Life is a compromise anyway: a Mansun retrospective
Saturday, September 19th, 2009 by Flint
It may strike as rather silly first, with what you glancing the start of a tl;dr article right now and expecting the sort of fawning that retrospectives tend to have, but I do not feel particularly passionate about Mansun. I wouldn’t count them among my favourite acts and my listening habits involving them revolve around the occasional phase or a mood rather than constant love. They never created a masterpiece in my opinion despite offering two very solid contenders for that title. I like them quite a bit but I don’t feel a passionate drive towards them, if you get what I’m saying.
But they were nonetheless something special and that’s something that makes them very interesting and a joy to listen to even without a driving passion. They were an extremely ambitious band as witnessed by the nature of their albums, some calling them the britpop equivalent of prog rock. They were varied; their three albums each have a completely different nature to them. Their lyrics were dense and bordering between nonsensical and obliviously sensible, a fact that the band themselves took the piss out of on the hidden track of their debut. They had big hits – their debut stayed in the UK charts for ages and even scored a #1 position – but they’re but a small footnote these days, more akin to a cult band than hitmakers – and even their hitmaking status is limited to Great Britain only, the rest of the world not much remembering them.
But they were a special band with their very own magic.
I do not claim to be a Mansun expert, but I’ll give my best shot as we travel through their small discography and hopefully spread the word around a bit.
It may strike as rather silly first, with what you glancing the start of a tl;dr article right now and expecting the sort of fawning that retrospectives tend to have, but I do not feel particularly passionate about Mansun. I wouldn’t count them among my favourite acts and my listening habits involving them revolve around the occasional phase or a mood rather than constant love. They never created a masterpiece in my opinion despite offering two very solid contenders for that title. I like them quite a bit but I don’t feel a passionate drive towards them, if you get what I’m saying.
But they were nonetheless something special and that’s something that makes them very interesting and a joy to listen to even without a driving passion. They were an extremely ambitious band as witnessed by the nature of their albums, some calling them the britpop equivalent of prog rock. They were varied; their three albums each have a completely different nature to them. Their lyrics were dense and bordering between nonsensical and obliviously sensible, a fact that the band themselves took the piss out of on the hidden track of their debut. They had big hits – their debut stayed in the UK charts for ages and even scored a #1 position – but they’re but a small footnote these days, more akin to a cult band than hitmakers – and even their hitmaking status is limited to Great Britain only, the rest of the world not much remembering them.
But they were a special band with their very own magic.
I do not claim to be a Mansun expert, but I’ll give my best shot as we travel through their small discography and hopefully spread the word around a bit.