siLLy puPPy SMELLS LIKE CHILDREN is the second release by shock rockers MARILYN MANSON. This is technically an EP but a sprawling one that clocks in at 54:43 and initially began as a simple idea to remix the single “Dope Hat” but due to the involvement of various outside sources and the band’s fertile mind’s the whole project evolved into this bloated behemoth of grab bag ideas, some of which are utterly brilliant and some that should have been jettisoned into the composting heap.

This EP was actually my first exposure to MARILYN MANSON when a friend of mine was obsessed with their cover of the Eurythmics’ “Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)” which quickly got my attention and admiration as this is one of the most brilliant covers i’ve ever heard with MANSON’s industrial doom take on the new wave 80s pop hit augmented with their own shock rock imagery 2.0 following in Alice Cooper’s footsteps. The track is a masterpiece for effortlessly adapting the upbeat pop song into a depressive motif that changes the synth pop into down tuned guitars, darkened bass echoes and MANSON’s ability to leap his screams from one octave to another. The video has actually been deemed one of the scariest ever to exist.

While this EP gets a bad rap i have to admit that i don’t find it all that horrible. Sure there is plenty of filler whether it be the overlong intro “The Hands of Small Children” which is a weird mix of strange sounds with voices of suffering children or the total wastes of time “F**k Frankie” and phone call footage “May Cause Discoloration of Urine And Feces” where all we get is a boring phone call of some dude who hasn’t taken his meds and is losing it, but there are plenty of interesting moments on here including the track “Sympathy For Parents” which leads into “Sweet Dreams” and the actual remixes themselves such as “Everlasting Cocksucker” which sounds like NIN meets White Zombie doing a remake of “Cake And Sodomy.” The remakes of Jay Hawkins’ “I Put A Spell On You” and Patti Smith’s “Rock N Roll Nigger” are also strong tracks with the latter ending the set perfectly to usher in the pinnacle of MANSON’s shock rock 90s era.

Too long? Definitely. This set is as messy as MANSON’s makeup. As dualistic as his multi-hued contact lens that offer the best the band has ever attempted as well as some of the worst. The name after all is derived from MARILYN Monroe and Charles MANSON symbolizing dualities. This is a strange little beast that came out when it did but it was the one that got them noticed and despite the presence of skippable material that may have seemed like a good idea at the time this one is still a must own for me simply because of the strongest tracks on board. A strange album that deserves a whopping 3 stars.

Warthur Smells Like Children was originally meant to be an EP of remixes of Dope Hat from Portrait of An American Family, but Manson and crew went a little over the top with it and before they knew it they had an album's worth of remixes and reinterpretations of songs from their debut album, plus a brace of intriguing cover versions and a few tracks of spooky quasi-ambient sound effects and disturbing conversations to pad things out a bit.

In fact, that's the first problem with the EP - there's 12 minutes (not counting the concluding hidden track) of what is rather boring filler padding the thing out. On top of that, not all of the fully developed songs are equally interesting; in particular, Diary of a Dope Fiend is an attempt at a doom metal reinterpretation of Dope Hat which stands as convincing proof that you can't just slow down a regular metal song and get an aesthetically interesting doomy track, whilst Kiddy Grinder gets repetitive even for a dance remix.

To be honest, this disc could have been much better if it had been kept to EP length. When I still bothered to keep any of it at all, I'd trimmed it down to the four best tracks: the band's admittedly excellent cover of Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) to lead off with, followed up by Everlasting Cocksucker and Dance of the Dope Hats, which are the two most successful remix/reinterpretations of old material and addictively danceable with it, and then rounding things out with the cover version of Rock 'n' Roll Nigger, which is a dirty industrial reworking of the song which is a neat segue between the band's early material and the approach they would take on Antichrist Superstar.

Those four songs are a hell of a lot of fun - the Sweet Dreams cover is an outright classic and was responsible for knocking the score of this thing up by a whole star - and an EP with just them on would have got a high rating, but in its current form the disc just has far too much filler to get a high score. As of 2021, I've taken away that bonus star for Sweet Dreams and no longer retain any part of the EP; regardless of whichever side of the Marilyn Manson abuse controversy you are (and I'm inclined to believe the accusers in this instance), the fact is that hearing Manson singing about abuse is too on the nose and will likely remain a bit too on the nose for the foreseeable future.

Negoba Prelude to an Explosion

Like many big acts, Marilyn Manson had been growing in groundswell for awhile before their explosion onto the scene with "The Beautiful People." This was the final release before that, a compilation of sorts which included a popular cover of "Sweet Dreams are Made of This." The band has not yet adopted their fully industrial sound, with highly distorted but often minimalist accompaniments to Manson's spastic croaky vocals.

There are plenty of shock rock throwaways here but also some trippy fun, like "Dance of the Dope Hats." Many are slow doomy bits like the cover of "I Put a Spell on You" and "Diary of a Dope Fiend." The live version of "Rock n' Roll Nigger" is actually an edgy take on the song, a good finish to the album before the break.

Bottom Line: A hit and a mixed bag of novelties.