Mechanical Animals Marilyn Manson

This album had everyting to become one of my instant favorites: it's a glam/industrial concept album heavily inspired by David Bowie, it's like I was destined to love it; and I deinitely did, I think it was a good start point with the band and definitely left me wanting for more. The album feels like a 90's industrial version of Ziggy Stardust (I say this in the best of the ways) and you can see that in a lot of songs. I'm particularly dry at this moment, but the only thing I can say is that I loved this.

Marilyn Manson found himself on top of the 90s industrial rock scene with his nihilistic 1996 album Antichrist Superstar. Fans were eagerly awaiting a follow up album and in 1998 they got it with Mechanical Animals. However, some fans didn't quite know what to make of Manson's new Omega persona. Even though he lost a significant chunk of diehard metal fans, those of us who could appreciate the versatility of his music stuck around and found Mechanical Animals quite a bit different but just as appeasing as Antichrist Superstar. It starts melodically enough with Great Big White World a song about the fall of the redeemable qualities of the world and the rise of materialism and soullessness as seen through the eyes of space. It follows up with hits like The Dope Show, Rock is Dead and I don't like the drugs. Featuring a new lead guitarist John 5, This album, as stated before, is a great example of musically versatility and lyrical genius as only Marilyn Manson can provide. Other notable gems are the title track, the Spoed of Pain Fundamentally Loathsome featuring a guitar solo by co-founding guitarist Daisy Berkowitz and Coma White that help pull this album together between the hits. Manson's second concept album Mechanical Animals is a solid work of art and can be most appreciated listening from start to finish with no tracks being skippable.

Best songs on this album in order are:

1st- The Last Day On Earth: a song over 5 minutes long and has that sprawling sense to it. It gives the listener a sense of relation to the singer about situations in life where you no longer care about your original point or desire but you just want to feel close to someone in some way.

2nd- Disassociative: for those living in situations where they feel it's almost unbearable and they want to get out; this song gives you a sense of how that misery and how that pressure can build and build and build until you could break. the song it's definitely a motivational push to find courage to move in the direction of Who You Are.

3rd- Great Big White World: this song does a really good job of helping the listener take comfort in the knowledge that society has so many injustices and unfair situations. It achieves this by reminding us that times when we share horrible experiences from life with other people and the pain that we might be trying to work as a result; we are so many times told that our experiences were not bad, that we don't have a right to our own baggage and that theirs is just is bad or worse. Yes, life seems to be full of unending encounters were everybodys road is just as bad as everyone else's... oh how tiring that can be. So we just want to withdraw from people for the most part so we don't lose ourselves and or forgexactly how much of ourselves we need to rebuild. This song plants comfort and real hope in being alone.

4- The Speed of Pain: a simple message to this one - that sometimes we have to sacrifice certain achievements or certain loves in our life in order for us to escape a bigger danger. The pain we feel about those losses will stay with us but they can also serve as a reminder that we're are life.

5- Coma White: the song reminds us that no matter how much person may love us and no matter how much we may love ourselves there's always that sense of danger and intrigued that lives inside all of us that we should be careful of and that no Sanctuary is safe.

6- Mechanical Animals: this song gives the listener a sense that to let someone into our lives and to make them a part of who we are and half of everything we do is to give a part of ourselves up to death. that we will lose a small portion of who we are and it will be replaced by the other person and we have to know exactly what we are losing and if it's worth it.

7- Rock is Road: just seems to be a knock against the baby boomer generation really. The 50s 60s 70s and even the early 80s saw all the industries booming, things were thriving every company was encouraged to go forward to push the boundaries of their industry, make new discoveries so that's what happened there a was a boom and everybody really could get a job fairly easy no University not nearly as much as today houses were cheap work was plentiful you fast forward to anywhere from 1990 onward everything's been done everything's been mined everything is been made.

Antichrist Superstar gave Werner & co. the long-awaited stardom, but it also attracted the ire of USA’s Christian/right-wing, who repeatedly attempted to boycott him and his band (sorting the opposite effect). That’s why, with 1998’s Mechanical Animals, he distanced himself from the “vengeful Satanic metalhead” persona of the past and attempted a more “mature” second part of the concept, revolving the assimilation, profiting and nullification of rock & roll revolution, castrating (literally, as on the cover artwork) the artist and his message for the sake of the hits.

Musically, Manson take it much easier here, favoring far less extreme The Verve-like climatic Post-Rock (“The Great Big White World”, title track, “Disassociative”), drained, post-orgasmic funky swing [“The Dope Show”, the pinch-harmonic-driven “Rock Is Dead”, “I Don't Like the Drugs (But the Drugs Like Me)”, “User Friendly”] and rare showcases of Hardcore/Techno tritons and shrieked delivery (“Posthuman”, “I Want to Disappear”). “Satanic” samples are almost totally zeroed out, along with aggressive smashing and downtuned distortion in favor of “glam” attire and citations from UK vintage music and David Bowie (“In space, the stars are no nearer / Just glitters like a morgue / And I dreamed I was a spaceman / Burned like a moth in a flame”). “Coma White” is essentially a rewrite of Nine Inch Nails’ “Hurt” with more relatable fallen-diva musings.

Though still filled with loud, noisy keyboard drones, samples and distorted sine waves giving the impression we’re listening to Extreme Metal, the album is filled with slower, semi-ballad tempos around 80 BPM with some acoustic guitars strumming (“The Speed of Pain”) and lazy, apathetic E/A-minor chording and lyrics stating the post-capitalist world is unexciting, predictable, totalitarian and, ultimately, white. Like… stating the obvious. But then again, Marilyn Manson was formed more with the intent to provoke a reaction than anything else, and Mechanical Animals, despite its absurdly long hour-like duration, remains one of the band’s best efforts.

Highlights: “Great Big White World”, “User Friendly”, “Coma White”.

The music of my youth. Marilyn Manson was a revelation to me at the time. Mechanical Animals, the Dope Show, the Last Day on Earth, Coma White, Great Big White World, Rock is Dead, New Model 15, Disassociative, Post Human... Lots of great songs!

My 1,162th most played album. Marilyn Manson - Mechanical Animals. The third studio album was released on September 15, 1998. Debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 platinum in America and sold 1.8 million worldwide. Three huge singles "The Dope Show" peaked at # 12, "Rock Is Dead" peaked at # 28, and "I Don't Like the Drugs (But the Drugs Like Me) peaked at # 25". More great songs; "Coma White", "Mechanical Animals" and "The Last Day on Earth". My third most played Manson behind The Last Tour On Earth and Lest We forget.