The Top Ten Songs by Marilyn Manson

Marilyn Manson emerged into the mainstream rock scene with a bundle of songs about anger and violence, religion and intolerance, and sex and drugs. A hero to many of his fans who praise him for his unflinching, negative views on organized religion, society, and the state of America, and an antihero to advocates for morality, Marilyn Manson combines good synth and techno electronics with stylized rock and gritty, unassuming vocals. Manson has been a cold smack in the face in an otherwise tired genre of music, and he knows how to market himself successfully, using both good and bad publicity to get himself positioned firmly in the eyes and ears of his market.

The music of Marilyn Manson has matured over the years, starting with wild, sometimes campy rock, progressing toward an angrier metal-tinged attitude, then mellowing slightly in tune, though not in tone, but rather assaulting our senses with brash concept albums focused on personal emotion and dark tirades against the world, coupled with pop-glam tunes that emerge as playful melodies amidst the harsher undertones.

Those who may not have heard much of Marilyn Manson are still no doubt familiar with the song The Beautiful People, which received extensive airplay and video play, and helped Marilyn Manson extend his musical grip over the world. The Beautiful People, off the Antichrist Superstar album, is number one on the list of top ten songs by Marilyn Manson. Instantly catchy and powered by grit and intensity, the rhythm propels the listener forward into recklessness as the song progresses. Though it now tends to be quite overplayed, it hasn’t lost its feel, and still makes you sing along with clenched teeth.

From the same album comes the song Tourniquet. Perhaps falling more or less into rock ballad territory, Tourniquet wraps a hard binding around your own limbs and holds you fast, forcing you to appreciate the brutal honesty of a codependent relationship, and the shadowy layers of our minds that make us harm ourselves emotionally.

Long before he would be blamed for influencing two kids to commit horrible crimes in Columbine (such blame was unfounded) he wrote a song about schoolyard violence that was ultimately prophetic. Lunchbox, from the Portrait of an American Family album, approached a subject that much of society chose to ignore until that fateful day in Columbine.

The Dope Show, which also received extensive airplay for its quality as a single, is perhaps Marilyn Manson’s fourth best song, at least in terms of popularity. The pop rock melody and catchy chorus overshadows the message here and Manson’s view on current society.

The Dope Show can be found on the album Mechanical Albums, which left behind much of the vocal intensity and heavier rock anthems many fans came to love on Antichrist Superstar. While I myself prefer much of the music on Antichrist Superstar, I feel that when compiling a list of the top ten songs of Marilyn Manson, you have to consider the emotional quality, the messaging of the song, and the musical tone, as well as crowd appeal.

For this reason I have to bypass many of the great songs on Antichrist Superstar and continue to round out the list with a few more songs from Mechanical Animals, an album on which many songs shine as stand alone singles despite the overall concept.

The fifth song I have chosen as his best is The Speed of Pain. Sometimes compared to the sound and style of Pink Floyd, this light tune hides dark undertones of sadness and decay.

The sixth song on the top ten list is the Last Day on Earth, another somber tune with subtle hints of uplifting melodies and electronic injections of soul-searching.

Moving ahead to another album, The Golden Age of the Grotesque, the album as a whole pales by comparison to Manson’s earlier works, save for the track This is the New Shit, which, on its own, heralds a return to heavier, angrier stuff, the music that Manson does best. While the song is easily number seven on the top ten list, it is a shame that the rest of the album does not follow suit.

The album Holywood saw a strange mixture of heavy rock, unwholesome ballads, experimental tracks and some songs that likely could have used more work. For the number eight spot on the list of top ten songs by Marilyn Manson, I declare a tie between Disposable Teens and The Nobodies, both which detail the horrors of youth and the pressures involved, and how easy it is for children to become ultimately misguided, lost and defeated by a world they have yet to fully understand.

My number nine and ten spots are occupied by two soulful, heart-wrenching tunes that leave you feeling empty and cold when their mournful melodies wind down to anticlimactic endings. The Minute of Decay, and Man That You Fear showcase Manson’s singing voice and display his lyrical talents, but putting respect for his talent aside, the raw unabashed emotions that pour through on these two tracks can leave your soul weeping long after you have listened.