Kat: Sometimes it gets nailed down right at the start
If you're ready for love, if you're ready for love
If you're ready for love
If you're ready for love
If you're ready for love
If you're ready for love
Shirley Mason nails it in the above. "There's No Future In Optimism" continues:
The night is dark and full of terror
The air is thick with helicopters
People marching, cops are swarming
The city's on fire and the sirens are screaming
You and I, we have a chance
We could leave this place and rewrite our romance
Let's go dancing, not talk for a while
The sky's so beautiful, the stars are wild
But even if it hadn't continued past "If you're ready for love," the song would have satisfied because of Shirley's vocals.
For decades now, Shirley I'm-Only-Happy-When-It-Rains Manson has been one of rock's best singers. LET ALL THAT WE IMAGINE BE THE LIGHT is not just Garbage's new album, it's also the band's first album that really seems to have the band seeing just how great their front person is.
"When I Grow Up," "#1 Crush," "Stupid Girl," "The World Is Not Enough," etc are great Garbage songs that achieved and became alternative rock classics. But there were times on studio recordings when it felt like the band wasn't working as a group so much as some of the members were trying to bury Shirley's vocals.
And it is a studio issue. If you've seen them live, you know Shirley's got chops like no one since Grace Slick when it comes to matching and exceeding a band's decibels. There's no burying her in the mix onstage.
And finally we've got an album that you can say the same about.
"Have We Met (The Void)" is a great song but you can say that about pretty much any of the ten tracks. It's the band's strongest album in years -- maybe even ever. It's already their second top ten album. 2005's BLEED LIKE ME was their only top ten album until LET ALL THAT WE IMAGINE BE THE LIGHT debuted at number 8 on BILLBOARD's top 200 albums this past week.
"Sissyphus" is really something.
Did you notice? The band's got something to say in these songs. And, in fact, it's probably the best alternative album since PJ Harvey's 2011 release (LET ENGLAND SHAKE) There's so much beauty in this album.
It's one of the year's finest albums and should make all the best-of-2025 lists this winter.
This album came out May 30th. Seven days before that, Joe Jonas released MUSIC FOR PEOPLE WHO BELIEVE IN LOVE.
Does that include me?
I guess kind of.
"Heart By Heart," for example, speaks to me and I can give a thumbs up to with no qualifiers'. It's also a song in Joe's range. If you are going to buy this album, get it on vinyl. The digital version is a pass. "Water Under The Bridge" is a bonus track on the digital and it honestly should have been buried in the backyard. It's everything, every horror, you'd imagine a song from a Jonas brother being. It's a sort of song with sort of an idea and a melody with maybe two lines well sung and the rest is someone's idea of what a hit would be.
Brother Nick pulled the Jonas name into modern music with SPACEMAN and especially with NICK JONAS and LAST YEAR WAS COMPLICATED.
Joe's album isn't up to the last two. But it's a very strong effort and very much worth listening to if you stick the vinyl version -- or just the tracks on it. "Constellation" is a really beautiful pop song.
And "Work It Out" is another strong pop song.
There's a dance record in Joe Jonas. A really good one like Michael Jackson's OFF THE WALL. He might even be like Prince or Madonna or George Michael or Jody Watley or Harry Styles and have several great dance albums to serve up.
MUSIC FOR PEOPLE WHO BELIEVE IN LOVE is not that album. But it is a strong pop effort and it is proof that HAPPINESS BEGINS and THE ALBUM -- the two most recent Jonas Brothers albums and also the two best that they've ever had -- are not just good because of the artistic growth spurt Nick's gone through. This pop album makes clear Joe's done some growing as well. And, if you're wondering, GREETINGS FROM YOUR HOMETOWN is the next Jonas Brothers' album and it's due out August 8th.
