Marilyn Manson .:. Eat Me, Drink Me

Clues that Marilyn Manson has sold out (again):
- Currently dating someone younger (and possibly more depraved) than he is.
-There’s a picture of a heart (okay, a spooky one, but still—a heart?!) on the front of his new CD.
-Only eleven tracks—a restrained, toned-down number of tracks which we associate with Celine Dion, not the angel of chaos who brought us bazillion-song fiascos like Antichrist Superstar and Portrait of an American Family that just seemed to keep the fucked-uppetry coming.

On Eat Me, Drink Me however, Manson seems to be trying for a more sinister, cerebrally-dark (as opposed to, you know, slam-dancey-dark) worldview and corresponding sound. There’s still the metal guitar riffs, still the industrial tear-down-the-house drums, but Manson, no stranger to self-reinvention, seems to be pulling on layers instead of stripping them off. It can get cheesy and even sometimes sappy—what do you expect with an album that opens with the lyrics “6 A.M. Christmas morning/No shadows, no reflections here”?

Current collaborator Tim Skold (formerly of KMFDM) holds up the musical end, and Manson’s pop-inflicted choruses still give him that sense of fun that borders on self-parody. It’s a little more poetry-writing-15-year-old than suicidal-15-year-old. But, hey, it’s Manson in love. What do you expect?

Keyshia Cole .:. Just Like You

If you’ve heard “Let It Go,” the now-ubiquitous single featuring Missy Elliott, Li’l Kim, and that damn “Damn, that’s hot” chorus, feel free to use that song as the review for this CD.

If you’re one of the five people who haven’t, OK, pull up a chair, grab a cup of joe…are you with me? Cool. Keyshia Cole is one of the most powerful voices in contemporary hip hop/r&b/“urban” music, which is another way of saying black people who sing and aren’t Peabo Bryson. This record is kind of the opposite of a gangsta album—it’s more a gangsta widow album. “Let It Go” is a song that’s addressed to another woman, letting her know that her man’s been coming on to Keyshia, and he isn’t lovin’ her right...and she needs to get rid of him.

These are super-cheesy songs that tear straight to the heart of relationships. Songs that call people out on things that people do, and don’t hold back. “Didn’t I Tell You” retreads the thematic backdrop of “Let It Go,” and “Fallin’ Out” is, well, exactly what you think. The brilliant Anthony Hamilton shines on “Losing You,” and Diddy even shows up for good measure. At this point, his appearance does just as much for his image as it does for Keyshia’s, maybe even more. As she lets us know straight from “Let It Go”: she don’t need nobody.