Composition
Unlike Marilyn Manson's previous work, Antichrist Superstar, Mechanical Animals is, on an aesthetic level, far less dark. In both image and music, Mechanical Animals is inspired by 1970s style, Bowie-esque glam rock (Manson has often cited David Bowie as his biggest influence). The album also borrows heavily from Bowie's 1974 concept album Diamond Dogs. Most songs contain lighter melodies, however, this 'lightness' does not necessarily extend to the lyrics. The music is also far more complicated than most of his work.
The song "Great Big White World" raised concerns, among some groups, of possibly being a racially-motivated reference until Manson himself cleared up the rumors by stating that it was about cocaine.
Rolling Stone described Manson's crooning on the title track, "Mechanical Animals", as evocative of "the sultry vibe of T. Rex's Marc Bolan".
"I Don't Like the Drugs (But the Drugs Like Me)" features guitar work by Dave Navarro.
Read more about this topic: Mechanical Animals
Famous quotes containing the word composition:
“If I don’t write to empty my mind, I go mad. As to that regular, uninterrupted love of writing ... I do not understand it. I feel it as a torture, which I must get rid of, but never as a pleasure. On the contrary, I think composition a great pain.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
“It is my PRIDE, my damn’d, native, unconquerable Pride, that plunges me into Distraction. You must know that 19-20th of my Composition is Pride. I must either live a Slave, a Servant; to have no Will of my own, no Sentiments of my own which I may freely declare as such;Mor DIE—perplexing alternative!”
—Thomas Chatterton (1752–1770)
“I live in the angle of a leaden wall, into whose composition was poured a little alloy of bell-metal. Often, in the repose of my mid-day, there reaches my ears a confused tintinnabulum from without. It is the noise of my contemporaries.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)