High End Of Low, The - Marilyn Manson

_The High End of Low_ is Marilyn Manson's latest album, after a seven-year wait for fans. The buzz prior to the release was that Manson was claiming it was as briliant as _Antichrist Superstar_, but since its release reviews have been mixed.

I'm going to review this as I listen to it for the first time. I'm a *bit* of a Manson fan; I used to think he was a bit of a prophet, but it's been a long time since he released anything as anthemic ...
.../> _We have reached the high end of low...._

We've reached a new low, in fact. Dull, dull, dull. 4/10

==14. "Into the Fire"==

_This is the film, close to the third act and the misery..._

_It's God pissing down on you..._

AARGH! This is still awful. It's more like Manson pissing down on me and telling me it's raining. I'm actually starting to hate this album. 3/10

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The High End of Low is Marilyn Manson's latest album, after a seven-year wait for fans. The buzz prior to the release was that Manson was claiming it was as briliant as Antichrist Superstar, but since its release reviews have been mixed.

I'm going to review this as I listen to it for the first time. I'm a *bit* of a Manson fan; I used to think he was a bit of a prophet, but it's been a long time since he released anything as anthemic as "Fight Song" or "Beautiful People", and frankly I find his personal life a bit suspect. (Teenage girls? At his age? Oh, puh-leeze!) His pop covers are a good example of how his output has changed. They went from being utterly brilliant -- as with "Sweet Dreams" and "I Put a Spell on You" on the Smells like Children EP-- to being mediocre, teen movie soundtrack fodder as with his cover of "Tainted Love". Looking at the track listing, I see no pop covers. So that's a good start, there!

The prices I have seen for this album are all comparable to the Amazon prices Ciao lists on the right.

1. "Devour"

I can't sleep until I devour you...

The album opens with a spartan, subdued guitar, soon joined by Manson's vocals. The song increases in complexity as it goes on. His vocals seem to be just the same as ever. I like this. It has my head nodding. It's certainly not epic, but it's good. It's a cautious start to the album, but a good omen. I've listened to it twice before proceeding, and it's still good. I like the abrupt end. 7/10

2. "Pretty As a Swastika"

Let me show you where it hurts...

My first impression on seeing the title is, "wow, there's a good insult." It's not a bad song either, having the noisy and somewhat discordant-round-the-edges Manson-esque sound. It's not really got much life, though-- I'm nodding my head but there's nothing epic or truly new here. 6/10

3. "Leave a Scar"

You're not afraid of getting hurt
And I'm not afraid of how much I hurt you...

The third song of the album is in much the same musical vein. It still feels a little subdued and downbeat. It sounds like Marilyn Manson, but as if he's been taking diazepam or something. I'm still liking it, though. 6/10

4. "Four Rusted Horses"

Everyone will come, everyone will come to my funeral
To make sure that I stay dead...

This has a nice rhythm, this song. Again it's quite slow, but it's tuneful, and I like the sound. Something different, yay! I like this. There's still nothing so far that has made me piddle myself with excitement, as Manson is more than capable of doing, but I haven't lost hope that there might be something later that does that. 8/10 for this one.

5. "Arma-Goddamn-Motherf**kin-Geddon"

First you try to f**k it, then you try to eat it...

Tmesis comes from the Greek for "cutting" and means inserting something inbetween two parts of a word. Like, "Abso-bloody-lutely", or this song title, which is certainly a fine example. It's another familar Manson style, with a thump-thump-thump-thump rhythm combined with an almost spoken-word style of lyrics. The "Beautiful People" style, if you like. I'm still liking the album and there's another abrupt finish to a song. Love it. 7/10

6. "Blank and White"

If it's too dumb to see, or say, you still sing it
I'll just cue the applause...

Again I'm liking the song, and I'm liking the music,. but I'm still not giddy with excitement. Manson-by-numbers here, a little. Lowest mark so far. Actually I'm finding this song a little boring. It's too long. 6/10

7. "Running to the Edge of the World"

Running, running away...

This song is slow, and frankly, boring. I'm skipping this one on to see if it gets better. No it doesn't. It's the first epic of the album: but it's an epic FAIL. 4/10 and a yawn.

8. "I Want to Kill You Like They Do in the Movies"

There's no subtitles to get you through this

Good title. Slow start. It does improve somewhat, but I'm still quite bored. Like, really. It's not all bad, in that listening to this album is making me want to listen to older Manson albums... but only because I know how much better they are. This song is WAY too long and frankly, if I wasn't reviewing this I'd have put Smells Like Children on instead. 5/10

9. "WOW"

When something is unbelievable
When I'm not able to believe how unbelievably unbelievable
That you believe you could not be leave-able...

WAT??

Maybe it's the influence of having all of my music devices on "shuffle" these days, but I'm finding it hard to listen to all of this album in one sitting. This song is striking me as boring. So I'm going to listen to a-ha while I have a cigarette and then come back to it, to get "new ears". Back in a few.

Wow, "Take on Me" is on my playlist FIVE TIMES, never realised that before. I'm getting the video artwork as a sleeve tattoo, you know. Oh what, back to the Manson review? Blah.

Nope. It's still technically good, but boring. I shouldn't be nodding my head to Marilyn Manson, I should be trashing the place in my efforts to start a one woman mosh pit. And therein lies the problem with this album. Onwards! 6/10

10. "Wight Spider"

NO NO NO NO NO NO....

I'm REALLY BORED now. Seriously. I want to go and listen to some Combichrist or something. Or go out on my bicycle. 4/10 and a shout of "Shut the f**k up, Brian!!"

11. "Unkillable Monster"

Now you're just a coffin of a girl I knew
and I'm buried in you...

Now you're just the coffin of an artist I once admired, and I'm burying this album when I'm finished reviewing it. Shut up, shut up, shut up. This album has degenerated into emo whinging. 4/10

12. "We're from America"

We're from America, we're from America, where we eat our young
We're from America, we're from America, it's where Jesus was born...

I'm hoping for some cutting social observations, going from the title. Something genius, like "Fight Song". Actually, it is a bit like "Fight Song", in a crappy, derivative, fan-fiction kind of way. I dislike this IMMENSELY because it pisses all over the genius of "Fight Song". 2/10

13. "I Have to Look Up Just to See Hell"

Really? I just have to listen to your albums, mate.

We have reached the high end of low....

We've reached a new low, in fact. Dull, dull, dull. 4/10

14. "Into the Fire"

This is the film, close to the third act and the misery...

It's God pissing down on you...

AARGH! This is still awful. It's more like Manson pissing down on me and telling me it's raining. I'm actually starting to hate this album. 3/10

15. "15"

The best thing that can be said about this song is that it's the last one on the album. There's a bonus disc, too, but right now I'd rather eat my own poo than listen to it. In fact, this whole album has left me feeling like I've just eaten Manson's poo. Thank God it's over. 2/10

Conclusions

I remember, back in the day, how new and exciting and shocking Marilyn Manson were. The Smells Like Children EP, which was my first venture into Manson world, made me giddy with excitement, as did the "Beautiful People" single and most of the album it was from, Antichrist Superstar. After a while though, it became clear that Manson was vanishing up his own arse. He peeked out his sphincter every now and again to give us songs of epic genius like "The Dope Show", "The Love Song", "The Fight Song" and "mobSCENE", but mostly he just vanished into his own image, pandering to the phobias of middle America rather than making any new statement.

That Manson himself thought this album was comparable to Antichrist Superstar made me want to give it a whirl and see. But I'm afraid to report, that sounding a bit like Antichrist... doth not as good an album make. This definitely sounds to me, as I mentioned when listening to "We're From America", like Marilyn Manson fan fiction. It's the musical equivalent of a story about Kirk and Spock getting it on with each other: it has some prurient interest but is nothing more than a cheap rip-off of the original.

That being said, I think maybe a couple of songs, especially from the early part of the album, will make it onto my Walkman. It's certainly worth listening too, but don't bother buying it. Get Lest We Forget, his best of album, and Smells Like Children instead, if you haven't already. It's also nice to have Twiggy Ramirez back.

Maybe Marilyn Manson are a victim of their/his success; what was astounding and shocking in the 1990s isn't going to be as powerful today, and that's MM's fault as much as anyone's. After all, having shocked the world, how can you follow that up? If Manson wanted to be truly shocking or exciting these days, he'd have to become a Christian Folk Rock singer or something.

Producing an album that sounds like "Antichrist Superstar" on diazepam is neither new, exciting nor particularly interesting now and for that reason, I won't be recommending this album for fans nor people new to Marilyn Manson's work. 

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