queen of pastel conventionality. And there they are slaughtered by Jenny and her audience, grown-up versions of the popular kids who persecute them daily. Eventually they are banished backstage, where a makeover artist strips them of their glamour; they return as the misfits they were before Manson offered them dignity.
Does Marilyn Manson sometimes sit alone in front of the television in his Los Angeles manse and watch those sweet youths burn for him? Mechanical Animals, Manson's attempt to transform shock into mainstream rock, suggests that he might. The album, co-produced by Michael Beinhorn, has a radio-ready clarity reminiscent of his work on Soundgarden's Superunknown and Hole's Celebrity Skin. It also bears a blade-bright shine that may have been inspired by Manson's pal Billy Corgan. But its emotional tone emanates from the compassionate egotist who saw his chance in the failure of today's weirdos to stand up for themselves. His last album, Antichrist Superstar, spoke for those tongue-tied adventurers; Mechanical Animals turns toward them in sadness and in love.
"They slit our throats like we were flowers, and our milk has been devoured," Manson moans over a Pink Floyd-ish acoustic-guitar fill on "The Speed of Pain," one of many songs that mourn an innocent passion. These apocalyptic romances, vast and vague enough to wallow in, pit Manson and his beloved (a girl? a drug? no, it's you, dear fan) against the world. Most dwell on final scenes: "The Last Day on Earth," "Coma White," "Posthuman," "Disassociative." They suggest a banishment from the garden, a betrayal so fundamental that it can barely be remembered. The chemical abuse, the coldly functional sex and the bitter cynicism Manson describes elsewhere are all motivated by this loss.
This fantasy of ultimate alienation is deeply adolescent, but the twenty-nine-year-old Manson isn't deluding himself. He is reaching back to those fans who might think his new life as a Hollywood fixture, replete with a sexy actress girlfriend and cool pals like the guitarist Dave Navarro (who plays on one track here), may have lifted him from their midst. By presenting Manson as a ghost in the elite world he has conquered, Mechanical Animals maintains his allegiance to the outcasts who put him there.
Manson came to fame by crafting a worldview from various vulgar origins: pornography, horror movies, comic books, storefront occultism, Gothic rock and heavy metal. He blended the musical genres where those subjects found expression: not just goth and 1970s-style metal, but death metal, prog rock and industrial music. Co
