Marilyn Manson Album: “Eat Me, Drink Me”

Every time an artist releases a new album, they take major risks. As any Manson fan knows, Marilyn Manson savors risks and quite often reaps big rewards by plunging into territories others, even longtime fans, may find themselves reluctant to attempt entering. This album proves itself no exception.

Eat Me, Drink Me appeals to a certain spectrum of the Manson emotional range. It's not particularly political, it's not about conquering the world - it's about conquering one's own internal world. Manson paints in the same vivid colors we've gotten used to over the years, but it's like he's refined his technique while keeping it refreshingly raw. This is pure emo-fied angst being felt by a man far out of his teens, yet it's remains accessible to all ages. Love - that's what this album tackles. The curse, if you will, of love and how exceptionally powerful yet excruciatingly unbearable that force can be. Unfortunately, it's not perspective gained by speculation, either. The album began when the opening lyrics suggest: "Six AM, Christmas morning" when Manson began dealing with the end of his relationship with from Dita Von Teese that would end in divorce.

Each song stands alone and that's rare for an album, but the way they flow together truly makes them one solid masterpiece as a piece of art. Since we know Manson learned of his divorce on January 5th (his birthday) 2007 and the album came out the following June, you might wonder if the album feels rushed. It does not. Instead it feels poignant and intensely, surrealistically real. If you're wondering how something feels realistic and surrealistic at the same time - that's Manson's intentions as an artist: blending reality and fantasy.

I don't have any favorites, but having gone through my own heart-shredding relationship disaster in the month's following the album's release (she bought this album for me, crazily enough!) I empathize strongly with the lines: "I love you so much I wish you would kill me now." And that's the album's power, combining deep inner relevancy with high art.

Oh, and seeing the show helped drive it in. I hadn't heard the whole album when I saw Manson live in Phoenix, but these songs fit right in with his classics. If you're on the fence due to Golden Age of the Grotesque, I say dive off and snatch this album up. You won't regret, I promise!

Marilyn Manson is the 21st Century's prime avatar of Decadence with a capital "D," by which I mean not the sort of white trash/dirty diapers scenario popularized by the tabloid press, but rather direct descent from 19th Century literary Bohemia. He's certainly the most literate rock star around; I can think of few rockers capable of writing, for example, the title song on "Eat Me, Drink Me," which brilliantly juxtaposes references to Nabokov and Carroll--"It's just a game," indeed. And he keeps getting better at that game, capable of tightly-constructed gems like "Heart-Shaped Glasses," with its almost unbearably catchy chorus and summoning of Young Americans-era Bowie, while maintaining his stance as the darkest Goth god ever in "If I Was Your Vampire." Manson's personal demons screech and gibber in the background--the disintegration of his marriage to cabaret postmodernist Dita van Teese, his relationship with starlet Evan Rachel Wood (to whom the album is dedicated)--but he fashions them into immaculately twisted sculpture for the delectation of listeners everywhere. That's talent, that's artistry, and that's why Manson will remain relevant as long as he feels like it. A gorgeous, shimmering piece of work and one of my favorite Manson albums thus far.

I have been a fan of MM since '98 and I have to say that this album is a real let down. Almost every single song has a long guitar solo at almost the exact place every time, and some songs even sound similar to another before it! Out of the entire album, only about two or three songs really stood out as ok, nothing really blew me away.

I'll give him points for his style change, which sounds like a record from the 70s, sadly however, most of the songs are just boring. I have liked all of his past records, Mechanical Animals is what made me a fan, but I just didn't care for "Eat Me, Drink Me" at all. Hopefully, the next CD will be better

I am as big a Marilyn Manson fan as any. I own all 10 major releases and even have some singles. I've listened to them for years and never get tired of them. I waited all year for this album to come out, but now that it's here am I disappointed? Yes, but did I enjoy it? Yes again.

I noticed he doesn't scream much on this album, he croones making every song mid tempo, which to me is not a problem. I'm sure years of screaming has hurt his voice a lot so he wants to get away from that. But what of the songs themselves? Do they hold up to Manson's past? I think not, this is pretty much no better than Golden Age of Grotesque.

One problem is the lyrics, which are about heartbreak and personal pain and so on. If an artist wants to be introspective, you can't just call him an emo. That doesn't make any sense, Manson is hard rock/metal/industrial and so on but not emo. However, these lyrics do seem adolescent to me, not to mention some of the song titles themselves such as "You and Me and the Devil Makes Three" and "They Said That Hell's Not Hot", I don't understand why he would name songs that way. It seems so juvenile to me.

Next, the production is far from impressive. If Manson and Tim Skold wanted to produce this and have Sean Beavan mix it, they should have at least added Sean onto the team as co-producer and engineer. Sean Beavan did that kind of work for every Manson album until Holywood, he would have been the right person for the job. Yet Manson trusted Tim Skold to do all that and truth be told, Tim Skold is a very mediocre musician and songwriter.

Tim Skold had the nerve to play every instrument and do all the programming, but guess what Tim? Your guitar playing couldn't hope to ever match John 5 who could play any of your solos while sleeping, you're not as good a bassist or songwriter as Twiggy, your programming isn't as good as Ginger actually playing drums, and you don't even try to fill the absent Pogo's shoes because there isn't all that much keyboard music on this album.

In addition, Manson talks about Tim Skold as "the guitar God Marilyn Manson always needed", calling these songs "The most guitar oriented songs we've ever written". This is a shameless lie on Manson's part, in fact Marilyn Manson haven't been half as guitar oriented since Daisy left the band. Think about it people, what are the most guitar dynamic Marilyn Manson songs. How about Cake and Sodomy, Dogma, Sweet Dreams, Irresponsible Hate Anthem, stuff like that right? That's what you call guitar based rock, Tim Skold doesn't have half of Daisy's guitar playing creativity, or at least he doesn't show it.

However, there are some songs that are genuine Marilyn Manson songs on here. If I was your Vampire, Putting holes in happiness, Red Carpet Grave, Evidence, Mutilation is the most sincere form of flattery, and Eat Me, Drink Me all sound like Marilyn Manson to me. The songs I haven't listed are below par and only are brought up not by Skold's lame music but by Manson himself h=with his melowdrama he uses so woderfully.

There will never be a Marilyn Manson song I hate, he doesn't know how to write a terrible song, but some of this stuff is just below his potential. Hopefully on his next album he'll try working with some new collaborators, like maybe Chris Vrenna who is now in the band. Pogo won't come back because of the lawsuit so those days are gone. Maybe the new bassist will have some ideas. But for God's sake Manson needs to get away from Tim Skold, I dislike everything about that guy.

At first listen I did not immediately like this album. I had to let it marinate before I could decide on an long-term impression. But the more I listen the more I like it. They say art imitates life; Manson has drawn a portrait of love-gone-wrong, broken-hearted despair, and longing for something else. I believe we all can relate to that on some level. This album is haunting.