Garbage, Good Things Festival, 5th Dec 2025 by Mary Boukouvalas
Let All That We Imagine Be The Light, Garbage’s expansive, explosive, all-too-human album is their eighth. It’s the first one that arrived unexpectedly, due to unforeseen circumstance. Conjured into existence when the band was all at sea.The songs on Let All That We Imagine Be The Light tell stories, both musically and lyrically. Some are direct tales from Shirley’s life. Have We Met (The Void) recalls a specific moment in Barcelona where a love affair crumbled in the face of a furious woman. Chinese Fire Horse is a riposte to a ridiculous, ageist retirement inquiry from journalists. Other songs emerged less directly. A half-remembered memory; a ‘we must flee’ emotion. Sisyphus and Radical combine Shirley’s desperation about recovery with mantras (prayers) for those that are repressed.
Mary is a photographer and a writer, specialising in music. She runs Rocklust.com where she endeavours to capture the passion of music in her photos whether it's live music photography, promotional band photos or portraits.
She has photographed The Rolling Stones, KISS, Iggy Pop, AC/DC, Patti Smith, Joe Strummer, PULP, The Cult, The Damned, The Cure, Ian Brown, Interpol, MUDHONEY, The MELVINS, The Living End, Foo Fighters, Smashing Pumpkins, Rage Against The Machine, The Stone Roses –just to name a few - in Australia, USA, Europe and the Middle East.
Her work has been published in Beat magazine, Rolling Stone magazine, Triple J magazine, The Age Newspaper, The Herald Sun, The Australian, Neos Kosmos, blistering.com, theaureview.com, noise11.com, music-news.com. She has a permanent photographic exhibition at The Corner Hotel in Richmond, Victoria Australia.
