Is Marilyn Manson good for our mental health?
In a recent Apple Music interview, Manson said he hopes his music will be helpful to people like him. Before you deny that anyone can claim commonalities with the Antichrist Superstar, consider that he has made a life's work out of plumbing his depths, and you haven't. Maybe your dive wouldn't dredge up similar levels of hate, rage, fear and alienation. But you never know.
Manson's new "We Are Chaos" differs substantially from his 10 previous studio albums, except when he draws on the signatures he always includes to maintain his artistic thread -- a beat similar to that of "The Beautiful People" ("Perfume"), or a torchy descending melody like that of "The Speed of Pain" ("Paint You With My Love"), or a familiar back-and-forth chord progression like that of "Solve Coagula."
The difference, partly due to Manson's new songwriting/production collaboration with country-metal star Shooter Jennings, comes down to style and mood. Though Manson says he was listening to Bowie's "Diamond Dogs," the only clear canine links are the spoken introduction and the desperate tone. Instead, especially in the first half of "Chaos," Manson and Jennings undercut the gloom with brisk acoustic guitars, big-beat grandeur and massed echo-chamber layerings that will remind ancient ears of nothing so much as Phil Spector. And when you're vibing on "Be My Baby," it's damn hard to slit your wrists.
Surprise -- the schizophrenia feels perfectly natural. "I'm sick from you" and "We can't be cured" and "I'm just broken and I don't wanna be fixed" and "Are you all right? Cuz I'm not OK," Manson croon-croaks. And we're sitting there, enveloped by his suffocating/sustaining electronic atmosphere of ghostly, crackly fragility, going, "Yeah! Let's dance!" This is how poetry works now.
How can we cope with the ubiquitous filth we swallow and barf back? Since there's no escape, we have only two choices: bathe in it or suck it down again. Wallow, says Manson. Wallow.