Garbage have announced their eighth LP, Let All That We Imagine Be The Light. It’s the follow-up to 2021’s No Gods No Masters, and it’s due out on May 30 (pre-order it on orange vinyl). It was produced by the band and longtime engineer Billy Bush, and they recorded it at Los Angeles’ Red Razor Sounds, Butch Vig’s Grunge Is Dead studio, and in Shirley Manson’s bedroom. See the cover art and tracklist below.
“Our last album was extremely forthright,” Shirley says. “Born out of frustration and outrage – it had a kind of scorched earth, pissed off quality to it. With this new record however, I felt a compulsion to reach for a different kind of energy. A more constructive one. I had this vision of us coming up out of the underground with searchlights as we moved towards the future. Searching for life, searching for love, searching for all the good things in the world that seem so thin on the ground right now. That was the over-riding idea during the making of this record for me – that when things feel dark, its best to try to seek out that which is light, that which feels loving and good. When I was young, I tended towards the destruction of things. Now that I’m older I believe it’s vitally important to build and to create things instead. I still entertain very old romantic ideals about community, society and the world. I don’t want to walk through the world creating havoc, damaging the land and people. I want to do good. I want to do no harm.”
“Going into making this record, I was determined to find a more hopeful, uplifting world to immerse myself in,” she adds. “The title of the album, Let All That We Imagine Be The Light is the perfect descriptor for this new record as a whole. When things feel dark it feels imperative to seek out forces that are light, positive and beautiful in the world. It almost feels like a matter of life and death. A strategy for survival.”
“We used a lot of analogue synths and sound design on the album, as they seemed to fit the dystopian vibes we were all experiencing,” Butch Vig says. “We started recording the album with a clean slate, although given what’s happening in the US and the rest of the world, it’s inevitable that the madness starts to infiltrate the songs. But we definitely wanted the record to have some hope, some light, to convey the feeling that people have the power.”
They haven’t shared a single yet, but say that “new music will be released in the coming weeks.” Stay tuned.
GARBAGE – LET ALL THAT WE IMAGINE BE THE LIGHT TRACKLIST
There’s No Future In Optimism
Chinese Fire Horse
Hold
Have We Met (The Void)
Sisyphus
Radical
Love To Give
Get Out My Face AKA Bad Kitty
R U Happy Now
The Day That I Met God
