Some will hear echoes of Garbage’s 1995 de­but album in Strange Little Birds — including Manson herself. “To me, this record, funnily enough, has the most to do with the first record than any of the previous records,” she says. “It’s getting back to that beginner’s he­adspace.” In part, she says, that’s a result of not having anyone to answer to. Strange Little Birds is Garbage’s second album off their own label, STUNVOLUME. It’s a return to the freedom they had when working on their very first songs at Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin, more than twenty years ago, before they’d ever signed a label deal. “It’s so liberating,” says Manson.

From the confessional opener, “Sometimes,” to the pulsing static of the closer, “Amends,” Strange Little Birds is a sweeping, cinematic record of a unified mood: darkness. “There aren’t really any upbeat pop songs,” say Vig. “Even ‘Empty,’ which has a big, anthemic guitar sound, has pretty dark lyrics.”

“I love dark and dismal,” says Manson, who once made a hit single out of her admission that she was only happy when it rains. “I’m aching for some dark and dismal. Because I feel like the musical landscape of late has been incredibly happy and shiny and poppy. Everybody’s fron­ting all the time, dancing as fast as they can, smiling as hard as they can, working on their brand. Nobody ever says, ‘Actually, I’m lost and I don’t have a fucking clue what I’m doing with the rest of my life and I’m frightened.’