When Marilyn Manson first came out I pegged him as nothing more than an Alice Cooper wannabe, with Iggy Pop's lust for self mutilation, and Trent Reznor's need to computerize music. My thoughts at the time were that this guy was a joke, that was going to burn out before he even got started.I was kind of right, and yet very wrong.
Portrait of an American Family was the first major release from Marilyn Manson. Crude, brash, disjointed, experimental, non-sensical, and exploitive may be the best word to describe this creepy collection of youthful madness.
Portrait starts off with the band doing a mock-up of Gene Wilder's little song when they go through the tunnel in Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory. I hated that Manson was ruining something I held dear. Prelude (The Family Trip) is still a track I have no use for, but I'm a little more understanding of it.
Cake and Sodomy, I've only ever heard referred to as gross and disgusting. Sadly, I don't know if it's because of this song, or the fact that the American mentality has become so trashy, that this song was actually a predicition. Go check out the porn of today, compared with that of 1994.
When this album came out, hardcore pretty much was just sex, no story, maybe a little forceful for looks, and some light anal to finish. Now cake and sodomy is the bare minimum needed to make something hardcore pornography. What a sad statement to make, and this coming from a guy that freely admits to enjoying viewing classic story porn, as if it were a lost art.
Lunchbox, as well as the track before, make up half the songs I still happily listen to on my Mp3 player. The song is simple and fun to play musically, and everyone wants to get back at the bully.
I don't mind Organ Grinder. It's okay, but nothing really special. The same applies to Cyclops. I think of both tracks as more of album fillers. Good ones, that you don't mind listening to as the album plays out, but filler all the same.
Dope Hat was my first introdution to the visual world of Manson. The video picks up where Prelude left off. The song on the other hand doesn't take rocket science to figure out, but it is fantastic. There's something in that almost circussy sound, that bounces around the room on a vibe of science fiction keyboards, that captures the imagination in a carnival of illusions. This song could be considered Manson's White Rabbit, and is one of the four songs I mentioned earlier.
Get You Gunn was a single for the band. A single I had no use for. It's a good song, but I just nevery really cared for it, and I don't even have a good reason. I even own the single, which I picked up for the B-side.
Wrapped in Plastic, Dogma, and Sweet Tooth make up the next three songs. Much like the rest of the songs that I call fillers on this album, these ones are still cool to listen to. Even after 15 years and change, I still sing along with the three, but forget about them the second they are done. I still can't even put names to the songs when I hear them.
My favourite song on the album is Snake Eyes and Sissies. It is the only song on the album that I must have on my Mp3 player. This song get's me pumped like so few others. Sure, it's all about violent revenge and retribution, but clearly there's a lot of anger at dealing with life and those that make it so much worse than it needs to be. If a movie were made of my life, this would be the song playing in the scene where I finally snap and start taking people out.
Next up is My Monkey. It's such a fun, campy, ball of cheese, that I have never been able to take it seriously, and I respect that. I really hope it wasn't meant to be serious, because it's a great joke tune.
Misery Machine finishes off the album on a bit of a sad note. I don't care for the song. It's the only one on the album I flat out have no use for. This should have come before My Monkey, not after, but then the album would end on a joke, and that's not good either typically.
This album isn't the full industrial sound that later came with Antichrist Superstar, but it was the prototype that set the stage for it. You can hear Trent Reznor's influence and see his fingerprints all over the place, but the album still has a young punk kind of feel, with some well layered and arranged music. However, sometimes it sounds like some songs were over produced to make them sound more polished than they actually were. Which worked out well for songs I consider fillers.
Also this was the only "Proper" album that guitarist Daisy Berkowitz played on. He was also on the follow up to Portrait of an American Family, Smells like Children, which was the album that really broke the band due to one song only, but it was mainly a remix album, thus doesn't totally count in my humble opinion. But the habit of switching guitarists after one or two albums started with Daisy. Sadly, I never heard much from him after.
As far as first albums go, this one was good. Not great, but it set the stage for better things to come from Manson and band, at least until the end of the decade.
8/10 - content
7/10 - production
7/10 - personal bias
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