MANSUN'S "SIX": Special / Blown it ? (delete as appropriate)
by Mr Carbohydrate
‘Life is a compromise anyway’
I first heard an unsigned Mansun on the John Peel show around late 1995, when he played their self-released 7” ‘Take it easy chicken’. It would be fair to say upon hearing the nintendo-esque intro followed by that opening riff, I was hooked. At the height of Britpop, when anyone with a guitar was getting signed, Mansun stood out as more than a bunch of haircuts and after a lot of industry buzz, eventually signed to Parlaphone. Every great band has history and Mansun were no different, early career highlights included; their sample player walking out on the band directly after a disastrous Radio 1 appearance (‘keep listening’ Draper pleaded during the show, I didn’t think it sounded that bad but the band were obviously perfectionists and have spoken openly that in their early days they really couldn’t play), a name change from Manson to Mansun (to remove any connection to the horrific Charles Manson murders of the late 1960s), going through drummers like water until they settled on the superb Andie Rathbone and the chart success of single ‘Wide open space’ from their debut album ‘Attack of the Grey Lantern’ (AotGL).
‘Have you ever told a lie to hide a lie?’
But it was their second album (often labelled by journalists as the ‘difficult’ follow-up record) that I wish to discuss with you, the curiously titled ‘Six’. At its release in 1998 the music business was in a state of flux; Radiohead had plunged the final nail in Britpop’s coffin the previous year with ‘OK Computer’ but we were still not quite into the days of internet fuelled band/scene hype that would come with the Strokes and the Arctic Monkeys in the early part of the 21st century. In this landscape, Mansun entered the studio to record their follow up to AotGL, the uncertainty of the music landscape seemed to mirror that of the band themselves; a divide between the main creative drivers (Draper and Chad) seemed to be forming with the remaining band members (King and Rathbone), as well as tensions between Draper and Chad themselves. Suspicion raged and tensions were high but from this came something truly wonderful, an ambitious album pushing the boundaries of what had come before, throwing out the rule book, conventional wisdom and writing its own blueprint of what an album/LP could be.
‘Life is sweet but not it seems for Buddha, there’s a shotgun in his hand’
Six as an album had, and has still to this day, many myths surrounding it, I hope to support or dispel those as best I can, but lets be honest only the band themselves know the full truth. The first myth placed at Six’s door is that it is an album with no choruses until the penultimate track. Sounds fantastic, but is sadly untrue. Yes, this is an album with many tracks that have many discrete parts, often changing tempo on a dime at multiple times within the tracks. Indeed the album’s opening song has to my mind 7 distinct movements within its 8 minutes (for the record- start / 0.30mins / 1.51 /2.12 / 2.40 / 4.07 / 4.54 / end). If you aren’t paying attention from the off, you will get left behind! But truth be told, the first chorus comes as early as the second track ‘Negative’ which follows a fairly standard verse–chorus format, but given the openers manic structure, quite frankly you will need a bit of rest in track 2.
‘Everybody helps me make my own mistakes’
The second myth is that this was Draper’s baby and he was fully responsible for the outcome as the albums “dictator”. And whilst the thought of Draper as this almost military figure, obsessively overseeing all decisions whilst he created his master piece again adds to the air of mystery of this record, but it is again not the truth. Granted the majority of the writing credits are his, but Chad was very much involved in some of the key tracks in the album. Whilst relations were tense between the two writers, it’s impossible given the inter-weaving nature of this album’s songs for them not to have communicated and shared an over-arching view of the final product together. Sure, if this was a pop album with natural start and end positions, you could easily add tracks without any dialogue between songwriters till the running order discussions at the end of the recording process, but this album’s running order evolved throughout the recording process, not at the end. And this is why I believe Six is so special, it could only have been the way it is, of the thousands of parts and decisions within this album, it could only have finally been as it is now and to appreciate it fully you cannot skip tracks, it really is simply one 78 minute track and isn’t that the sign of a great album, that you don’t skip to the singles or an odd track, it works in that order and no other. This was put into context when, for the US release of Six, the running order was jumbled up and some tracks omitted, it was a disaster and was a version of the album dis-owned by the band as out of order it simply made no sense. It is this format that lead to another myth of Six, that it is a ‘concept’ album. Six has a lot going on within it. I just don’t see one concept running through the album that you can hang your hat on. Indeed many of Six’s facets are polar opposite.
‘I pay for sex in sleeping bags’
They say that necessity is the mother of invention and the final myth I would like to investigate is the planning that went into Six. Convention wisdom is that bands are asked to demo songs in cheaper studios (or even their bedrooms) so the main song writing occurs away from the ticking clock of (expensive) proper recording studios. However, the starting point of Six was very different. The myth is that the band entered the studio with around 50 to 60 odd little bits of music but no real fully formed songs. Recently though, when talking about Six to Adam Walton for BBC Wales, Draper outlined that the true position was more that he had the opening chord sequence to the track Six and that was it. Six therefore clearly had to evolve in the studio- it was not pre planned, in fully-formed shape, Draper even said it was done “… on the fly”.
‘Did Stanley Kubrick fake it with the moon?’
The format of the record is not your stereo typical structure. As mentioned, songs start one way then segue through tempo changes or just complete about turns, usually multiple times within the same track. This was not a new idea, Draper has made no secret of the influence of the 1st side of Prince’s ‘Parade’ and the 2nd side of the Beatles ‘Abbey Road” (another album where limited preparation led to considerable writing during the recording process) but Draper took those ideas and made them his own. This unique structure sets this album above most, its ambition is almost unparalleled.
‘I can change the amount of God that wraps around me’
Comparisons have been made to Radiohead’s OK Computer (both bands were on the same label at the time) but I don’t see it myself. OK Computer is a brilliant album and ‘Paranoid Android’ and ‘Fitter Happier’ may well have been informal spark to an embryonic Six but I would argue most of OK Computer was a band operating within the set rules of music but just doing it a million times better than everyone else. Ironically I think Kid A is far more akin to Six (the irony being that Kid A was released after Six, so Six may have re-paid Radiohead the favour they gave Mansun with some of OK Computer) with its very different approach to its predecessor, perfectly exemplified by its ambitious opener ‘Everything in its right place’. Another comparison I feel is justified is that of Six to the Mars Volta’s ‘De-loused in the Comatorium’ (for the record released 5 years after Six), very different albums in their lyrics but their formats of segues, tempo changes and songs so multi layered that the track start/ends become almost irrelevant. But realistically Six is unlike anything you will have heard.
‘Emotionally I’m wrapped in shame’
I am very much aware that analysing the lyrics in Six may open myself to criticism, after all wasn’t it an infamous Mansun B-side called ‘An open letter to the lyrical train-spotter’ that stated that lyrics are “… just a vehicle for a lovely voice”. But I do want to make more than a passing comment on the lyrics. Yes, Six is a veritable collage of mixed up lyrics (represented by the numerous and varied books in the artwork of the album) but there are some general themes which I think are important to recognise and are worth further investigation. Firstly Mansun lyrics are quintessentially British and every unique (think Monty Python and the Goons). Whereas AotGL tended to follow the mid to later Beatles era of lyrics based on made up characters, Six saw a move to a much more personal / non-fiction based perspective (reflected in the prominent use of “I” in most of the lyrics). This highly personalised approach makes the album a lot more open and honest, away from the protection the fictional characters of AotGL provided, and therefore can be far more easily identified with by the listener. The words are often dark (just look at some of the song titles- Negative, Anti everything and Cancer) but the humour that counter balances this I find touching; Witness to a murder (part 2), er where did part 1 go? Who else could name check the Jabberwocky and Winnie the Pooh? The speeded up “Sky News” repeating to infinity is hilarious! Mansun were a funny band though the music press would have you believe the opposite, more a reflection of the bands actions towards the press in terms of introversion. Don’t believe it, Mansun mixed the poignant with the ridiculous effortlessly.
‘I’m waving into blind eyes’
In my head, the outline recording process on ‘Witness to a murder (part 2)’ went something like this…
Dominic Chad enters the studio and sees the engineer at the studio desk waiting for his arrival.
Engineer- “Hi Dominic, so what’s the plan for today?”
Chad- “I was thinking a song starting on a harpsichord...”
Engineer (interrupting)- “Oh like the Strangler’s ‘Golden Brown’?”
Chad (slightly screwing up his face)- “Not exactly, I was thinking; start with the harpsichord, develop that into an operatic vocal battle counter balancing a female then male singer, build a subtle but haunting guitar reverb underneath it, followed by Tom Baker reading paragraphs from the Brian Jones’ autobiography.”
A pause, just long enough to be awkward occurs between the two of them, then…
Engineer (after a sharp in-take of breath)- “Right, well we had better get started then.”
‘Thru my TV, all my problems come’
It’s easy to dismiss ‘Witness to a Murder (part 2)’ as sheer folly given the ingredients that make the final track and whilst it is madness on paper, somehow Mansun pull it off. On its own or as part of the album it is a quite majestically piece of music, unlike anything I have ever heard in my extensive time listening to music. I am a huge vintage Doctor Who fan and firmly believe Tom Baker was the coolest doctor of them all, his mixture of fun, quirkiness and seriousness as the alien time lord, I am sure meant he was the only possible choice for this reading on this track. The words about sycophants, lack on control, inability to determine the truth and the endless treadmill of fame, are perfectly delivered by Baker’s dulcet tones. I am not sure I could listen to an album of Witness to a murder’s but you have to respect the bravery of the song writing and admire the faultless delivery, anything less than a perfect finished product could easily have opened this track to being considered a joke… and maybe it is, but I think it’s genius.
‘I could bring happiness to people, just one more greatest hits tour for the devotees’
Six is however not without its criticisms, the most obvious being that you will not fall in love with this album on your first handful of listens (like AotFL), the album needs many listens before you ‘get it’ (if indeed you ever do) and that for the MTV generation with a attention span of less than 5 minutes may be beyond some, but if you can press through that seemingly endless darkness, I promise you there is a light at the end of the tunnel and your patience will be well rewarded.
The track Legacy although a brilliantly catchy swipe at the trappings of the music business, doesn’t sit perfectly in its penultimate slot on the album, it feels slightly to me like a bonus track tacked on the end, but it is so good that almost makes up for it being the slightly conservative sibling of the family. The lyrics are great but cover way too much, sometimes even one track can make so many different themes and statements it could be argued it therefore lacks focus and its certainly hard to know what’s supposed to be important and what’s just on there as its sounds good.
‘Nobody cares when you’re gone’
After Six, Mansun released their third album Little Kix (LK), the band by this point were close to imploding and by all accounts, LK was only released by their management and record companies, the band hated it and wanted it binned, but money had been spent in the recording process so the decision was made over the band’s head. LK was not Six part II.
LK returned to a more rigidly structured approach without segues or any of the clever tricks they honed on Six. I remember listening to it and being crest fallen, a band I had loved and seen grow from indie starlets to masters of their own musical destiny, had thrown it all away and made an album that sounded like Sinatra (no offense Frank), but it was hardly pushing any musical boundaries.
Radiohead followed up Kid A with ‘Amnesiac’/’Hail to the Thief’ and ‘In Rainbows’ cementing their place as the true 21st century musical conquistadors. I had hoped Mansun would give them a run for their money on that title but it sadly wasn’t to be.
During recording of Mansun’s fourth album (only much later released as the ‘Kleptomania’ part retrospective) the band officially split and so far have not reformed. It was a huge lose, compounded by the fact that Chad hasn’t done anything since and Draper has only ventured back into music on very limited occasions with Skin, Joy Formidable, My Vitriol and very recently Menace Beach. I still pray that Draper is maybe hiding a great lost album from us, only to be released upon his death (though for the record- Draper strongly denies the existence of any solo recordings). One thing is for sure, if Draper or Chad are recording, co-writing, playing or producing any music, I will be first in line to hear it.
‘I judge myself by the adverts I see’
Draper has always seemed surprised when asked to talk about Six, maybe this is humility or maybe some of that famous introversion still present from his Mansun days. I think the more people talk about Six, the more he will understand just how special this album is. Of all the Mansun albums, it pushed boundaries and regardless of the journey that got to the finished project, it is an amazing record, unlike anything before or since. My Dad had ‘Dark side of the moon’ which truly moved the musical landscape, I have “Six”… I just wish every home that has the seminal Pink Floyd album also had a copy of Mansun’s Six.
MrCarbohydrate (Nov 2013)