Marilyn Manson

Marilyn Manson left a lot of their crunch behind upon releasing this album in 1998. A smoother, less-cluttered Glam-inflected group of songs was the result. "The Dope Show" and "I Don't Like The Drugs (But The Drugs Like Me)" had more swagger than the band's previous apocalyptic nightmares, creating a record that -- not surprisingly -- critics loved and fans did not.

For pure American pathos, nothing matches The Jenny Jones Show when it turns its sights
on Marilyn Manson fans. These gentle suburban children, owlish and soft beneath their
meticulous black finery, are so eager to serve their Antichrist Superstar that they let their
confused parents drag them before the warrior queen of pastel conventionality. And there
they are slaughtered by Jenny and her audience, grown-up versions of the pop... More >

If only the absurd aura of artistic respectability surrounding this arrant self-promoter would teach us that not every icon deserves a think piece, that it's no big deal to have a higher IQ than Ozzy Osbourne, that the Road of Excess leads to the Palace Theater. Instead, his banned-in-Wal-Mart slipcase job will fade into the haze of records people found interesting at the time. Its strategy is to camouflage the feebleness of La Manson's vocal affect by pretending it's deliberate--one more depersonalizing production device with which to flatten willing cerebella whilst confronting humankind's alienation, amorality, and failure to have a good time on Saturday night. Catchiest songs: "The Dope Show" and "I Don't Like the Drugs (But the Drugs Like Me)." Duh. (Grade - C+)