Mechanical Animals

Template:Album infobox Mechanical Animals was the third full-length album released by Marilyn Manson. Unlike his previous work, Antichrist Superstar, this album is, on an aesthetic level, far less dark. In both image and music, Mechanical Animals is inspired by 1970s style, Bowie-esque Glam Rock.

There is severe division amongst Manson fans over whether his best album is either this, or Antichrist Superstar. Typically, this division does seem to exist upon gender lines, with males generally preferring Antichrist Superstar and females preferring Mechanical Animals. This is not true in all cases, however. A third, smaller, group prefers the more recent Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death) or The Golden Age of Grotesque albums.

Musically, many songs are much more catchy than those on Antichrist Superstar and they are far less sonically abrasive. The music is far more complicated than most of his previous work.

In the album, Manson takes on two roles, being a substance addicted Glam Rocker and a gender-bending Alien. The lyrical themes in the album revolve around the evils of conformism.

When released on vinyl, the record was split into two separately sleeved albums on opaque white and transparent blue colored vinyl; one by Marilyn Manson, and the latter by Omega and the Mechanical Animals. The Manson album dealt with songs of love and alienation, while the Mechanical Animals disc contained anthems of sex and drug use.

When viewed through the original blue CD packaging or the transparent blue LP, one can read hidden messages in yellow text, which becomes green (such as "www.comawhite.com" and "now children it's time for recess, please roll up your sleeves"). Regarding the many other purported hidden meanings contained in this epic album (and there are many, many hidden things, supposedly), is the influence and presence of the number 15. One blatant example is the band's new logo on the controversial album cover, it reads "Mar1lyn Man5on" with a figure 1 for the 'i' in Marilyn and a figure 5 for the letter 's' in Manson.

The controversial album cover has won numerous, critically-acclaimed, and less prestigious awards alike. The (in)famous photo is the brainchild of long-time Manson photographer, Joseph Cultice, of New York City. Contrary to popular internet rumours, the band leader, Manson, did not undergo any plastic surgery for this androgynous, alien look. The breasts are prosthetic, manufactured specially by George Lucas' Industrial Light and Magic. Manson is in reality, naked, and covered head to toe in latex paint, provided by the same movie make-up company. His genitalia is covered by a thin cup of plastic to create the androgynous appearance of the alien figure he calls Omega.

Arguably, this album's most successful song is "The Dope Show", which fared extremely well on both video and single charts in the United States and abroad. "The Dope Show" was written by Manson (words) and Twiggy Ramirez (music). The video for said song debuted the band's controversial new, androgynous glam rock image to the world. It is inspired by Jodorowsky's "The Holy Mountain", a controversial art film banned from distribution in the United States.

This album features a hidden, fifteenth track, playable only on a computer; it is untitled and experimental, further playing on the album's theme of the character Omega and conformity.

When released on September 15, 1998, the album was immediately boycotted by the Wal-Mart corporation, citing "obscenity" in the album's cover artwork. To combat this, nothing records issued another edition, featuring the album's title superimposed over Manson's "breasts". Wal-Mart still refused to sell the album, and consequently pulled all previous albums by Manson in light of the Columbine tragedy on April 20, 1999 (after the release of Mechanical Animals, and after the cover controversy). To this day, Wal-Mart's corporate website states that Manson's work, among the work of other artists, will not be sold in their stores, but 2003 saw the mass sale of Manson's fifth LP, "The Golden Age of Grotesque" in nearly all Wal-Marts; representatives claim they chose to sell this latest album by the "shock-rocker" because it was to be "commercially viable" and was "on the Top Ten charts".

The album also features an alternate, less "obscene" cover which is contained on the reverse side of the album liner notes. It is coincidentally, the cover for an album of the same name from the fictitious band "Omega and the Mechanical Animals", which Manson's character supposedly belongs to on this album. The photo featured on this alternate cover art is a prime example of dissimulation, or the psycho-artistic method of distributing knowledge or ideas in plain view, but in a way that only certain members of the mass public can comprehend, often with multiple meanings present; one meaning for the select few who understand, and another meaning for the masses.

Track listing

1. "Great Big White World" - 5:01
2. "The Dope Show" (Manson, Ramirez) - 3:46
3. "Mechanical Animals" (Manson, Ramirez) - 4:33
4. "Rock Is Dead" - 3:09
5. "Disassociative" - 4:50
6. "The Speed of Pain" - 5:30
7. "Posthuman" - 4:17
8. "I Want to Disappear" (Manson, Ramirez) - 2:56
9. "I Don't Like the Drugs (But the Drugs Like Me)" - 5:03
10. "New Model, No. 15" (Manson, Ramirez) - 3:40
11. "User Friendly" - 4:17
12. "Fundamentally Loathsome" (Gacy, Manson) - 4:49
13. "The Last Day on Earth" - 5:01
14. "Coma White" - 5:48

Personnel

• Marilyn Manson - Vocals, Producer, Vocoder, Photography
• Tom Lord-Alge - Mixing
• Michael Beinhorn - Producer
• Rob Brill - Assistant Engineer
• Alexandra Brown - Vocals (bckgr)
• Lynn Davis - Vocals (bckgr)
• Nikki Harris - Vocals (bckgr)
• Ted Jensen - Mastering
• Danny Saber - Keyboards
• John West - Vocals (bckgr)
• Madonna Wayne Gacy - Piano, Drums, Keyboards, Drums (Electric), Sampling, Mellotron, Shaker
• Twiggy Ramirez - Guitar (Acoustic), Bass, Guitar, Bass (Electric), Guitar (Rhythm), Noise
• Sean Beavan - Programming, Producer, Engineer, Editing
• Joseph Cultice - Photography
• Ginger Fish - Drums, Vocals, Vocoder
• M.W. Gacy - Synthesizer, Keyboards
• Zim Zum - Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar, Guitar (Rhythm), Keyboards, Guitar (Synthesizer), Beinhorn
• Devra Kinery - Make-Up
• Barry Goldberg - Engineer
• Angela Garcia - Make-Up
• Kobi Tai - Vocals (bckgr)
• Alex Dizon - Hair Stylist
• John5 - Guitar
• Billy Corgan - Consultant