Thank god for a good Grinch. Arriving on the 61st anniversary of JFK's assassination, just in time to spoil all the holidays (if they weren't ruined already), comes the resurrection of Marilyn Manson, sounding his best and primed to piss all over everything.
The festivities begin with multiresonant cover artwork by Manson himself. With its elongated head, halo/crown of thorns and defiant glare, the semi-self-portrait incorporates elements of a grey alien, the crucified Jesus (cf. Manson's "Holy Wood") and the famous Trump mug shot.
In view of the many arrows long pointed his way by religious censors and zealous defenders of children and women, Manson has reason to paint himself thus as the persecuted outsider, here rebutting: "You're the one who needs to be saved"; "You're the only one who should be ashamed"; "How much worse than me can you be?"
At the same time, Manson must realize he has drawn a bullseye on his own chest with his unrelenting pokes in the eyes of Authority and deliberate public exposure of his unconventional relationships with women. So as much as "Assassination Pt. 1" seethes with recrimination, it often leavens the bile with moments of beauty. The album begins and ends that way: with the simple keyboard/guitar line introducing the title track, a somber poem of despair over the 1963 shooting of John F. Kennedy; and with the gentle acoustic guitars of "Sacrifice of the Mass," the final self-elegy imagining Manson's own funeral (Robin Trower-worthy guitar solo, too).
The other seven songs, co-produced and played once again by Tyler Bates, rock with clean craft and Manson's most versatile, subtle singing. Though the first single, "As Sick As the Secrets Within," is maybe the densest and most dynamic, you won't be skipping the rest.
Flashbacks? Sure, as always. "No Funeral Without Applause" revisits "Sweet Dreams"; the obligatory "Beautiful People" redux is "Sacrilegious." But for mood and sepulchral muttering, you could hardly do better than "Death Is Not a Costume": "You've got cracks in your magic, blood on your hands," Manson tells Jesus. "I wish I knew you when you were alive." Play it through, rock it again and again. And wait for "Chapter 2." "Assassination" not "Mechanical Animals" or "Heaven Upside Down." Just more great Manson.
To the insistent beat of "Meet Me in Purgatory," Manson asks if you'll stand in the way when they come to murder him. Hubris? Of course. Paranoia? No, look around, it's a fair question. His career was damaged, but he says he's back, and he's right. Strangely, his value has increased. As a target.