Mechanical Animals

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.

If you put most of the pages in the booklet under light, you can see hidden messages in yellow text.

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