Garbage return with new single 'There’s No Future In Optimism' ahead of new album 'Let All That We Imagine Be The Light' out 30 May
Image: Joseph Cultice
Published: 10 April 2025
Pop-rock legends Garbage, headed by the icon that is Shirley Manson, return today with their new single ‘There’s No Future In Optimism’ which will feature on their new album Let All That We Imagine Be The Light, out 30 May.
Written by Garbage and produced by the band with long time collaborator Billy Bush, ‘There’s No Future In Optimism’ brings a traditional pop-rock sound together with a shuddering electronic beat and an in built ear worm with Manson’s repeated vocal ‘If you’re ready for love’.
The song delves into the darkness that is apparent in the world today but flips the story with the proposition that we have to rise above the negativity and build our own brighter future out of whatever ruins may lie around us: ‘There is no future that can’t be designed / With some imagination and a beautiful mind,’ Manson sings.
“I love the title. The band sent it to me and I was like, “This is great. I’m keeping that.” But the lyrics are an action against that title,” Manson says. “If we allow our fatalism or our negativity to really take over, we will crumble. It’s about a city, in my case, Los Angeles, but it could be anywhere where bad stuff is happening. After the George Floyd murder, which is one of the few things in my life that I wish I’d never seen: I was changed entirely by seeing the footage of that cop kneeling on George Floyd’s neck. In Los Angeles there were huge protests and a lot of upheaval after that. Above our house in Hollywood, there were helicopters all day long, for days on end. It was really precarious, chaotic and terrifying.”
‘There’s No Future In Optimism’ will feature on Garbage’s eighth studio album Let All That We Imagine Be The Light, due for release on 30 May. Recorded in studios in Los Angeles - as well as Manson’s bedroom - the album features ten tracks and looks at the joys of life while also acknowledging the inevitable end.
"This record is about what it means to be alive, and about what it means to face your imminent destruction,” Manson explains. “It’s hopeful. It’s very tender towards what it means to be a human being. Our flaws and our failures are still beautiful, even though we’re taught that they’re not. This is a tender, thrilling record about the fragility of life."
Garage will be embarking on a 31 date tour across the US from September to celebrate the release of the album. Tickets are on sale now.
Still consisting of the original four founding members - Manson, Butch Vig, Duke Erikson and Steve Marker - Garbage have been releasing music for 30 years, selling over 20 million records in the process. With their unique take on pop, punk, rock and electronica all rolled into one, Garbage’s sound defined the music scene of the late 1990s and early 2000s. They have become one of the most influential bands of their generation, with Manson becoming a feminist icon, with artists including Florence Welch, Hayley Williams, Lady Gaga and Lana Del Rey naming her as an inspiration.
'There’s No Future In Optimism' shows Manson and Garbage are in their absolute prime 30 years into their career and Let All That We Imagine Be The Light is shaping up to be one of the greatest albums of 2025
'There’s No Future In Optimism' is out now via BMG. You can download and stream here.
Let All That We Imagine Be The Light will be released on 30 May via BMG. You can pre-order and pre-save now.
Follow Garbage on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok.
Read our 6 page interview with Shirley Manson in issue 10 of Women In Pop magazine.
Let All That We Imagine Be The Light tracklist
There’s No Future In Optimism
Chinese Fire Horse
Hold
Have We Met (The Void)
Sisyphus
Radical
Love To Give
Get Out My Face AKA Bad Kitty
R U Happy Now
The Day That I Met God
