along with the entire international situation - are causing her concern. But there was no question for Manson of once again channeling her fears in her songwriting.
"I realized that I cannot afford to remain in the headspace that I inhabited when we wrote 'No God's No Masters'. I had to somehow pivot and change my tactics, shift my own perspective, or I would go mad."
The only thing she could control was her love, she says. "Whether it's my love of nature, love of animals, love of my community, love of my band, my romantic love with my husband, all the different forces of love that exist that are open to us, I feel like I'm reaching for and harnessing on this record."
Sharp criticism of sexism and ageism
Anyone who was afraid Garbage would immediately start doing soft pop can breathe a sigh of relief. The band has retained its bite and discomfort edge. In the punkish "Chinese Firehorse," for example - one of the best new songs - Manson takes aim at sexism and age discrimination in the music industry.
Her inspiration came during the promotional campaign for the previous album.
"I was 53 years old. I underscore that again, 53 years old. It was the first day of promotion. We had a brand new record. It was coming out on a major record label, and two different journalists, one male, one female, at different times during the day, asked me when I was going to retire. I realized in that moment, they would never ask this of my male peers," she told dpa.
The song's text directly targets both interviewers: "You say my time is over / That I have gotten old – so old / That I no longer do it for you / And my face now leaves you cold," she sings. But then goes on the attack: "But I've still got the power in my brain and my body / I'll take no shit from you."
By the way, Manson is clearly younger than her bandmates Steve Marker (66), Duke Erikson (74) and the band's founder, Butch Vig (69).
"So, yes, this is still very much a real thing," she said about ageism, noting how the mass-circulation Daily Mail recently made fun of her looks. She said this meant nothing to her any longer. "But what I do think it does is it sends messages to younger people who don't have the same fortitude as I, who don't have the same experience as I do. And that can crush a young spirit."
Garbage still has something to say
Despite the worry about what's happening in the world, Manson says that today she is more optimistic than before. The title of the first track "There's No Future In Optimism" is meant jokingly.
"I really love the title, but I'm also in enormous disagreement with it. It is absolutely the polar opposite philosophy that I wanted to employ when coming into making this record," she stressed.
But the album "Let All That We Imagine Be The Light" is also not exactly optimistic. From the driving opener to the gloomy "Hold" and the almost gentle, electropop-like "Sisyphus" to the cynical "Get Out My Face AKA Bad Kitty," Garbage pulls out all the musical stops that set the group apart from other bands. It's worth listening carefully and paying attention to the lyrics. After 30 years, the band still has a lot to say.
