For the last 8 years, being a fan of Marilyn Manson has been like being in an abusive relationship.
I remember the good old days of Portrait Of An American Family and Antichrist Superstar and his next few albums...but then came Lest We Forget...a best of. That was a slap in the face, but, hey, some record labels require a "Best Of" in their contracts and, I could reason away a slap. I mean, it isn't like he really hit me...he slapped me...and he was tired and I was nagging him about taking out the trash...I sort of deserved it... But then, in 2007, Marilyn Manson released Eat Me, Drink Me which was, for the purpose of this allegory, the shove down the stairs that caused a miscarriage; which is what that album happened to be...a miscarriage. But a miscarriage that could squall off-key and spout bad puns all while sounding exactly the same throughout. Which is impressive for a dead fetus, but not for an established musician. In 2009, he released The High End Of Low*, which was about as pleasant as a broken wrist and bruises that last a month; not as bad as a miscarriage, but certainly not enjoyable.
When I heard there was a new album stumbling down Manson's absinthe-and-hyperbole-soaked pipeline...damn it...I couldn't help myself.
I thought, "Well, if Twiggy is involved, maybe it could be good..." and "I love Chris Vrenna's stuff, maybe that'll find a place on the album" and "Manson's dad sure seems to think this is going to be a great album...why would he lie?"
Will I never learn?
Well, the new album, Born Villain, is now out and I have listened to it and I'm here to tell you...it isn't as bad as getting beaten up by your significant other. Please don't think this is a compliment, most of this album is just the seemingly random croaking, hysterical screaming and de-lib-er-ate-o-ver-e-nun-ci-a-tion of bad word play that might seem original and inspired to a fourth grader that we've come to expect from Marilyn Manson over the past eight years. And, I'll solve a mystery for you: know why the songs on this album are longer than average? Two reasons, first, because a bunch of them have inordinately long intros consisting of uninteresting noise or, in one sad, silly case, a quote from none other than William Shakespeare, and second, because Manson sings stuff over and over and over, repeating himself as if he were playing for the elderly or children with ADHD. "Yes, Marilyn, we heard you the first time and we weren't impressed then, repeating the same lyrics six more times isn't going to grant us some amazing insight, it's just going to make us skip to the next track." Some examples of this "style choice" can be found in "Children of Cain" (which almost has some cool stuff going on) and "Disengaged", which both have sections where Manson is, literally, just rambling like a (very disturbed) three year old until he runs out of steam before repeating what he just said...again and again and again...*sigh*...I pity anyone buying this album on vinyl...
Oh, and keep first time listeners away from the pair of shit Twinkies that is "Pistol Whipped" and "The Flowers of Evil" unless you never want them to take anything Marilyn Manson has ever done seriously...ever. The former, because it is loaded with his awful pun babbling and silly turns of phrase spoken slowly and frequently as if they are the most mindblowingly poignant sentiments ever expressed by man ("I want to have your ache/and beat you too")**, and the latter because, aside from the horrible, repetitive lyrics, Manson's voice just sounds like garbage on it. Look, Marilyn Manson will never be compared, vocally, to Celine Dion, but he used to have some semblance of vocal control over the tone, pitch and timbre of his screeching, yowling, husking and wailing; those days are long gone. Just search for "Marilyn Manson live 2012" on Youtube and enjoy the train wreck.
"But I thought you said this album wasn't as bad as getting beaten up by your significant other."
True, and here is why.
There are four, count them, four good tracks on this album.
Namely, "Hey Cruel World", the regrettably-titled "Slo-Mo-Tion", "The Gardener" and "Murderers Are Getting Prettier Every Day".
"Cruel World", the opener, while repetitive, increases the energy behind each repetition until exploding in a genuinely catchy chorus with some of the best Manson screaming we've heard in a while, a great track to re-announce his presence. "Slo-Mo-Tion" equates itself in my mind to Peter Gabriel's "The Barry Williams Show" and it works. This isn't Manson screaming and crying about how the whole world is this and he is the destroyer of that, it's him as a greasy talk show host...which is believable. No matter how much hot air he blows up fans' asses, he'll always be more Howard Stern than Hitler in his philosophies, manifestos and proclamations. "The Gardener", the lyrics of which stand out from the rest of the album as they are less silly, repetitive and "clever", are spoken over a simple beat and, rather than addressing bullshit effluvia from Manson's assbrain, focus instead on a woman and a simple metaphor involving flowers. Always good to know your limitations. "Murderers" has a great beat (thank you, Chris Vrenna) and a jagged, hard sound reminiscent of Antichrist Superstar (thank you, Jesus). Add that to a chorus that's shrieked at the world in general ("Fall on your knees and hear the horrid voices of someone else's angels") and, folks, you've got a pretty solid Manson song.
And, although there is some of Manson's lyrical diarrhea in this happy handful, I have figured out that when it's being tossed off like an errant thought like in "Gardener" or screamed at the top of Manson's tattered lungs like in "Murderers", it's not only forgivable, but sometimes...it actually works.
Another up side: overall, the music on this album is better than anything Manson has put out in years. Songs don't blur together in my mind as much as with previous releases and some have some pretty cool aspects to them...a fact I am attributing pretty much solely to the use of Chris Vrenna (of Nine Inch Nails and tweaker) for programming, percussion, synthesizers and keyboards; but, a nice, well-designed car full of severed dog penises is still a car full of severed dog penises.
And I'm not cleaning them up.
In the end, does Born Villain harken back to the glory days of the well-written, fully-realized, relevant music from Manson's early career?
No, of course not, but it's better than a handful of broken fingers and a jawful of loose teeth.
Maybe next time, Marilyn...maybe next time...
* Or, as I came to call it, "The High End Of Low Expectations". ZING!
**The first time I heard this line I actually said, out loud, "Oh, go and utterly fuck yourself, you grade school poet laureate."
No comments:
Post a Comment