Garbage - No Gods No Masters [Review]

American alternative rock band Garbage recently released its highly anticipated seventh studio album No Gods No Masters after a wait of five years following 2016's Strange Little Birds. The album is definitely timely, as it is, as frontwoman Shirley Manson has stated herself, a commentary on "the rise of capitalist short-sightedness, racism, sexism and misogyny across the world." I say that that's timely because of recent events such as the United States enduring four years under a racist and misogynist president as well as movements like the Black Lives Matter movement, and I really appreciate it when artists turn something like that into art. With No Gods No Masters being the band's seventh studio album, Manson and the rest of the band also said that they tied the number 7 into the album's concepts in various ways, with Manson having said, "This is our seventh record, the significant numerology of which affected the DNA of its content: the seven virtues, the seven sorrows, and the seven deadly sins." This album admittedly took some time to grow on me, but there is one particular song that I instantly loved. (Stay tuned to find out which one.) It opens with the lead single "The Men Who Rule the World," a catchy and relatively heavy alternative rock track that opens the album with what sounds like slot machine sound effects. This makes sense because the song is lyrically about the privilege that comes along with being male and how that sometimes leads to being powerful and financially well off. The sounds of the casino slot machines therefore represent money, and Kesha did something similar on her song "Rich, White, Straight Men" - a song with a similar theme that makes use of the sounds of coins dropping and cash registers opening and closing. This track is definitely a highlight on the album and is, as I said, very catchy. There is, funnily enough, even a recurrent hook in the song that goes, "Stuck inside my head, stuck inside my head all the fucking time," and the song is, indeed, frequently stuck inside my head. I love the 8-bit aspect of the instrumental, probably emphasizing the idea that the titular men who rule the world are playing a long game, and I also love the relatively heavy guitar in the chorus, making it, as I said, one of the album's heavier tracks. It's a memorable track and a great opening to the album!

"The Creeps" is kind of reminiscent of old school Garbage, and I have seen a lot of fans say that a good portion of the album makes them feel nostalgic about Garbage's earlier days. It's one of the album's faster paced songs, with a fast beat and Shirley pretty rapidly spitting out in the chorus, "I cannot let my feelings to keep hijacking my brain... I'm gonna think my way around this wall I cannot change." The song is definitely about conquering anxiety and embarrassment, and as Shirley Manson has stated, it's about her experience having been dropped by Interscope Records back around 2009 and how that made her feel. "Uncomfortably Me" drops the energy down a little bit. While not quite a soft ballad, it's softer than the first two tracks. I especially love the low and bassy electronic humming underneath. The lyrics essentially address Imposter Syndrome, an inability to see one's success for what it is and instead seeing oneself as undeserving. "Too busy hating on myself, a waste of time, a waste of space," Shirley admits in the bridge. It's a great song to follow "The Creeps" because both songs are about being uncomfortable in one's own headspace. "Wolves" brings the energy back up a little bit - an alternative rock song with energy similar (at least in my opinion) to that of MARINA's new song "Purge the Poison." Not necessarily a highlight on the album for me (mainly because I find its melody to be one of the weakest on the album), the song speaks of struggling with two halves. It's a common belief that we have both light and dark in us - a duality. Genius, for example, talks about the Cherokee belief that we have two wolves inside of us - one that is good and one that is evil and that the one that comes out on top is the one that we choose to feed. That's essentially what the song is about, questioning which wolf you will choose to feed. No Gods No Masters then gives us "Waiting for God," one of my favorite tracks on the album. One of the softest songs on the album, it features a low, almost tribal beat with Shirley's soft voice which is distorted at the end of each verse. It's a very beautiful song and is also haunting, not only in its sound but in its lyrics which address some of the injustices that we have seen in the world over the last several years, especially school shootings and racially charged hate crimes. "...Tears won't bring them back," Manson laments in the bridge, bringing to light what many people say about how action needs to be taken because prayers and tears aren't going to change anything.

My absolute favorite song on No Gods No Masters is definitely "Godhead," an industrial electro-rock track infused to the brim with Nine Inch Nails influence. I can't get enough of this song's groove, its bouncing and grinding rhythm that makes me want to dance or even... well, you know, to it. (Let's just say that its beat is very sexy.) It is definitely one of the more lyrically explicit songs on the album and is also pretty sexually charged, although it isn't meant to be literal, as it's making a statement about sexism and misogyny. "If I had a dick, would you blow it?" she sings in a whispered tone several times throughout the song. While this is an obvious reference to fellatio (which is also likely referenced in the song's title as head is another term used for fellatio), it is, as I said, not intended to be literal. Getting on one's knees is sometimes a phrase used in those sexual terms, but it's also used to imply worship or respect, and Shirley is asking if she would be more respected if she were male. She is also, I think, asking if she would be sexually objectified to the same extent if she were a man. She, in the second verse, whispers, "Get off my tits...," and this, again, is likely meant to have more than one meaning. Genius points to the possibility that she is essentially calling toxic men babies, instructing them to stop feeding off her the way that a baby would, and I love that idea. A woman is also often sexually objectified, however, because of her breasts, so she is also likely demanding that that stop. (This once again calls back to the idea of her asking whether or not her dick would be blown if she had one. Would she be objectified the same way if she had a penis rather than breasts?) It's a ridiculously catchy song begging to be danced to, and I absolutely love its industrial production and clever, tongue-in-cheek lyrics. "Anonymous XXX" is pretty straightforward in what it's about - anonymous sex. (In fact, the XXX part of the title is most likely meant to be Sex, similar to how the clean version of Lady Gaga's "Sexxx Dreams" is titled "X Dreams.") The song has a bit of ska flavor to it, bringing in saxophone as well as rapidly strumming acoustic guitar. (It in fact reminds me a great deal of '90s No Doubt.) "Don't tell me your name," Shirley asserts in the second verse (although unlikely from her own perspective). "I don't want to know. Don't come too close. I don't want you to..." As I said, it's very clearly about people who enjoy taking part in sex with strangers and maybe even questioning why.

"A Woman Destroyed" is quiet and sultry in a way that reminds me of the band's last album Strange Little Birds, especially its opening track "Sometimes." The song does eventually bring in a little bit more energy but really only in its chorus. It's mostly a softer and atmospheric trip hop track, but I absolutely adore its marching bells that come in a little more than halfway through. I think that there are two ways to interpret the song. One is that its titular character (the woman destroyed) is seeking revenge on her former lover for having been unfaithful to her ("you swapped your queen out for a pawn"). That is, in fact, likely the sole way that I would personally interpret it if not for a statement made by Shirley Manson in which she explained that the song was written from the perspective of a woman who has been abused and/or sexually assaulted and is on a path toward revenge. It's similar to how I would have interpreted the song except the cause is different, but the revenge aspect of it is pretty obvious: "Lock your door; get a guard dog... Better sleep with all the lights on," she warns. "Flipping the Bird" brings the mood up considerably, at least in its sound. It features an instrumental very reminiscent of The Cure's "Friday I'm in Love," and I have also seen some fans compare it to Garbage's 1998 song "When I Grow Up," which I can definitely hear. The title of the song is obviously in reference to the gesture one might make of sticking their middle finger up at someone, and I think that it's very clear that Manson is doing so toward men who think that she isn't smart enough to have thoughts of her own because she is a woman. The word that is often used to describe this is mansplaining, which is when a man condescendingly explains something to a woman in a degrading way. "I stopped listening to you years ago," Manson opens in the first verse. "You always think that you know best, I know. I hear you explain things from the other room," and she then sings in the chorus that "you tell me who you think I am." As I said, I think that it's very clearly about toxic and womanizing men who treat women as ignorant children who need to be talked down to. It's interesting, however, how there is also a small bit of empathy afforded such men, or at least there seems to be. The bridge features the following words: "You try to love, but you're too far gone inside. Your own self-worth, it died inside." This, to me, implies that maybe such men are projecting their own feelings of worthlessness onto others, especially women.

No Gods No Masters then offers up its title track, an upbeat electro-rock song. I love its catchy chorus and its anthemic quality, and it lyrically dreams of a better future in which we are kind to one another and take control of our own destinies rather than believe that they're in the hands of powerful men and/or (a) god(s). The album then closes (sort of, anyway; I will get to that in a bit) with "This City Will Kill You," a moody and cinematic trip-hop song with trilling piano chords that I adore. The song is ultimately about being miserable and in pain while encouraging us to claw our way out of that: "You got to get out," Manson urges us. "You got to run, got to quit this town." I also love how she says that "everybody's praying that it rains; it's been promised now for a few days..." because it is very likely a reference to what is probably Garbage's most eminent hit, "Only Happy When It Rains." It is definitely a highlight for me, especially because of, as I said, the haunting, fluttering piano that I love so much. That is how the standard album ends, but I purchased the two-disc deluxe edition of the album which features a bonus disc of eight extra tracks - songs that had previously been released as stand-alone singles over the last several years. In fact, you could even argue that "No Horses" is the album's lead single because it was released back in 2017 with the news that it would possibly be featured on the band's seventh album. The tracks featured here are "No Horses," "Starman" (a cover of the David Bowie classic), "Girls Talk" (a heavy alternative rock track featuring Distillers frontwoman Brody Dalle), "Because the Night" (a cover of the Patti Smith song that features Screaming Females), "On Fire" (originally released as the b-side to the following song), "The Chemicals" (featuring Brian Aubert of Silversun Pickups), "Destroying Angels" (which features John Doe and Exene Cervenka of X), and "Time Will Destroy Everything" (released as the b-side to "Girls Talk"). What's interesting about these songs is that most of them were originally released closer to Strange Little Birds; "Girls Talk," "Time Will Destroy Everything," "Because the Night," "The Chemicals," and "On Fire" were all released before Strange Little Birds was released yet are featured as bonus tracks here rather than on that album. Regardless, however, I am glad that they finally have a shared home, and I am so pleased with No Gods No Masters. It is a memorable album with charged messages that are so very important to hear, especially right now.