This weeks choice was made by Jarock87, it's straying away from hardcore and more to the 90's DID ANYONE SAY BRITPOP?!?!?!
The album this week is:
Mansun - Six
Since Mansun's debut album Attack of the Grey Lantern was some sort of convoluted song cycle, it shouldn't have been surprising that their second album, Six, felt like the second coming of prog rock. What was a surprise was the extent to which Mansun pushed the limits forward on the album. From the garish Marillion-styled artwork to the endlessly shifting, seguéd songs, Six fits into the grand tradition of prog rock, and it does tell some kind of a story, even if it's impossible to tell what that story may be. In fact, it's difficult to get into the music itself, even as it dazzles with its twists, turns, appropriations and recontextualizations. And, make no mistakes, Six is frequently dazzling, since Mansun skillfully melds classic prog and pop styles with contemporary ideas, including a healthy portion of electronica. It's a head-spinning listen, especially the first time through when it's impossible to tell where it's going or where it's going to end. That feeling doesn't quite let up on repeated listens, either, mainly because the record is so dense with impenetrable ideas -- ideas that are confounding even when you think you understand where Paul Draper is going with the entire thing. On one scale, that's an impressive achievement, but it's diminished somewhat when you take into account that Six isn't particularly rewarding once you get a handle on it. Since it never reveals its secrets, or even its clues, it's hard to embrace the record, even for all of its many attributes. Still, Six is clearly the work of ambitious, gifted musicians who aren't willing to stay still, which is reason enough to try to come to terms with it.
Source: Allmusic
So lets get a cracka lacking
Don't forget to check out the topic on Last.fm if you wan't to track peoples thoughts easier.
http://www.last.fm/group/DiS+Weekly+Album+Club/forum/100705/_/432861
The full album is streamable here:
Been wanting to start with this band
I'll start with "Six"
thanks
mansun are the best band
a little bit of wee came out
when I saw that choice.
:D - and I don't waste emoticons on any old crap.
Really that good?
because
A) I have never been reccomended this album before
B) Never heard of it
C) Never heard of Mansun
D) :D
you had me going there
mind games are fun for the whole family
I'm being serious
Honestly?
How have you never heard of Mansun?
Honest to God
You lucky dude
You're in for quite the voyage of discovery. Just don't ever sully the genius of Six by polluting yer lugs with Little Kix...
I am REALLLY enjoying it :D
it's good
Never heard of Mansun?
How old are you young man!
20 :(
ah yay!
Hope everyone enjoys listening to this! It's one of my favourite albums, some of its completely bizarre, some of its beautiful, most of its overblown..its just a mesh of ideas basically!
Not listened to Mansun, should be good.
Also, thank fuck for Last.fm man, bloody brilliant invention.
i like the part
where it breaks down to hand claps and the singing "i'm emotionally raped by jesus" which is followed by the sound of someone laughing. so knowing.
OOh looking forward to listening to this!
Have previously only heard 'Attack of the Grey Lantern' or whatever its called.
Legacy = best song EVER.
God I love this band.
my favourite song on Six
SEROTONIN
<3 Mansun
I might have to join in with this. Mansun were probably the most mental British band of the decade, this accurately reflected their fanbase too. I've never seen so many self-harmers in one place, at their signing appearance at Leeds '99. Six is a bloody brilliant record.
O do please join in :)
the more the merrier
yeh there was a major
crossover between the manics fanbase and the mansun one.
Barely Found Them A Week Ago
After getting lost in Six due to it's multiple dynamic changes, I decided Attack of the Grey Lantern would be an easier digest, I think I'll get back to Six latter, it's definitely more difficult than Kid A which I thought wasn't really wasn't all that difficult in the first place...but Six..
the only bad thing
about six is how influential it was on the mars volta. amazing album.
Yep i'm liking this
Always presumed Mansun were shite to be honest. But this is a very interesting piece of music. It sounds as if they were going through about a gram of coke a day through during recording.
Six doesnt work for me at all
I like their sound and was quite a fan of 'Attack of Grey Lantern' but this record is overly long and just goes absoultely no-where. Full of good ideas but they just havent got the songs to back it up. Shame as it could have been good! All gets boring quick quickly and found myself wanting to skip tracks very often to see if the next one goes anywhere.
what are you talking about?
because its "prog?" bullshit the mars volta is really genuine bonkers jazz/prog shit. mansun only went weird as a reaction to post ok computer indie. i love mansun but they were try hards...fakes
mars volta
fully admit that they were hugely influenced by Six.
its a shame they forgot to be as interesting.
Six remains in a deathlock with OK Computer
for the finest record of the 90s for me. The closest contenders besides those two are Spiritualized's 'Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space', The Flaming Lips' 'The Soft Bulletin, Massive Attack's 'Mezzanine', Manic Street Preacher's 'Holy Bible' and the even more underrated Strangelove's 'Time For the Rest of Your Life', to name a few.
Six just exemplifies to me what a bunch of musicians can accomplish when they disregard all the rules, ignore the money men and just go with what thrills them. And it thrilled me, too. That Parlophone essentially shat a brick about its willfull uncommerciality made it all the better considering the ammount of ground-breaking albums the label has pushed since the 60s - Six was the last gasp of a music industry where the music and musicians came first. Little Kix cemented the decline when the label execs pretty much turned the band into session musicians and neutered the record by comittee.
Kleptomania was a hell of a comeback, but left on the shelf for too long.
But Six really is a Legacy.
^
Definitely.
I feel like now everything is kind of hyperkinetic. But at the time, this and OK Computer were so fragmentedly beautiful.
I'm all nostalgic now.
Wait:
I thought Mansun were the band that did that annoying 'Mmm-bop' song. Didn't they?
That was Hanson
:D
I'm not joking.
I appear to have been conflating the two bands in my head all this time... There goes what little is left of my indie cred.
No shame in that
I spent a large part of my teenage years confusing Depeche Mode and Dire Straits!
i'm now two weeks behind on these
stupid lack of internet at home.
still, i at least have Six on CD! I bought it years ago and remember listening to it once and really liking it. i don't think i ever listened to it again though.
Get it out.
Stick it in.
And also listen to Six again, it's dead good, like.