It was only today that my mum (the cool mum that she is) heard a Marilyn Manson song on a new car advert and said “God he’s gone quiet lately”, and when she says that she means that she hasn’t heard anything from him since I bought his Golden Age of Grotesque album. That album was his downfall in my opinion, after all, when you strip away the dressing like a woman, setting crosses alight, dating young models, sacking most of your band and generally being an Alice Cooper rip-off what do you have? Well, in the case of everything pre-Golden Age of Grotesque, you have some good songs with memorable lyrics, but everything after is just (luckily for Manson really) forgettable.
No reflection, Manson’s record store day single, is a release from his forthcoming album Born Villain that has seen Manson finally reunited with Twiggy Ramirez (or real name Jeordie White as he become known when he started playing with A Perfect Circle and Nine Inch Nails amongst others).
So cutting to the chase, is the song any bloody good? Well, yes and no. There are some typically Manson sections that make for good listening with Manson’s croaky vocals the forefront as always with a dark distorted bass tone that has always epitomised Manson’s sound regardless of album, and this track at least sees a return to a more ballsier sound. The problem is that this, like much of Manson’s recent material, isn’t particularly memorable. Manson of the past would have hooked you in with a great chorus, either lyrically or musically, but No Reflection doesn’t really do either, nor does it make you want to get up to your feet and chant like Manson of the past would have done and by the end of No Reflection you do find yourself wondering ‘is that it?’.
There is a chance, that as a previously huge Marilyn Manson fan as a teenager, I am perhaps judging this single too harshly with my mind firmly focused on the memories of the past I had with his previous releases but really with Manson’s shock value gone, and his ability to pen a memorable lyric laying somewhat dormant, there is a chance that this song could be part of an album that sees Manson becoming a humorous parody of himself.
[Rating: 2]
