Marilyn Manson: "Mechanical Animals" (Nothing/ Interscope) America's most shocking pop star has done such a good job of outraging decent people, we've all forgotten that he actually makes records too. The industrial metal of Antichrist Superstar was just background white noise to the rise of Marilyn Manson, but Mechanical Animals is an album of metallic anthems designed for radio play and eventual sitting-room infiltration. I Don't Like The Drugs (But The Drugs Like Me) is Primal Scream pumped with steroids, and the Bowie influences are apparent in songs like The Dope Show and The Speed Of Pain; Manson's linear songwriting style, combined with the titanium metal sheen, however, makes much of the album sound like Tin Machine. Kevin Courtney
John Hiatt: "Greatest Hits" (EMI) In another era John Hiatt would have been quite content to remain in the backrooms of pop creating gorgeous love songs such as Feels Like Rain, which has had at least two perfect readings, by Buddy Guy and Aron Neville, and Drive South, which was dynamite as recorded by Suzy Boguss. The same applies to many of his meticulously-crafted compositions, as recorded by artists like Bonnie Raitt and Linda Ronstat. However, Hiatt himself - even doing his tribute to Elvis, Riding With The King, or his hymn to Nirvana's bass guitarist Krist Novoselic, Perfectly Good Guitar, just can't cut it as a singer of anything other than pedestrian talents. That said, fans of similar tunesmiths like J.J Cale and Nick Lowe, probably love this guy and will, perhaps, crave the two new songs. Joe Jackson
Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark: "The OMD Singles" (Virgin) Time hasn't been kind to OMD's plinky synth-pop - even their greatest hit, Enola Gay, sounds as old and clattery as the WW2 nuclear bomb-dropping plane it was named after. Recent attempts to remix Enola Gay with a house beat won't win OMD any new young fans, and this compilation of tunes from 1980's Electricity to 1996's Walking On The Milky Way is equally unlikely to turn a new generation onto OMD's synthesised charms. Songs like Joan Of Arc, Souvenir and Maid Of Orleans, from 1981's Architecture & Morality, retain some vestiges of their original grandeur, but hits like Locomotion, Talking Loud And Clear and If You Leave are strictly for 1980's nostalgists. Kevin Courtney
