JEORDIE WHITE | BASE TENDENCIES
Press
This is my review of Marilyn Manson’s new album, “Born Villain.” I am writing as I listen. These are only my initial impressions. All of these opinions are subject to change as my relationship to these songs evolves through repeated listens.
1. Hey Cruel World
Starting an album with this song is like starting a relationship with an incredible blowjob. It’s awesome, but sets the standard high. You don’t lead in with this unless you are supremely confident in what follows. And that’s exactly what Born Villain is: an album that brims with confidence. It’s the exact opposite of Manson’s luke-warmly received (though in my opinion vastly underrated) The High End Of Low. For those who loved Manson best from 1996-2003 this is a huge return to form. The song is hard without being tuneless. 10/10
2. No Reflection
The first single, almost certainly chosen for the infectious catchiness of it’s chorus. The song, to me, seems a bit ideologically muddled, but musically it knows where it’s going. It makes you want to at least tap a foot and at most stomp a person’s head. There is a pop sensibility here that was sorely lacking in Manson’s last two efforts. The album version, which is a bit longer than the radio edit, doesn’t work quite as well. 7/10
3. Pistol Whipped
This is a song about physically abusing a girl. Catchy chorus. Nice throbbing beat that makes you want to ram someone or get rammed (or both at once). I’m pretty sure it made my fiancee horny. It’s low-key compared to the previous tracks, but that’s a good thing at this point in the album. We needed a break from the initial barrage. 7/10
4. Overneath The Path Of Misery
It opens with a Shakespeare quote that will no doubt be misattributed to Manson himself for years to come, then it starts raping you. Yes. This song sounds like a rape. The lyrics are very prominent here, and they deserve to be. They’re writhe with wordplay, allusions to MacBeth and greek mythology. This song is a barrage of brilliance that blows it’s load in orifices you didn’t know you had until you’re dying of blood loss. Giving a song 11 out of 10 is ridiculous, but this song will kill me and eat my heart if I don’t do it. 11/10.
5. Slo-Mo-Tion
Fuck. I’m going to sound like such a sycophant here, but how is this so damn good? There is just a magical quality to this song, like you got let backstage at a Penn & Teller show only to discover that none of the tricks were tricks and that the magicians are really sorcerers who sawed the girl in half for real and they could put her back together if they wanted but choose not to. 9/10
6. The Gardener
A largely spoken word song in the vein of WOW but both musically and lyrically superior. The song seems to be about how, in relationships, we create false images of people and then hold them to the standard of our illusions about them. The lyrics, “I’m not man enough to be human / but I’m trying to fit in / and I’m learning to fake it” are very relatable to me. And the line: “Your book isn’t burned / it was never written” has yet to fail to give me goosebumps, even on this, my 4th or 5th listen. 9/10
7. The Flowers Of Evil
This song starts weaker than the others, but by the time it hits it’s pitch-perfect chorus, it had me hooked. I do feel like the lyrics sometimes try too hard to be spooky. This song is definitely the closest any track on this album comes to sounding like Eat Me, Drink Me or The High End Of Low but even this has a better pop-sensibility that anything off of those two albums. There is a meticulous care for song structure on every track of this album, and this is no exception. I think this song will grown on me considerably over time, but for now: 7/10
8. Children Of Cain
There is a line in this song that is repeated several times: “Don’t assume that I’m always with you / It’s just where my mortal body happens to be.” This seems incredibly profound in the context of the song, and I’ve yet to really understand why. I don’t believe that any part of humans are anything but mortal, so it should fall flat for me. But it doesn’t. It moves me tremendously. Almost to tears once. There is an isolation to this song. It makes you feel alone. Some people will probably reject this song, because it is a feel bad song on a largely feel-good (for Manson) album. However, this song sustains me. It’s like something my heart would sing to coax me to sleep after a rough day. 9/10
9. Disengaged
This song doesn’t fuck around. It’s an odd song. It’s depressive, but swaggering, defeated but still swinging punches. It’s hard to even describe in words how it makes me feel. It feels like being bi-polar. It doesn’t know where it is, but it knows what it’s there to do: fuck your shit up. Like so many songs on the album, it starts somewhere vulnerable and leaves off somewhere angry. 8/10
10. Lay Down Your Goddamn Arms
My ears are hurting at this point. This album can get quite fucking loud. The song is melodic and hard, but I don’t know if it has any tricks to impress us after the preceding 9 songs. It’s a good song, but everything in it’s repertoire seems to have been used earlier. Nothing about it surprises me. Nothing about it is unpredictable enough to stand out. That said, it’s a solid song with an aggressive and catchy hook. It would probably stand better on it’s own than as part of this album. If most bands did this song, it would be the best song they ever did, but for this album it falls short. 6/10
1. Murderers Are Getting Prettier Every Day
When I heard the title, I assumed this would be a very soft and melodic sort of Manson song—the sort of song that filled Eat Me, Drink Me but I was wrong. This song should be mentioned in the same breath as Irresponsible Hate Anthem and 1996 in terms of hardness and unbridled aggression. This is the kind of song people who don’t listen to Manson probably imagine all Manson songs sound: endlessly angry and threatening. This is music to shoot up your school to. Also, the ending is oddly hilarious. 10/10
12. Born Villain
I don’t know what to say about this song. It’s sad, but virbrant. It’s melodic, it’s lyrical, it’s affecting. There’s a strange almost dancability to it. I want to give it the best rating possible, because it’s too good not to, but I feel like I’m just ill-equipped to explain why it deserves such high praise. It’s ineffable. So, even though I want to give it a 10, I’ll settle for a 9 since I can’t properly defend a 10 at this point. 9/10
13. Breaking The Same Old Ground
It’s like a lullaby that the devil would sing to hell to help the damned fall asleep. There is romance here, and self-pity. In some ways, this song is ashamed. It’s the polar opposite of how the album began. The confidence is gone, replaced with pensiveness, emotional fragility and desire. This song is reminiscent of the best tracks of Mechanical Animals. Towards the end, the song shifts in attitude, and seems to rise again, somehow in defiance of itself and defiance of the world. 10/10
BONUS TRACK: You’re So Vain
This is an oddly faithful rendition of Carly Simon’s 70’s (I think) hit. I’m not familiar with the original, beyond listening to it once for the sake of comparison. This song should not be looked at as part of Born Villain, but as an interesting bonus track. It’s fun and feel-good. It’s a good song to dance or fuck to (Not that I dance. Ever.). Johnny Depp plays guitar on the track, but who gives a shit? He’s famous for playing a gay pirate, not for his guitar skills. Don’t get me wrong, he does a good job and it’s a good song, but I have no idea why the fact that Johnny Depp is playing guitar is supposed to mean anything to me. 8/10
OVERALL IMPRESSION.
There is something oddly Pink Floyd about this album. I never thought I’d say that about a Manson album.
Every song seems very deliberate, very polished, very produced—and that’s when Manson is at his best. He’s not the guy that does it in one take and says, “Good enough.” He’s the guy who says, “That’s good. Let’s do it again.”
This album is very obviously the result of a lot of work on the parts of a lot of people. Every note, every sound, every line and delivery—sounds like it was hotly debated and exhaustively considered. And that dilligence has paid off with the most impassioned and fresh sounding Album that Manson has released since his heyday.