Marilyn Manson - Heart Shaped Glasses (Interscope)
UK release date: 28 May 2007
Back once again, and sporting what feels like his thousandth new guise, which have actually all been the same, the Dark Lord of nu-metal returns with the vaguely Biblical-sounding album Eat Me, Drink Me, but which is in fact a reference to Alice In Wonderland.
The single to promote this forthcoming release is, I suppose Marilyn would wish us to believe, more musically accomplished than he has ever been. But this is in fact the problem with Heart-Shaped Glasses. Manson has always worked through tribal beats, brainless guitar riffs and screaming vocal, and this release has none of that. It actually sounds like a song, and this was never the artist's forté.
Instrumental work here is melodic and catchy, but that completely doesn't suit the vocal, which makes the track something of a mish-mash. Ultimately, if Manson is not burning crosses and prowling the stage in a g-string, he really does not serve much purpose at all.