Author’s Note: This is what I originally wrote for my #5 worst list entry on “We Are Chaos” by Marilyn Manson in December 2020 and January 2021, before the charges against him were revealed. While the entry had to be rewritten to reflect how our attitudes towards Manson have changed since, I still stand by the criticism of the song itself.

As I mentioned in the previous entry, there’s always a band or artist charting at a time when most have left them for dead.  In the 90s, when glam rock and hair metal got weeded out for the rise of alternative rock, Def Leppard scored a hit with “When Love And Hate Collide,” while Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden and Richie Sambora of Bon Jovi launched solo careers with some success on mainstream rock charts throughout the world.  On a similar vein, when I saw this artist had a charting success this year, I was just baffled.  I didn’t start learning about his music until after his window of relevance had vanished, and seeing that over ten years later he was still having chart success in the rock world left me confused.  Then I heard it, and my bafflement turned into anger.  

“We Are Chaos” – Marilyn Manson

Mainstream Rock
#8 peak, #44 year-end

I was once a fan of this guy and band, for a really short time, as a teenager.  You know the story: you hear about a band, learn how their music or image is shocking, and as soon as you become old enough, you have to get your hands on this music.  And truth be told, I still enjoy some of Marilyn Manson’s songs, specifically his smash hit “The Beautiful People” and his album closer “Coma White.”  But it doesn’t take a genius to know that Marilyn Manson had a short window of relevance, with his peak being the late 1990s and him becoming passé by 2003, when his album The Golden Age Of Grotesque failed to match his previous three in sales or relevance.  Since then, the only attention Manson has been worth has been seeing his deranged song titles, which have included “Arma-Goddamn-Motherf**kin-Geddon,” “I Want to Kill You Like They Do In the Movies,” and “Murderers Are Getting Prettier Every Day.”  Good times.

This year, Manson came back with his new album We Are Chaos, with his backing band consisting of entirely new members.  Unlike his previous songs, which sound like they were written by a delusional recluse whose only goal in life is to make people angry, Manson legitimately sounds this time like he is trying to become a more mature performer.  Unlike the vicious power chords of “The Beautiful People” and the demented classic rock of “The Dope Show,” “We Are Chaos” is built around a natural acoustic guitar and electronic backtrack, with a melody that sounds greatly inspired by Ziggy Stardust’s acoustic work.  On first listen, this may sound promising.  But then we get to the chorus.  And there is no nice way to say it…

This chorus sounds so miserable.

We are sick
F**ked up and complicated
We are chaos
We can’t be cured

This chorus is played eight times in this four minute song.  Eight times, we have to hear “We are sick-k!  F**ked up and complicated!”  That’s nearly half the song.  And the song ends with an extra “We are sick.”  Maybe Manson had better intentions for writing the song than there are at face value, but hearing these self-loathing lyrics of how they can’t be cured is so depressing, especially when played this many times.  Adding to that, Manson’s vocals are mixed horribly.  This song and album were recorded remotely in different locations during the stay-at-home order, but you’d be hard-pressed to tell me that Manson recorded his vocals at home.  His vocals are so garbled and jumbled up with the inclusion of several backing tracks of Manson that it sounds like his vocals were recorded in a sewer.  It is embarrassing to listen to.

Some will ask how this song could make the Top 5 of this list solely because of this chorus.  Well, at least with the other songs I listed previously, I can at least listen to them and just feel baffled or, in other cases, amazed by their ineptitude.  But this chorus legitimately makes me miserable.  It is such a dour slog to sit through.  Initially when I was planning this list, I was considering this song lower on the list or as a dishonorable mention, but that chorus alone rocketed it up the list.  Fortunately for Manson, who simply failed with an experiment, next we have three artists making the same mistakes they made on previous songs.  Moving on.