Shaun de Waal
MARILYN MANSON: Antichrist Superstar (BMG)
MARILYN MANSON has been called the Alice=20 Cooper of the Nineties, and he and his band=20 certainly have the appropriate schlock- horror look and act. The SABC has even=20 bestowed additional credibility on them by=20 refusing to show their latest video. The=20 music, partly produced by Nine Inch Nails’=20 Trent Reznor, is industrial, sludgy and=20 driving, kicking off with the amusing=20 Irresponsible Hate Anthem (“Let’s just kill=20 everyone and let your God sort them out” is=20 its Dominican conclusion) and spiralling=20 through three “cycles” of songs with titles=20 like Deformography, Wormboy and Angel with=20 the Scabbed Wings. Manson’s vision is dark=20 and compelling; you’ve got to admire=20 someone who declares, “I am the faggot=20 anti-Pope.”
BUSH: Razorblade Suitcase (BMG)
BUSH leader Gavin Rossdale has taken much=20 flak in the United States for being=20 unreasonably good-looking, for being=20 British, and for making a very accessible=20 kind of dirty guitar-pop that has been=20 sneeringly labelled bubble-grunge. Be that=20 as it may, the evidence on Razorblade=20 Suitcase (their second album; the first=20 sold millions) is of a band oozing=20 confidence and turning out one sharp little=20 rocker after another. Perhaps they just=20 aren’t self-consciously angst-ridden enough=20 for the hard core.
VARIOUS: Beavis and Butt-head Do America=20 (BMG)
THE US’s favourite cartoon cretins are now=20 the “stars” of a full-length feature movie.=20 The soundtrack includes a little rap (LL=20 Cool J, Madd Head) and some blurred funk=20 from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, but most of=20 it is heavyish rock ranging from the oldies=20 like Ozzy Osbourne and AC/DC to the newer=20 Butthole Surfers and White Zombie. And just=20 to finish it (and us) off, there’s=20 Engelbert Humperdinck singing the absurd=20 and bizarre Lesbian Seagull – “Caw, caw=20 caw.” Snigger!=20
MAZZY STAR: Among My Swan (Capitol)
DAVE ROBACK and Hope Sandoval are Mazzy=20 Star: he makes the lazy swamp-folk sounds,=20 she drapes a languid voice (and occasional=20 harmonica) over them. This is not an album=20 to get a roomful of party guests up on=20 their feet and dancing – if anything,=20 they’re likely to drift off to sleep. But=20 that’s not to say Mazzy Star are boring -=20 they’re just exceptionally laid back. Their=20 dreamy songs are often gorgeous, with half- submerged hooks and achingly pretty twists.=20 Among My Swan could have done with one or=20 two slightly livelier numbers, just to vary=20 the pace, but the overall effect is=20 nonetheless lovely, like drifting downriver=20 in a sensual daze.
URBAN CREEP: Tightroper (Tic Tic Bang)
THE Creeps’ second album perhaps lacks the=20 exuberance of their first, but what it=20 loses in joie de vivre it gains in depth=20 and resonance. Chris Letcher’s songwriting=20 is stronger than ever, and the band’s sound=20 is utterly distinctive, thanks in part to=20 Brendan Jury doing the John Cale thing with=20 his fiddle. Movingly, the closer is a cover=20 of James Phil-lips’s mid-Eighties howl of=20 despair, Shot Down. But the Creeps add a=20 bit from the later Moses, contrasting the=20 anger and harsh self-scrutiny (“I’m just a=20 white boy …”) with a yearning for=20 transcendence that encompasses the best of=20 what they can and will doubtless do.