Garbage
No Gods No Masters
Stunvolume/Infectious Music/BMG
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Excusing the seven-year absence between their fourth and fifth records—Bleed Like Me (2005) and Not Your Kind of People (2012)—Garbage have always existed in the moment. Over the nearly three decades since their founding in 1993, they’ve often precipitated trends and tastes. In short, there’s never been a time when Shirley Manson (vocals), Duke Erikson (guitars, keyboards), Steve Marker (lead guitar) and Butch Vig (drums, percussion) weren’t in fashion.
When we last left the quartet, they had just loosed their sixth studio LP Strange Little Birds in 2016. It was another vibrant collection that had the band in fine form. But for all of its artisanship, the album is best remembered as an unintentional soundtrack (and salve) during the twelve months of political convulsion that wracked Britain and America. In the four years following Strange Little Birds, to say that little has improved would be an understatement.
During that interval, Garbage had to plot the course of their next project; they were more than equipped to tackle the challenge. No Gods No Masters is the band’s response to our present circumstances. It certainly does not find them wanting.
The standard version of the album is an eleven-track set of newly minted material, whereas the deluxe variant is a two-disc edition that expands the tracklisting outward to nineteen songs. Six of the eight cuts on that second disc are various Record Store Day rarities Garbage issued from 2013 to 2018; there is also a Not Your Kind of People outtake (“Time Will Destroy Everything”) and a standalone single from 2017 (“No Horses”). Four of the Record Store Day gems are collaborations with Brody Dalle (“Girls Talk”), Screaming Females (“Because the Night”), Brian Aubert (“The Chemicals”) and John Doe with Exene Cervenka (“Destroying Angels”).
Adding another layer of intrigue to this supplemental batch is that some of it has roots dating back to sessions for Absolute Garbage (2007) to as recent as Strange Little Birds—but they all feel serendipitously cognate (tonally) to the latest sides on the first disc. While No Gods No Masters is efficacious in its single disc setting, it is utterly spellbinding when taken as the double album it’s seemingly meant to be.
Co-produced by Garbage and longtime collaborator Billy Bush (also Manson’s husband), No Gods No Masters is a bombastic wall of sound affair brilliantly collaged from post-grunge (“The Creeps”), electronica (“Godhead”), power pop (“Flipping the Bird”) and classic rock (“Because the Night”). None of these styles are unfamiliar to the four-piece, but what remains fascinating is how they’ve kept their sonic blend so singular and fresh since their eponymous debut album Garbage (1995).
Still, the Scottish frontwoman and her three American colleagues didn’t become rulebreakers by playing it safe and as demonstrated two decades ago with their experimental opus beautifulgarbage (2001), there is always room for surprises.
There are at least two to be found on No Gods No Masters: “Anonymous XXX” and “Starman.” The first composition is an intoxicating collision of disco-punk and exotica textures that give Erikson, Marker and Vig an opportunity to flex their considerable chops as instrumentalists if its slinky crawl is anything to go by—its luxe middle-eight is particularly mesmeric. The second selection is an understated, atmospheric rendering of David Bowie’s glam rock chestnut from 1972. For all of the excellent musicianship displayed on these two entries, it’s Manson that injects them with an inimitable dark beauty.
Armed with that gorgeous voice, Manson uses it on certain sides of No Gods No Masters to address the misogyny, racism, violence, chaos and general anomie that sweeps our world. From the explosive album opener “The Men Who Rule the World,” to the heartbreaking “Waiting for God,” on over to the elegiac “This City Will Kill You,” Manson sings out like a woman possessed by the conviction to take action against what she sees. These are some of her most passionate performances recorded and songs written to date.
But, despite the predominant overtones of current events that thunder throughout most of No Gods No Masters, Manson saves room for loosely autobiographical observations on herself (“Uncomfortably Me,” “Wolves”) to balance the exterior politics with interior ruminations.
In a recent interview with Forbes, Manson commented on how No Gods No Masters is an album Garbage had to make at this stage, “Yeah, I don't think I could have made this record if I was a young ‘un. And I think that is a great realization to stumble upon. I feel like this is the appropriate authentic record for who I am, where I am and where the band is, where the men in the band are.”
As much as Garbage thrives in the now, their work always ends up aging gracefully after their respective reveals—it will be the same for this collection. And yet, No Gods No Masters is already unique in Garbage’s canon because it tasks its audiences to be the change they wish to see via its content. It’s another innovative measure from an outfit that has made a career of innovative measures; in this way, some things (thankfully) never change.
Notable Tracks: “Anonymous XXX” | “The Men Who Rule The World” | “Starman” | “This City Will Kill You”
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