Let All That We Imagine Be the Light
Garbage
An album called Let All That We Imagine Be the Light sounds unusually hopeful for Garbage. Shirley Manson hasn't suddenly become easygoing, though. There is still anger here, along with the sense that choosing to care about something is hard work. That tension gives the record its strongest moments.
There's No Future in Optimism opens with a firm electronic pulse and guitars that keep the song from floating away. It is a good introduction to the album's mixture of concern and determination. The band make the different layers work together, while Manson's voice remains the point everything turns around.
Chinese Fire Horse is particularly effective. The rhythm has a lively funk under it, and Manson takes on the expectation that an older woman in rock should politely disappear. She sounds completely uninterested in the suggestion. The song has enough attitude and movement to make its point without needing a long explanation.
The record's later stretch has some of its best material. Get Out My Face AKA Bad Kitty builds around a sharp guitar figure and a very clear rejection of being told what to do. R U Happy Now follows with another forceful performance. These songs suit the band's ability to put a hostile thought inside something you can still move to.
The softer material is more uneven. Radical and Love to Give are sincere, but the writing is less distinctive than the performances around it. Broad messages of love and unity have a harder job here than a specific flash of anger. Manson is most compelling when there is a clear person or attitude in her sights.
The strange closing The Day That I Met God gives the record a more personal ending. It is a useful reminder that this band can still be curious about the shape of a song, even with so much of their sound firmly established.
This isn't a cheerful album, exactly. It is a record about trying to find a reason to stay involved. Garbage make that struggle sound engaging, and at the strongest points they give it a properly memorable chorus too.
