Before I was even a Marilyn Manson fan I knew that I was supposed to be disappointed by The Golden Age of Grotesque.
This was a precondition set in my mind by a couple of buddies of mine, both old-school Manson fans, who were both rather let down by the brunk of his work after the release of Mechanical Animals, often seen as his magnum opus. So one of these friends loaned me his copy of Manson’s book, The Long Hard Road Out Of Hell. Despite the fact that I am fairly certain the book was ghostwritten, a very disappointing prospect, it remains great read, and I would highly recommend to it anyone who is either a Manson fan or wants to know what the hell this guy’s deal is. Immediately after completing the book I rushed out and bought a copy of Antichrist Superstar and the rest, as they say, is history.
Having now heard the full of extent of Manson’s studio discography (excluding b-sides and whatnot), I feel like I need to address the emotions I previously was introduced to concerning Manson’s later work, particularly with the release of last year’s Eat Me, Drink Me, a heavy departure from the typical Manson sound. See, for whatever reason my mind has always made connections between Manson and David Bowie. I think this is mainly for the Ziggy Stardust-like atmosphere evoked by the album Mechanical Animals, as well as Manson’s habit for pushing sexual boundaries much like Bowie did in his heyday. I tend to look at Manson’s output from a perspective similarly influenced by Bowie.
Bowie’s early output was very different from the work produced in his prime, with a much folkier sound to it all. Manson’s early work, the album Portrait Of A American Family, is similarly disconnected from his other material, possessing a much rougher sound rife with Trent Reznor’s studio meddling. Bowie’s path then took him to Hunky Dory, a much more mature and critically acclaimed record. This is mirrored in Manson’s career in the form of the acclaimed Antichrist Superstar album. The Ziggy/Animals parallel has already been established as well, and the follow-ups to each album – Bowie’s Aladdin Sane and Manson’s Holy Wood – share similarities as well in the way both albums seek to preserve a lot of the feelings and messages from their respective artist’s previous releases.
So what did Bowie do then? He released the famous “Thin White Duke” material -acclaimed albums like Low and Station to Station, and then, quite frankly, he started doing pop music. “Fame,” “Dance Dance” – many of Bowie’s later hits were definitely overly poppy in nature. And what are some of the main criticism’s hurled at Manson’s newer material? That it’s too poppy, too far of a departure. Both The Golden Age of Grotesque and Eat Me, Drink Me have songs that definitely depart from the typical hard rock of Manson’s previous releases, creating many of the criticisms hurled against the two albums.
But is this such a bad thing? Bowie did pop and the pop was good. It was a departure, but it was good. Also, artist like AFI and Incubus have been releasing similarly “poppy” albums in the last few years, and as far as I’m concerned they went over well. And Manson’s stuff does to. It’s definitely different, but worth a shot. While not my favorite albums from him by far and away, both Grotesque and Eat Me, Drink Me have appeals all their own, and are worthy to be ignored simply for a few stylistic decisions. So if you’re a Manson fan and you bought the negative hype around these albums, I plead with you, just go check them out. If you don’t like them, that’s cool, but what, really, do you have to lose? Oh, and that last message can be issued to those of you who don’t know the joys of Marilyn Manson yet at all. . .you should fix that, btw
