Garbage | Let All That We Imagine Be The Light

Garbage have returned with an eighth album that reaffirms their nearly-30-year place in the alt-rock ecosystem. Long past the days when they flirted with mainstream chart-toppers alongside Smashing Pumpkins, Garbage have become the kind of band that transcends trends. Their new release, Let All That We Imagine Be the Light, is a testament to that quiet durability, offering plenty to chew on even if it doesn’t quite reach the same heights as 2021’s No Gods No Masters.

Let All That We Imagine Be the Light is more of a slow burn. It’s a record that leans into the band’s knack for industrial-tinged atmospherics and Shirley Manson’s unwavering presence. Tracks like The Day That I Met God dig and turn pain into poetry, while R U Happy Now doesn’t pull any punches, calling out the sinister forces that loom over society with lyrics as clear-eyed as ever.

At its best, the album taps into Garbage’s signature blend of fuzz and melody—songs like Chinese Fire Hose and Get Out My Face AKA Bad Kitty swagger with a snarl and snap that harks back to their late-90s prime. Elsewhere, there’s a sense of searching rather than arriving: Radical and Love to Give spin their wheels in minor-key territory, content to linger in mood without fully taking flight.

Yet there’s a comfort in that restlessness. Garbage’s studio wizardry remains impeccable—no overcompressed clutter here—while Manson’s voice cuts through the fog with a scathing, soulful intensity. Even if the hooks don’t always land, the production gleams, a testament to the band’s long-honed skill. In a world obsessed with nostalgia, Garbage’s refusal to stand still—combined with their willingness to revisit the haunted, glamorous edges of their past—keeps them vital.

For a band once pegged as second-tier in the wake of their grunge-era peers, Garbage have outlasted most of the competition by sheer dogged reinvention. Let All That We Imagine Be the Light might not be their best, but it’s a worthy dispatch from a group that still knows how to splice grit and grandeur into something that feels both ominous and alive.