Review by Phil Rozier for MPM
Easter Friday’s. They’re always pretty bland for me personally. Granted, it’s a day off the day job, and being suitably unimaginative, I filled my day with the mundane and overdue. A morning gym workout, some house tidying and the inevitable avoidance of the Christian church gathering; I mowed the lawn. Back breaking, small mower, large garden discomfort was to plague my afternoon for a couple of hours.
Stream ‘In The Air Tonight’: https://mm.bfan.link/in-the-air-tonight
Being prepared to accept the day for what it was, I wasn’t expecting to prepare myself for what the day didn’t give notice to what it was going to be.
Earlier today, goth rock and perceived controversial icon Marilyn Manson dropped a new single on the world. I had heard the rumours of release through the socials, but, with the aggravating existing of ‘fake news’, you never know whether to waste your time with the possibility.
Manson, not a stranger to a cover song, has a wonderful talent of taking a song you couldn’t possibly think would suit the make up make over, fiendishly dark, and always macabre influence.
And yet, time and time again, it has worked. ‘Cry Little Sister’, ‘Tainted Love’, ‘Sweet Dreams’, ‘Personal Jesus’. In fact, the band has released 48 cover songs in their long standing career. Without fail, every time you hear one of the accomplished covers, by the time the song finishes, you assumed it was written by the man himself, and not previously recorded by an alternative artist.
You often hear cliche critiques with phrases from ‘they really made it their own’, to ‘it’s a clever spin on the original version’. Simply put, I always think ‘this version is awesome!’.
Today, marks the release of ‘In the Air Tonight’, famously written by Phil Collins, and dare I say it, made even more famous by a drum playing gorilla (check out Youtube if you have no idea what I’m talking about)
Really? Phil Collins ‘In the Air Tonight’? OK then, let’s crank it out and see what we hear.
Yea, there it is. The popping of the drums, and the introduction of the breathing. You know it’s Marilyn Manson’s work. As the individual notes are plucked, the darkness descends , and I almost want to say you are in a 1980’s John Carpenter horror movie. But you’re not. You are in a dimly lit concert hall, with dry ice whispering across the stage, plunged into darkness, with the vagueness of deep purple lighting piercing the vape filled air. It feels like this newly resurrected track, timely for Easter, is established and so ingrained into their intense live performances, that you never knew it wasn’t there previously.
Waiting for that moment, the gated reverb drum fill, come on then, how’s that going to work? Not overly dissimilar to the founding sound, and to be fair, you wouldn’t want to play with it too much. What I really like is the seamlessly attached screaming vocal that detracts from the famous drum descent, and you don’t really get time to wonder whether a classic has been downgraded.
I just get lost in the presence of the attitude, engrossed in the aggression, and find myself absolutely loving being right here, listening to this powerful take on what was already an influential wonder. ‘I’ve been waiting for this moment, all my life’ is whispered as the track fades to silence.
When I woke up this morning, I wasn’t expecting to be agreeing with a fading lyric of a Marilyn Manson cover of a Phil Collins masterpiece. I wish all Easter Friday’s could be like this.
Stream and purchase at https://mm.bfan.link/oaug-ch-1.
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