The Golden Age Of Grotesque (2003)
For consistency's sake, I classed "Tainted Love" as an "associated single" to Holy Wood, but in retrospect it seems more like it was of a preview of the sound of this album. There's definitely more synth and drum machine presence than there was on Holy Wood, but if anything this ends up making the album sound more Industrial Metal - the songs are frequently danceable, but in more of a KMFDM way. It's probably not a coincidence that former KMFDM member Tim Skold came on board at this point, co-writing the majority of the songs with Manson and John 5.
The comparatively straightforward lyrics of Holy Wood give way to more Word Salad Lyrics, often highlighted by silly but appealingly catty or sophomoric wordplay ("I got an F, and a C, and I got a K too / And the only thing that's missing is a bitch like you"). The most easily understandable song here is "This is the New Shit", which is kind of a hilarious Take That! to fans who only care about shocking lyrics and singalong choruses ("Babble babble bitch bitch rebel rebel party party sex sex sex and don't forget the violence").
At best, the mix of more tongue-in-cheek lyrics, metal riffs, and danceable beats and synth-bass can make this one of the most fun-to-listen-to albums in their catalog: "Doll-Dagga Buzz-Buzz Ziggety-Zag" is giddily catchy thanks to an Adam And The Ants-style shuffling drum beat. "This Is The New Shit" introduces somewhat of a new vocal approach for Manson that shows up in a few other songs - rapidly sing-speaking lyrics in a way that seems like it may be somewhat influenced by hip-hop (which is not to say it's an attempt at Rap Metal).
At worst, well, all of these techno-pulse-groove-based tracks start running together a bit. It doesn't really help that there isn't really much in the way of stylistic diversions to break it up. They must have decided Holy Wood had too many ballads, because here the only song where the tempo lets up a bit is the title track, which is still a bit faster and deliberately uglier than your average Manson ballad. Still, while fans often seem to think of this as the beginning of their decline, I actually like it as a stylistic change-up of sorts.
Key Tracks: This Is The New Shit, Doll-Dagga Buzz-Buzz Ziggety-Zag, (S)aint
mOBSCENE (2003)
And now it's remix time yet again. Both the "Re-Tainted Interpretation" of "Tainted Love" and "Paranoiac" (actually a remix of the Golden Age Of Grotesque track "Para-Noir") are apparently done by the band, while Rammstein provides the "Sauerkraut Remix" of "mOBSCENE" itself.
The "Tainted Love" mix is probably the most successful one. Though the same vocal track is used, it's pretty much a different cover of the same song; the cheeky club bounce of their first cover is replaced by a moody detuned acoustic guitar that's occasionally backed by a trip-hop beat. So, they've basically recast what was an intentionally silly new wave cover as a serious break-up song. The "mOBSCENE" mix also does away with most of the original instrumentation, backing the vocals with some trademark Rammstein bombastic synths - it's interesting, especially when they pitchshift parts of the vocals down for a more Evil Sounds Deep effect, but the song loses some of it's power when you eliminate the guitars. Finally the "Para-Noir" remix is the least different from the original, getting rid of the guitars and emphasizing the trancey verse sections more.
Key Tracks: Tainted Love (Re-Tainted Interpretation)
This Is The New Shit, Part 1 / Part 2 (2003)
The Goldfrapp mix of "This Is The New Shit" is probably subtitled "Marilyn Manson vs. Goldfrapp" because it's sort of part remix, part Cover Song: The original vocals are still used at times (as are the crowd chants of "YEAH!" and "NO!"), but Alison Goldfrapp sings the majority of the song. Goldfrapp are in sleazy electroclash mode here, which perfectly fits the tone of the original song. Plus, it has a pretty hilarious ending: in keeping with The Golden Age Of Grotesque's supposed burlesque theme, it suddenly switches genres to a cabaret-style ballad, with Alison Goldfrapp adopting a pseudo-germanic accent and cooing the lyrics ("bahble bahble, beetch beetch...").
Interestingly, "Mind Of A Lunatic" both confirms and denies my assertion that tracks like "This Is The New Shit" were hip-hop influenced. You see, it's a cover of hip-hop group Geto Boys, but instead of being delivered in that rapid-fire style I was talking about earlier, it's recited as a spoken word piece, and slowly enough that it doubles the run-time of the original (from five minutes to almost ten). It does start to drag on, especially because it's largely based around the same acoustic guitar riff over and over again, but it's kind of a cool idea nevertheless: Hearing Manson whisper the violent lyrics as verse alternates between being darkly humorous and genuinely frightening, and since the song is supposed to be the internal monologue of a homicidal maniac, this approach makes a lot of sense.
Part two features the same remix of the title track, but substitutes "Mind Of A Lunatic" with an original song, the delightfully titled "Baboon Rape Party". The song is kind of an obvious bit of filler, based around a repetitive bit of carousel music, a lo-fi drum loop, and some barely intelligible spoken samples. It hits the Circus of Fear mood it's clearly aiming for though, and I guess it's sort of interesting to learn that they were still engaging in Smells Like Children-esque sound collage experiments this late in their career.
'''Key Tracks: This Is the New Shit (Marilyn Manson vs. Goldfrapp), Mind Of A Lunatic
