Album Review: Garbage ‘Not Your Kind of People’
Not Your Kind of People is a hell of a thing to name an album, but it works for the same reason that wearing a lot of black and keeping one’s head down can be a surprisingly good way to meet people. Not a lot of people, but a few, and of them you can be pretty sure that they are exactly your kind of people.
As a song, ‘Not Your Kind of People’ is an oddly effective anthem to keeping it real, making clear the statement that Garbage consider themselves pariahs to the world of appeasement. In a way, the fact that this album sounds a little radio friendly is about as genuine and rebellious as it gets, when you take into account that the radio stations most likely to play it are long gone, and that this is exactly how Garbage sounded in 1997.
If I put myself into the mindset of the late 90s, these are surefire top 40 hits. Number 1 on the alt-rock charts for six straight weeks. That grrrl’s got freakin’ attitude, man. It might take a time machine to hear all of that, though, and in the context of today’s often more complex and certainly more varied music, it seems like Not Your Kind of People has a bit of filler.
In an often quoted statement about this album, taken from an interview with SPIN magazine, Shirley Manson says, “It’s not our job to reinvent the wheel. That’s the playground of the young.” Taken out of context, it sounds a little bit like she has resigned herself to the circumstance of age, and that doesn’t sound like Shirley Manson at all. In the same article she is quoted as saying, “I’m 45 years old. […] That doesn’t mean I can’t make music that excites. I think it’s inspiring to see an artist you grew up with take another crack.” That’s more like it.
It may not be timeless music, as it does sound very much like it’s at least ten years old, but it doesn’t matter. Shirley Manson is a timeless personality, not at all content to grow old and throw in the towel, and that’s how it ought to be. At 45 she is every bit the sex symbol, the rebel, and the icon that she ever was, restrained by absolutely nothing and doing exactly what she wants with her life and her music. In this light, “Not Your Kind of People” is a way of saying, on multiple levels, that if the people of the earth don’t care for what she and the band are doing, so what?
Overdriven guitar and synth are the orders of the day, so it’s business as usual, and business is good if you’re a fan of Garbage. This album won’t reach out to new listeners or try to innovate in any way, but if you like what you hear you are welcome to be a part of it. It’s a slightly safe and perhaps passive-aggressive stance for an artist to take, but that’s okay.
Shirley Manson’s dark vision is all over this record. The sounds are actually surprisingly upbeat at times, but even then it’s more likely to be a bit sarcastic, and sometimes the joke is on the listener. Songs like ‘Control’ on the other hand are thick with melodrama. “The world might end, the night might fall, rain on down and cover us all, and drown us with the burdens of our sins.”
This is a great record for anyone who doesn’t particularly care whether a record is considered great. It’s an outlet for frustration, a good time, and a full body massage with release. It’s a band making songs that they think are cool, and if you expect or want anything more than that you might walk away disappointed. But they’ll just call you pretentious, entitled, and not their kind of people.