Monday 19 May 2014

Album of the Week: Marilyn Manson - Mechanical Animals

     It's Monday once again, and even though it's a holiday here in Canada I'm not going to abandon those of you in the rest of the world -- it's Album of the Week time!

     This week we're shifting gears a bit, moving from some more modern stuff over the last couple of weeks to an album I consider to be a classic from my youth. Whether or not you consider it to be a classic is up to you, but either way I urge you to spend some time over the next week with Marilyn Manson's 1998 masterpiece Mechanical Animals.

     I was never as big a Marilyn Manson fan growing up as some of my friends were. The earlier, "shock rockier" stuff was OK, and so was the later, gothier-type stuff, but right in the middle there was this weird album that bridged gap between the two chapters of Manson's career just as it bridges the gap between the other two chapters of Manson's high-concept rock opera trilogy, Antichrist Superstar and Holy Wood.

     That weird album was Mechanical Animals, a 70's glam-infused alt-rock meditation on modernity, celebrity, addiction, alienation, sex... did I miss anything? There's a lot more to Mechanical Animals than I think most people would give Marilyn Manson credit for. For that reason, your homework this week (assuming you're not already a fan of this album like I am) is to look past what you think you know about Marilyn Manson and really give Mechanical Animals a chance to grow on you. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

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