Mechanical Animals [EXPLICIT LYRICS] [CLEAN]

Marilyn Manson

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 15, 1998)
• Original Release Date: September 15, 1998
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Explicit Lyrics, Clean
• Label: Nothing
• ASIN: B00000AGAY
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (98 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #71,466 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Track Listings

1. Great Big White World

2. Dope Show

3. Mechanical Animals

4. Rock Is Dead

5. Disassociative

6. Speed of Pain

7. Posthuman

8. I Want to Disappear

9. I Don't Like the Drugs (But the Drugs Like Me)

10. New Model, No. 15

11. User Friendly

12. Fundamentally Loathsome

13. Last Day on Earth

14. Coma White

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

There's no question that Marilyn Manson's 1995 album Antichrist Superstar was a great-sounding record. It brooded, ripped, and clattered in all the right places, mixing industrial beats and samples with roaring heavy-metal riffs, echoing Goth keys, and the occasional tuneful pop vocal. But for all the sonic appeal, some of the songwriting wasn't too strong. No such problem on Manson's new record, Mechanical Animals, which forsakes some of the band's former grind in favor of dynamic glam rhythms and good old-fashioned melody. When the band tones down, as on the largely acoustic "Speed of Pain" and "Fundamentally Loathsome," Manson even sounds like a candidate for an Unplugged session. Most often, however, as on "Rock Is Dead," "User Friendly," and "The Dope Show," Mechanical Animals is a brash, decadent, and glittery display of self-indulgent hooks and melodramatic vocals that sounds like Aladdin Sane-era David Bowie and T. Rex at their most boisterous crossed with the more modern sounds of today's industrial nation. --Jon Wiederhorn

The Los Angeles Times

Here, songs swagger with lipstick-wearing attitude, have fun with sleazy subject matter and actually convey some (gasp) human emotion. Despite its title, Mechanical Animals drips with the seedy sexuality and plush velvet feel that's been absent from 1990s rock....

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars MM makes a Bowie Tribute piece, December 25, 1998

By	[e-mail] (arkansas) - See all my reviews

I have to say that Antichrist Superstar was a very appealing showcase of just how ugly a person can make themselves and still be beautiful. To paraphrase a bit, it seems Brian Werner came up from Hell, plucked his eyebrows on the way grew some boobs and then he was David Bowie - with boobs. I know that the second Bowie saw that costume he probably hit himself in the head with a copy of NEVER LET ME DOWN several times and screamed, "Why in Bloody Hell didn't I think of that when I was posing for the inside cover of ALADDIN SANE????"

I have decided that MECHANICAL ANIMALS is sort of a joke that Brian is playing on us. It's a tribute album of sorts. It's a jigsaw puzzle of David Bowie and Iggy Pop and a few others...Mainly Bowie. DOPE SHOW? It's a knock of perfume version of the Iggy stomper NIGHT CLUBBING. THE SPEED OF PAIN has the under tones of a Pink Floyd tune until you get to that taffy pull with the flute, then we are talking WIDTH OF A CIRCLE for sure...ROCK IS DEAD? Tastes like a compote of JEAN GENIE and CRACKED ACTOR. I DON'T LIKE THE DRUGS??? I can't be the only person out there that hears FAME getting funky loose on the guitar in that one. I WANT TO DISAPPEAR is a concoction with SUFFRAGETTE CITY as an ingredient. NEW MODEL? I think Ric Ocasek has been here.

MM borrowed visually and melodically from the Master of Borrowing, and that's OK. What he was unable to recreate was the atmosphere of the early Bowie units. Good Bowie has an unsettling quality to it. Mechanical Animals is much easier to listen to right off the bat than most classic Bowie. I like this MM offering. I figure if Bowie isn't going to be Bowie, some one has to be...

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The ultimate in shock-rock, August 27, 1999

By A Customer

Whereas "Smells Like Children" and "Antichrist Superstar" got Marilyn Manson and friends lableled "Shockrock," Animals is the most shocking of all- it is brilliant. Previous releases had promise, like the sing-songy "Dope Hat," insanely catchy "The Beautiful People" and anguished "Tourniquet." All of those tunes were masterfully produced by maestro Trent Reznor, and showed. Those tunes were surrounded by dreck, especially on the first album, but Superstar was good and showed promise.

Here, Manson proves he has kept his ears open and left the Nails' nest. He is still standing on the shoulders of giants, musically, as this is easily a Bowie tribute album, atmospheres that could be sampled from Brian Eno show up, and he uses Trent's tendency to throw a strange piano or noise line into the scathing rockers. Like NIN, He also buries the most honest and naked lines under static or effects.

"The Speed of Pain," "Disassociative," and "Fundamentally Loathsome" are tuneful, melodic numbers that show real anguish and yearning. Little Mary has been under a deluge of sex, drugs, and God for so long, he can't tell them apart. All the lyrics could be about a drug, a girl, but when it the last line has been snorted, are probably the same. "When you hate it, you know its real, but when you love you know you can't feel." Manson wants to love, but is so lost in this "Great White World, (the opener, which sets the 'space oddity' theme) he haphazardly abuses sex and dope to numb the pain of not being able to find love. If that isn't universal, I don't know what is.

Incredibly sarcastic views of America and Christianity are thrown in the mix with enough deft humor to keep this from being a Rage Against the Machine album. Influences abound, but they aren't deprecative. Manson shows he was ready to take Trent's much needed training wheels off. While Reznor created an alien genre of music with "The Downward Spiral," Manson takes existing genres (funk, cock-rock, glam and goth) and makes them alien. Stunning.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome!, February 2, 1999

By A Customer

I haven't heard much of Manson's earlier production, so I can't say if he has "sold out" or "gone mainstream". But whocares? Shouldn't it be the music that matters? Some people seem to care only about Manson's former image and dis his new record because it perhaps isn't as dark and aggressive as the earlier ones. Those attitudes can, in some cases, blind some people from seeing the good sides of this awesome record. The songs on this CD are really versatile and offer something new everytime I listen through it. This is also one of very few CD's that don't have any ****** songs on it (usually there's at least one or two). My personal favorites are "Mechanical Animals" with the really great acoustic parts in it along with Mansons melancholic singing, "I Don't Like The Drugs" with the funky-sort-of-beat and the in-your-face lyrics, "Fundamentally Loathsome" with it's spooky keyboards and the awesome ending and "Coma White", which is perhaps THE best song on this record. I just LOVE the lyrics in that song, not to mention the fantastic guitar playing as well. Lyrically I think this album is great. All the songs contain something about drugs though, but it doesn't bother me. It's really hard, I think, to categorize this record, but I think it rocks and therefore I also call it rock (hard rock, that is). Last, but not least, a message to all you prejudgmental people out there! You're so busy judging Manson's looks that you don't even give his music a chance! I feel sorry for you all if you can't accept people's differences. When I tell people that I listen to Marilyn Manson, their first reaction is often : "What...? Are you outta your mind? That guy's a .... psycho! Crossdressin'...quot; My advice: If you get hit - don't turn the other cheek. Hit back, and as hard as you can. Freedom of thought and speech is something worth fighting for.