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Music Compilations Legacy: The Best of Mansun (Parlophone) 
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| Legacy: The Best of Mansun (Parlophone) |
| By Daniel Brigham | |
Monday, 18 September 2006 Description: “The average Mansun song lyric may have appeared as nonsense to the average listener. But I hid the true meanings deep inside”, writes Mansun’s songwriter Paul Draper. Which pretty much sums up why the British music press never really took to Mansun’s challenging, maudlin Indie in the late 1990s. It just wasn’t bland and happy enough. That’s not to say Mansun didn’t have far too many pompous or, more often than not, just plain weird moments. Which means? Despite nine top 20 hits over four years – including 'Wide Open Space' – one of the era’s most anthemic songs – Mansun were never really everyone’s cup of tea. They were sustained by a loyal following who indulged themselves in a band that preferred to go against current trends. Full marks for invention, no marks for stubbornness. Their early recordings, before they released their first LP Attack of the Grey Lanterns in 1996, suggested here was an indie rock band to rival the creativity of Blur. Then the experimenting took over. Draper should have learnt that less is so often more. Is it much cop? As a reminder of how good they could have been, yes. They really did produce a lot of smeg though, and thankfully most of this is culled from the 17 tracks. How many good tracks? 11 – 'Stripper Vicar', 'Egg Shaped Fred', 'I Can Only Disappoint You', 'Six', 'Wide Open Space', 'Being a Girl' match up to anything from the second half of the 90s, which, if we’re honest, isn’t all that much to brag about. And the worst? 'Taxloss', the final release from Attack of the Grey Lanterns. Fantastic live as a simple rock song, completely lacking cohesion on record. Biggest disappointment? Not enough early stuff. Specifically 'Drastic Sturgeon', one of the finest b-sides of the last 15 years. Verdict: Legacy is a good reminder of how ponderous the music scene was in the late 90s. Anything as creative as Mansun (even if they did go over the top) was shot down all too quickly. Because of this, they are forever to be remembered as ‘oh, the band who did that Wide Open Space song’. They deserve more. (3½/5) |
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