Garbage have never been one to cop criticism quietly—especially when it’s wrapped in cheap, clickbait ageism.
So when the Daily Mail ran a headline last week declaring the band looked “unrecognisable” in new promo photos, they didn’t hold back.
The band, currently rolling out their new album Let All That We Imagine Be The Light, took to social media with a direct response written by Shirley Manson herself calling out the headline for what it really was: a lazy dig at a woman refusing to fade quietly into the background.
“What is THIS supposed to mean?!?” Manson wrote, screenshotting the headline. “The Druids look almost exactly the same as they have always done… so I can’t help thinking this is directed at me.”
And she’s probably right. The piece didn’t mention anything about the music. Just the fact that Garbage, who’ve been a band for over 30 years, have the audacity to still exist—and, god forbid, look like human beings.
“Of course I’m not going to look anything like my late twenties self,” she added. “Honestly, I think it would be a bit creepy if I did.”
Manson closed the post with the kind of mic drop only she can deliver: “I will always and forever rock HARDER than most.”
The band just dropped their new single ‘There’s No Future In Optimism’ and announced their upcoming album, due May 30 via BMG. Recorded between Butch Vig’s studio, a spot called Grunge Is Dead, and Manson’s own bedroom, it’s set to be a reflective and defiant record about being alive, fragile, and flawed in a world that only celebrates youth when it can’t see the cracks.
Garbage have nothing to prove. But if this is how they’re kicking off the album cycle, it’s clear they’re not asking for space—they’re taking it.
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