Music Banter - View Single Post - Anteater Presents: An Essential Guide To Modern Prog.

Anteater · 10-15-2009, 08:24 PM

9.

Mansun – Six (1998)

1. Six (8:07)
2. Negative (4:21)
3. Shotgun (6:38)
4. Inverse Midas (1:44)
5. Anti Everything (2:25)
6. Fall Out (3:47)
7. Serotonin (2:33)
8. Cancer (9:31)
9. Witness To A Murder (Part Two) (3:06)
10. Television (8:21)
11. Special / Blown It (Delete As Appropriate) (5:32)
12. Legacy (6:33)
13. Being A Girl (7:59)

Once upon a time in the U.K., when the Blur – Oasis war was in its death throes and the release of Radiohead’s OK Computer was the biggest thing since sliced potatoes, a relatively successful but little known British alternative/Brit-pop act named Mansun released their sophomore album with blood in their hearts and bolts of creative lightning sizzling in their brains….but the world didn’t change at all. Pretty odd really, especially considering the fact that they had hit number 1 on the charts before with 1997’s Attack of the Grey Lantern. But, then again, nobody said that progressive rock had to be popular in order to kick ass right?

Simply put, Mansun's sophomore album Six was the sort of album that could have, possibly single-handedly even, revived progressive rock in the mainstream half a decade before groups such as The Mars Volta or Coheed and Cambria started selling out stadiums. It’s got the chops, the uncommercial song structures, the killer distortion, the electronic influences, the brilliant as hell production values...all the qualities that are necessary if you want a chance in hell in attempting to make a style like progressive rock work in a modern musical environment. Furthermore, this was the sound of a band, who could have easily done a pedestrian chart-smasher follow up to their debut without too much effort, trying to reach out and evolve themselves in a drastic way most groups never have the balls to attempt.

Within a minute or so of listening through the opening title track, you know this is going to be a weird trip, and it’s an attractive example of Mansun’s focused yet deliciously fragmented approach to songwriting. The mini-epic jumps between contrasting mood and tempo over the course of its 8 minute run with little rhyme or reason, shifting often but never treading obnoxious waters in the process.

Still, Six isn’t all insanity and pretentiousness. Tracks such as ‘Negative’ and ‘Serotonin’ are refreshingly catchy and straightforward in all the right places, single-length escapades that cut their hooks as close to the bone as you can go, while instrumental break ‘Witness To A Murder’ brings in opera of all things for extra album flavor. The overall result is an album that possesses a rock solid balance between the crazy experimental 6-8 minute suites and the shorter 2-4 minute songs that could be played on radio, and this is something a lot of progressive rock bands in both the past and present seem to fall all over themselves about.

For fans of The Mars Volta, Pink Floyd, punk music, Radiohead, etc, this is a work you will end up loving unconditionally. I also highly recommend it to anyone who is curious at hearing a cult classic that is far, far more than the sum of its eclectic parts.