This is the long-awaited reinvention we’ve been waiting for and far past time for it.
There have definitely been hints of it before now. What made albums like The High End of Low and The Pale Emperor stand out was a willingness to embrace new ideas. But at last, Marilyn Manson has made a full, decisive step into new musical and atmospheric territory.
One of the strengths of We Are Chaos was beginning to show through on Heaven Upside Down, which exhibited Manson’s strongest and most consistent lyricism since The Golden Age of Grotesque back in 2003. We Are Chaos, though, is possibly more tightly written than anything else Marilyn Manson has done. Nothing sounds as lazily worded as Unkillable Monster or You and Me and The Devil Makes 3. In fact, every set of lyrics rewards attention.
The songs I’ve been listening to the most are Solve Coagula and Half-Way & One Step Forward. The latter has this cool, dreamlike, repeating piano riff that gives it an unexpectedly new romantic flavor. It goes into Infinite Darkness, which I am not nearly as inclined to listen to as other tracks. Half-Way & One Step Forward actually sets an atmospheric tone for Infinite Darkness that makes it far more interesting than it is on its own. Infinite Darkness has a similarly brilliant segue into Perfume, which was when I realized how well this all works together.
A key hallmark of a well-composed album is that each song feels like an elaborative step deeper into the body of work. The recordings made in the last decade that pull this off can, for me, almost be counted with one hand (names like Sopor Aeternus, Grimes and Gonjasufi come to mind). An adolescent part of my soul is happy to see Marilyn Manson finding his way back there.
While Solve Coagula and Half-Way & One Step Forward are my two earworm picks (Solve Coagula also hits the new romantic genre echo like Half-Way) every song between them navigates a musical and emotional bridge from one to the other. Sure enough, Solve Coagula sets the stage for Broken Needle, the last song, which connects its lyrical imagery with the first song. Manson hasn’t done something as elaborative, consistent and careful since the Triptych.
The Leonard Cohen reference was a little random but interesting.
New playlist for recent material:
1. Killing Strangers
2. Don’t Chase The Dead
3. Tattooed In Reverse
4. Warship My Wreck
5. Half-Way & One Step Forward
6. Third Day of a Seven Day Binge
7. Paint You With My Love
8. Revelation #12
9. Slave Only Dreams To Be King
10. SAY10
11. We Are Chaos
12. We Know Where You Fucking Live
13. The Devil Beneath My Feet
14. Solve Coagula
15. Deep Six
16. Infinite Darkness
17. The Mephistopheles of Los Angeles
18. Threats Of Romance
19. Keep My Head Together
20. Heaven Upside Down
21. Red Black And Blue
22. Perfume
23. Cupid Carries a Gun
24. Broken Needle
AilixChaerea 