Marilyn Manson - Eat Me Drink Me (Polydor)
2/5
By: Edward Mellett
Manson is so veiled in controversy, popularity, negativity, disparagement, theatrical showmanship, celebrity and even general sound effects and feedback that it's sometimes difficult to really find out what his music is like. He has become a Paris Hilton/George Bush/Arnold Schwazernagger figure, (something Americans are particularly good at - and yes, we know the last one is Austrian, but he'd rather be a yank, right?) polarising opinion and generating more media discussion on previous media discussion than on his new songs. The trouble with focussing all the attention on to a performer's on stage alter-ego, rather than his records, is that that performer may start producing mediocre material, as whatever he does has the same effect.
In its own right, "Eat me, Drink me", Manson's sixth LP, just isn't very exciting. Although there's nothing particularly wrong with the album as a whole, there's certainly not any real stand out singles, and no sense of a progression from 'The Golden Age of Grotesque' or 'Holy Wood'.
Manson is noted as saying he has "worked all his life" to get to this record. Sadly, although promising more than ever before, the God of F**k delivers just about to standard. Reportedly influenced by Alice in Wonderland and the story of Armin Meiwes, the German man sentenced to life in prison after killing and eating a man he met on the internet in 2001 'Eat Me, Drink Me' should echo the disturbed nature of modern day existence. Instead, it offers a drab account of a man who has spent most of his life indulging in the creation of a theatrical antichrist, is quickly approaching middle age (he's 38), is now almost certainly an arrogant, uninspired and probably quite bored man.
In recent times Manson has shown more interest in developing his interest in art and films than in his music (his proposed collaboration with Tim Burton does actually sound quite good, no?) and you get the feeling that this album could mark the point where the Daily Mail's favourite teen evol (evil teen idol) takes a break to pursue other avenues.
Stream two tracks from 'Eat Me Drink Me' HERE.
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