Garbage have released a new song, the darkly political “No Horses”.

“It’s very Patti Smith stream of consciousness, very pertinent politically to what’s going on,” drummer Butch Vig told Variety.

“It’s actually a song that’s very un-Garbage like,” Shirley Manson added. “I was driving through the Scottish countryside last year and looking at these fields of horses and thinking, what will happen to them when we don’t need them as much as we once did? When they’re no longer working beasts, what will happen to the horses? So it’s an imagining of the future where the authorities destroy anything that doesn’t make large amounts of money.” 

The band returned in 2016 with their sixth studio album Strange Little Birds. Since then, the band debuted the weird science-y visual for “Magnetized”, and Manson teamed up with composer Brian Reitzell for the buzzy “Queen of the Bored” on American Gods.

Manson recently spoke to Dazed about her new book, This Is The Noise That Keeps Me Awake, tracing the band’s 20-year journey. She said: “I know that we’ve provided a soundtrack for a lot of our fans – we get unbelievable messages from fans telling us that certain songs helped them through these incredible transitions in their lives, whether they’re literally changing gender, realising they’re gay for the first time, or met their first boyfriend or girlfriend at one of our shows. 

“These are powerful moments in people’s lives and we’re bound together in a funny way for life.” 

The band are just about to head off on a joint tour with Blondie. 

Listen to “No Horses” below.