Lest We Forget: The Best Of - Marilyn Manson [Audio CD]

Marilyn Manson - Lest We Forget - Cd Culled from the band?s ten year, six album career, Lest we Forget: The Best of Marilyn Manson features some of the greatest rock anthems of the last decade. Opening with "The Love Song" from Holy Wood, it proceeds to the first of a handful of cover songs which have made it as singles. The decadent, beefed up version of Depeche Mode?s "Personal Jesus" may not vary much from the original but the band do it the appropriate Goth justice; "Tainted Love" adds a menacing, industrial-glam to the electric northern soul of Soft Cell?s version; and the one that broke them into the UK mainstream, "Sweet Dreams" by the Eurythmics sounds as good as ever. So, they do a good cover but it?s really the fists in the air crowd-pleasing anthems that back up the band?s iconic imagery. The high-energy signature tune, "Beautiful People" and tracks like "Disposable Teens" or "The Fight Song" typify the band?s intelligent approach to rock?n?roll posturing. While many may have all the albums already, Lest We Forget is the perfect addition for anyone who likes the odd song but was too fearful to delve any further in the world of Marilyn Manson. -- Georgina Collins Review Pop trivia: what do Eurythmics, Soft Cell and Depeche Mode have in common? Well, aside from being 'New' and 'Romantic' back in the decade that taste forgot, they've all had a song covered by America's favourite scapegoat, Marilyn Manson. The latest in this line - a particularly 'A la Mode' version of "Personal Jesus" - launches Mazza's greatest hits album, Lest We Forget (The Best Of). Sadly, when they're collated on this album it becomes glaringly obvious that these cover versions have formed the backbone of Manson's career. Nonetheless, his take on "Sweet Dreams (are made of this)" is particularly effective. Nearly ten years old now, it sounds every inch as creepy as it did on 1995'sSmells Like Children. The secret, as with most of his work, is in the superb production. Early releases benefited from the expert guiding touch of Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails), of which "The Beautiful People" is still the most impressive. Since then, Manson has spent more time playing with knobs than guitars: besides co-producing, he is credited with penning the lyrics and little else. Fair enough, you might say. After all, it takes time to come up with genius one-liners like 'I'm not an artist, I'm a f***ing work of art' and 'I wasn't born with enough middle fingers'. When Marilyn (real name: Brian Warner) started out with his former band the Spooky Kids, they openly intended to 'explore the limits of censorship'. Mission most definitely accomplished, Brian. The special edition of Lest We Forget comes packaged with a rather generous DVD full of the kind of sordid video material for which Manson is notorious. It also bears an 18 certificate, thanks to the previously unseen video for "(s)Aint", which is lewd to say the very least. It's this kind of infamy which MM has thrived on in the past. The more unpopular Manson became in the US (for 'polluting young minds', allegedly), the more the UK rocked to angst-anthems like "The Nobodies", "The Fight Song" and "Disposable Teens". Lest We Forget oozes vitriol and spite (nowhere more so than the blistering opener "The Love Song"), but when the knob labelled 'shock-tactics' is already set to 10, one can't help but wonder where he'll go from here. --Richard Banks This link will take you off  in a new window