SIX

Note: This is a review of the European/Japanese release. If I recall, the American release of this album had a butchered tracklisting and the title track was completely different. No bueno, in my book.

This is one of those albums that catches you off guard when you first hear it. To be completely honest, I walked away from my first listen in total bewilderment... not quite sure if I actually liked what I heard. Having previously listened to their brit-pop "masterpiece" Attack of the Grey Lantern, I was completely thrown off by what I heard on their sophomore album, Six... in all the right ways. As Mansun ex-frontman Paul Draper himself said about the album, it was "commercial suicide, but artistically satisfying". Commercial suicide indeed, and I can certainly see why Mansun all but fell off the earth after the release of Six. To me, Six is an understated masterpiece of progressive rock music.

Obviously, this isn't your dad's style of progressive rock, a la Yes or King Crimson, though you can certainly tell they drew some artistic inspiration from some of the greats. It is, and this may frighten some of you hardcore proggies, a highly catchy album with a lot of the brit-pop tinges that made Mansun famous on their first album. However, whereas "Attack of the Grey Lantern" only had a small taste of experimental songwriting, Six blew the door wide open, offering the most ambitious album from a brit-pop artist I have ever seen.

An album quite like nothing I've ever heard before, or will probably hear any time in the future, "Six" by Mansun is easily one of my top picks for a deserted island album. Unfortunately, after the release of this album, frontman Paul Draper was essentially removed from all creative duties within the band, and they went on to release but one more album before splitting up.