Garbage

In the mid-90s, alternative rock experienced a surge of third-wave feminism with the emergence of some of the most powerful frontwomen in rock: Brody Dalle of The Distillers, Karen O of Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Shirley Manson of Garbage. Labeled “edgy” and “rebellious,” these women embodied the defiance and individuality that record companies now routinely inject like bad-girl cream filling when they manufacture the newest pop sensation. And that’s exactly why Not Your Kind of People, Garbage’s fifth studio album after a six year hiatus, sounds like a relic of a grittier era. In a music climate where artificiality has become so pervasive that it feels “real,” Garbage’s energy is palpable, their energy organic and their talent wholly authentic.

Singing over a spacey, Galaga-inspired synth in opener “Automatic Systematic Habit”, Manson’s icy charge of “Lies, lies, lies/ You love those lies/ You tell them straight/ Straight to my face,” sounds so personal that it’s unnerving. This kind of intense intimacy abounds. On “Control,” Manson’s voice shatters into a string of fragmented syllables after the structural and thematic breakdown of the song, while “I Hate Love” weaves a recording of a pleading voice message into an otherwise universal sentiment about the pain of love. Throughout the album, Garbage uses straightforward lyrics to express the soul-bearing messages that have become the band’s M.O. Layered over grungy guitars and pop-synths, the songwriting takes individual pain and makes loud anthems, capitalizing on the ubiquity of anger, betrayal and loneliness.

Like previous Garbage albums, Not Your Kind of People explores darker themes like insecurity and desperation, all with Manson’s sultry, distinctive voice as the pathfinder. “Man on A Wire,” which opens with a Death From Above 1979-like distorted bass, provides a noisy, percussion-driven backdrop for Manson’s explosive wail of “Like a man on a wire/ I set myself on fire.” Most of the tracks on the album are equally foreboding, but the closer, “Beloved Freak,” is the white light at the end of a dark, grimy tunnel. Just like the title song off Garbage’s 2005 album Bleed Like Me, “Beloved Freak” delivers a hopeful message to the outcasts of the world, reminding us all that “The world is at your feet/ Here you stand, beloved freak./ This little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine.” Because if Shirley Manson is anything, she is the shepherd to a flock of beloved freaks.

Manson has gone on the record to talk about how women are disempowered in music today, urging more female musicians to veer away from mainstream expectations and create their own identity apart from executive or media pressure. But actions speak louder than words, and Not Your Kind of People is deafening.