Mechanical Animals (1998)
Maybe they were tired of insinuations that Trent Reznor was the real mastermind behind their success. Maybe they thought they couldn't top Antichrist Superstar by doing more of the same thing. Regardless, it was apparently time to ditch Reznor* and explore some different influences with a New Sound Album.
Just the overall slick production of this album is a pretty big departure - Antichrist Superstar was a deliberately ugly, murky album, whereas even the most aggressive songs on this album sound pretty glossy and radio-ready. More importantly, while there's still undertones of the industrial metal of past albums, this album can mostly be described as equal parts glam rock and new wave: David Bowie frequently comes up as a point of comparison, and I also see certain similarities with Smashing Pumpkins' contemporaneous Adore, which makes sense because they reportedly got a bit of input from Billy Corgan.
This all probably proved to piss off a portion of the fanbase, but the thing is, the approach works: Manson still doesn't show a lot of vocal range, but the more crooning-based style he adopts here fits the change of musical style. The more new wave and glam influenced numbers allow for some cynical dark humor to show up ("User Friendly" features the memorable chorus "I'm not in love but I'm gonna fuck you till something better comes along"), and elsewhere there are some surprisingly affecting slower tracks that sort of build off "The Man That You Fear". "Fundamentally Loathsome" is among the best tracks in the latter category - it has the most strained vocal performance on the album, but somehow that works in it's favor, and a deliberate use of Gratuitous Panning for the first half of the song gives it a strange, disconnected feel.
It can of course be argued that in the process of trying to get out of the shadow of one artist, they ended up doing something even more derivative of another. Regardless, I like this as a change of pace - it's about as conceptual and idiosyncratic as their previous albums, just with a more melodic presentation. It's also the first Manson album I've heard that I can imagine throwing on at a party - basically Antichrist Superstar seems like the sort of album you listen to alone in your room and either pore over the meaning or just brood about how shitty your day was, whereas with this album you can brood, contemplate, or dance.
Key Tracks: Dope Show, Fundamentally Loathsome, Coma White
Dope Show / Sweet Dreams
Aside from the album version of "Dope Show" itself, this offers up live versions of "Sweet Dreams" and "Apple Of Sodom" - despite their tendency to re-title remixes, the latter was their contribution to the Lost Highway soundtrack, not yet another "Cake And Sodomy" remix.
The live take on "Sweet Dreams" again demonstrates a tendency to keep things almost exactly the same as on record, and Manson must have worn his voice out a bit towards the end of the song because the climax just doesn't quite have the vocal intensity it needs. Still, there is the nice touch of adding what sounds like a glockenspiel for an Ominous Music Box Tune effect, and it's sort of cool to hear the whole crowd singing along at one point.
I'm not writing about soundtrack or other compilation songs unless they were singles (there's "The Suck For Your Solution" from the Private Parts soundtrack for instance, as well as a take on "The KKK Took My Baby Away" for a Ramones tribute, among other things). However, I did want to listen to the original "Apple Of Sodom" so I could have a point of comparison. "Apple Of Sodom" is fairly unique in the Marilyn Manson catalog, as it's basically the closest they've come so far to pure industrial as opposed to industrial metal, and it also just hits the "David Lynch film" vibe a lot more than you'd expect it to. Unfortunately the live version kind of drowns out the more atmospheric elements of the song with guitar and makes it sound much less interesting.
Key Tracks: Sweet Dreams
I Don't Like The Drugs (But The Drugs Like Me) (1999)
"I Don't Like The Drugs..." got two singles, both offering up nothing but remixes as far as non-album material is concerned. In fact, none of the singles released from this album have any unheard studio material, cover songs or otherwise, just remixes or live versions: aside from what I'm writing about here, the other singles were "Rock Is Dead", which just had a couple of the same "I Don't Like The Drugs..." remixes, and "Coma White", which didn't have any b-sides.
Being one of the most danceable songs on Mechanical Animals to begin with* , "I Don't Like The Drugs..." would lend itself pretty well to remixes. Neither of these ones quite deliver in terms of expanding the groove though: the cleverly titled "Absinth Makes The Heart Grow Fonder" mix does emphasize the bass a bit more, but otherwise adds a beat that's way too tinny sounding to be danceable, often makes the vocals distractingly off-tempo, and relies a little too much on a backwards loop of the original song. the "Every Day" remix fares a little better just because it's so bizarre: For the most part it's a slightly demented experimental house track that has little to do with the original song aside from using some vocal clips, but samples of dial-up modems and barking dogs, as well as the fact that the hook is mostly just Manson slowly intoning "Druuuuugs" over and over manage to make it appealingly goofy.
Key Tracks: I Don't Like The Drugs (But The Drugs Like Me) (Every Day)
I Don't Like The Drugs (But The Drugs Like Me), Part 2
The "Infected By The Scourge Of The Earth" mix suffers from entirely too loud bass (which was probably the point), but still manages to work the song into an uptempo house number. I also appreciate some of the stranger additions to the song: It kicks off with a lengthy sample of "The Star Spangled Banner" for some reason, and has an incredibly chaotic ending where the tempo is suddenly doubled and air raid sirens, explosions, and loud industrial clanging start drowning out everything else. Either it's a political statement or it's depicting the song being played during a football game at a nuclear war site. However, the Danny Saber mix is probably the best remix on either single - it sticks to the same structure and tempo of the original song, but adds a synth pulse groove that makes it sound distinctive enough from the original without making it unrecognizable.
Key Tracks: I Don't Like The Drugs (But The Drugs Like Me) (Danny Saber Mix)
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