Well, Smells Like Children -- mutated from the original concept of a simple "Dope Hat" single into what's practically a mini-album -- is a Manson's Sampler. Lots of different goodies on hand, some more enticing than others but all of them probably bad for you. The fifteen tracks range from remixes of familiar material and some of the band's best-loved cover versions (Screamin' Jay Hawkins' "I Put A Spell On You," Patti Smith's "Rock'n'Roll Nigger," and the Eurythmics' "Sweet Dreams") to thoroughly bent new originals, audio samples from the band's Phil Donahue appearance, and -- strangest of all -- an extended conversation between someone's mother and grandmother on the importance of Grandma's taking her blood-pressure medication. (Honest, cross my heart.) If you've got a timid friend who hasn't checked MM out yet, this just might be a good place to start -- it's a pretty decent overview of what they're about.
Production is smoother and more direct than on Portrait of An American Family -- tough, clean, and straightforward without the familiar layers of samples and effects. Some of the remixes are damn fine, notably the slow, creepy "Diary of a Dope Fiend" and the hypnotic but high-energy "Everlasting Cocksucker" with its slick & shiny rollercoastering guitar (anyone you know who creams over hearing the Rev hiss "I am the God of Fuck" will die for this one).
But it's the cover versions that really shine. "Sweet Dreams" pulls the bitter heart of this dark-synthpop classic wide open, and "I Put A Spell On You" is a completely psychotic reading that does ol' Screamin' Jay proud. Some fans have griped that no MM song should ever include the line "I love you," but they're just not paying attention if they think this is romantic: Manson whispers and raves and shrieks the phrase like a man about to slit your throat in adoring murderous jealousy. (Man, he'd make one hell of a scary stalker.) "Rock'n'Roll Nigger," though, is the jewel of the lot, a high-powered, raw-throated, all-out blast. The front row at their gigs goes wild when this one comes up as an encore, and it should. (Little inside joke: In the last verse, the name "Jackson Pollock" from Smith's original lyric has been replaced by "Brian Warner.")
The originals are less satisfying, a widely mixed bag of brief snippets, largely collaged from distorted audio samples and instrumental work ("The Hands of Small Children," "Shitty Chicken Gang Bang"). The Twiggy Ramirez original, "Scabs, Guns and Peanut Butter," is an odd one -- Twig singing and playing acoustic guitar, reversed and electronically warped into near-Chipmunk babbling (I'm told it sounds a lot better slowed down). The Donahue show samples are amusing at first but soon wear thin -- though you have to love that fellow who protests that anything can happen once you get the music in your soul. And we'll pass over the chat about Granny's medication, which the Mansons seem to find endlessly funny (it's also worked into the background of "Revelation #9") but which the rest of us can probably do without. The most memorable of the new pieces are "White Trash," a funny acoustic country-western rewrite of "Cake and Sodomy" performed by notorious redneck bus driver and teenage-girl addict Tony Wiggins, and the indescribable hidden-microphone sex gasp "Fuck Frankie," a recent favorite among gig crowds.
Percentages: I'd say 75% wonderful to 25% disposable. (Well, hey, even a Whitman's Sampler has too many of those nougat thingies in it.) Give it to someone for Christmas -- or Kwanzaa or Solstice or Chanukkah -- if they need just a little help to become really interesting; its head-bending potential is considerable. And that cover photo of Mr. Manson in all his grotesque child-coaxing beauty is perfection itself. Hallelujah!
Paula O'Keefe (angelynx@prime.planetcom.com) lives in Maryland. She is the author and editor of Shadowramma, a fan-produced viewer's guide and sourcebook for Mystery Science Theater 3000.