Mansun
Attack Of The Grey Lantern
3CD Special Edition
June 7, 2010
Review: Steve Bateman
For a record collector, the thought of classic albums being reissued
with bonus material in extravagant packaging can be a mouth-watering
prospect especially when released by some of your most beloved
artists and bands! You can imagine my excitement then, when I read the
following Press Release prior to being sent an advance copy of Mansuns
AOTGL 3CD Set
EMI are proud to announce the release of a Special Edition of
Mansuns acclaimed 1997 debut album, Attack Of The Grey Lantern.
Produced by Paul Draper, Attack Of The Grey Lantern arrived amid a
fanfare of media expectation. The album spawned four hit singles; Stripper
Vicar (no. 19), Wide Open Space (no. 15), She Makes My Nose Bleed (no.
9) and Taxlo$$ (no. 15). All the songs were written by Draper, who devised
the concept of The Grey Lantern as a village of people with really
disgusting morals [which] The Grey Lantern sorts out. Upon its
release the album spent a total of 19 weeks on the UK Chart, knocking
Blurs self-titled album off the no. 1 spot. At years end
it was included in the Guardians Top 10 Pop Albums of The
Year, and NMEs, Q Magazines and Melody Makers
Top 50 Albums of 1997.
This Special Edition consists of the original album remastered, with
two bonus discs with every EP track and b-side the band released during
the period up to and including the Closed For Business EP. CD's 2 and
3 are crammed with pre-album EPs (Take It Easy Chicken, Skin Up Pin
Up); alternative, acoustic and live versions; b-sides (Rebel Without
A Quilt, Flourella, The Duchess and many more, all in chronological
order); Drapers co-write with Magazines Howard Devoto, Everyone
Must Win, and extensive sleeve notes written by the frontman himself.
There is also a new remix of (Im In A) Wide Open Space by Greg
Downey, which will be released via Nebula on 7th Jun.
Although my promo CDs are housed in plain-white paper sleeves, aesthetically,
I would imagine that the commercial packaging will mirror that of Kleptomania,
with a fold-out digipak inside a plastic slipcover that once fully-opened,
will reveal 3CDs and a booklet. And it goes without saying, that if
all of the artwork remains faithful to the original long player, it
will be beautiful! On with the music
CD 1: Original Album
Unfolding with the languorous strains of classical strings, The Chad
Who Loved Me is a stunning cinematic opener, and as a listener, you
feel that youre about to enter a whole new world. The atmospheric
Mansun's Only Love Song, then introduces us to Dark Mavis for the very
first time and has an expansive swelling chorus. While everytime I hear
Taxlo$$, I cant help but think of the memorable promo video where
its £25,000 budget was thrown over the balcony at Londons
Liverpool Street Station onto the main concourse, with commuters being
secretly filmed scrambling to pick up the individual £5 notes
a dig at The Music Industry which writes off acts as tax losses,
as well as a social comment about greed perhaps? Reportedly the most
difficult song to complete during the AOTGL sessions and lyrically twisting
Jimmy Osmonds Long Haired Lover From Liverpool, its an elaborate
epic that by the end, has almost morphed into a fully-fledged house
track! Its also a fine example of how on this record, songs
which all have intelligent musical arrangements and structures
segue into each other and are interlaced with guitar, bass, drums, synths,
electronic beats, textures, loops, cut-up sound effects, nuances, ever-changing
tempos and Pauls sublime emotional vocals and melodies. Who has
since admitted that both John Lennon and Prince were his inspirations
for most of Attack Of The Grey Lantern.
Opening and closing with ringing church bells, You, Who Do You Hate?
is an acoustic number that like the calm before the storm, shifts shapes
and boasts a fleshy angst-ridden chorus. Wide Open Space meanwhile,
is arguably the quintessential Mansun song and starting with a solitary
guitar playing a repeated picking pattern, it soon turns into a sweeping
anthem with a senses-tingling / amp-cranking electric guitar solo. Partnered
with Stripper Vicar, this is yet another Mansun classic, with a lively
pace and a feel-good vibe. As an acoustic-based track, Disgusting also
has lots of interesting treated effects and contorting frayed noises
going on in the background, and is followed by the sedate and sullen,
She Makes My Nose Bleed. Naked Twister then sighs and spirals, whereas
the oddity that is Egg Shaped Fred, is whimsical and jaunty. Ending
the LP, Dark Mavis has a filmic quality with a Beatles-esque choral
finale, that once again employs the lush and graceful classical strings
from The Chad Who Loved Me for its outro, neatly tying everything together
and allowing you time to reflect on everything that youve heard
and experienced. A musical journey in the truest sense of the word!
The secret track, An Open Letter To A Lyrical Trainspotter, will leave
listeners with a smile on their faces, as addressing Pauls enigmatic
and often dissected lyrics, it features the tongue-in-cheek line, The
lyrics arent supposed to mean that much, theyre just a vehicle
for a lovely voice
atop playful piano. As a semi-concept
album, at the time of the records release, Paul was quoted as
saying, The Grey Lantern is like a comic-book hero. I suppose
The Grey Lanterns me. I wouldnt have a cape, but there are
definitely characters on the record Albert Taxlo$$, Chad, Dark
Mavis
At the end of the album it all gets resolved and you find
out Mavis is actually the Stripper Vicar. Production-wise, with
futuristic flourishes, it is undimmed with time and because Mansun took
the road less travelled, AOTGL isnt consigned to a particular
style, bending genres with a wide / progressive songwriting range and
remaining an all-consuming experimental long player, that couldnt
have been written or made by anybody else. Its certainly a magnum
opus that defines the essence of this one-off group!
CD 2: Bonus Tracks
Famed for the high quality of their EPs and b-sides with some
fans from the Mansun tribe preferring these to the bands a-sides
this disc is yet another musical miasma with a unique blend of
sounds, styles and moods, where as with Attack Of The Grey Lantern,
the pleasure is in the details and each track will wind its way through
your mind. Some of the highlights for me, include the buoyant Ski Jump
Nose, which has the quirky lyric, Knick-knack, paddy-whack, Chads
got an anorak
as on the day it was recorded, Chad had turned
up to the studio wearing a parker coat! Thief, which is where Pauls
falsetto developed, purely because he hadnt discovered capos.
Take It Easy Chicken, as it was the first song that Mansun ever recorded!
Drastic Sturgeon, which is very 90s Britpop and echoes Blurs
Jubilee. A volatile and sepulchral The Edge. The sinister shoegaze of
Things Keep Falling Of Buildings. Rebel Without A Quilt, which Paul
recalls penning because I had no quilt at the time and my sister
commented what a rebel I was sleeping without one on a cold night as
a joke, so that became a title and the song flowed from that.
The incinerating Vision Impaired, that has masterful guitar work and
a nice shooting-star sound as a plectrum is dragged up the fretboard
neck across open strings. The Gods Of Not Very Much, which has an air
of sophistication and breaks down and builds up so much so, that
it could almost have been the bridge over to the groups groundbreaking
second album, Six. And the ambient The Most To Gain, which interestingly,
was originally going to be on AOTGL before being replaced by Mansun's
Only Love Song (the last tune to be written and recorded for the album
and the bands 36th to date).
CD 3: Bonus Tracks
Another disc of rarities mainly acoustic and live along
with more studio recordings that will capture your imagination. The
stripped-back versions are really chilled-out reinterpretations and
the electrifying live tracks (some with Prince-inspired medleys), will
make you wish that you could go and see Mansun playing live now! With
the remaining b-sides, the dense The Holy Blood And The Holy Grail is
magnificently magnetising, and a headlong Grey Lantern precedes The
Impending Collapse Of It All, which Paul surprisingly admitted he wrote
when EMI told me to disband the band after a few months together
and go and do a project on my own, and I was really stressed out feeling
the pressure of it all ending so soon. The standalone single Closed
For Business, rises and falls with a haunting harpsichord as its sonic
spine. K.I. Double S.I.N.G. is a black-humoured piss take of the
school nursery rhyme, which stuck in Pauls mind after being cornered
by a mob aged 9 or so after going for a snog in school. Everyone
Must Win sees Paul and Chad putting Howard Devotos lyrics to a
post-punk garage rocker, riddled with angular guitars and jagged rhythms
that would make Magazine proud! For the kaleidoscopic The Worlds
Still Open (from the Closed For Business EP), Paul has noted, EMI
really loved this song and wanted it as a single and I have to admit
in retrospect they were right, it probably should have been the lead
single from this EP. And for those of you who are inquisitive,
there are many more fascinating facts to be read about all of the tracks
on the 3CD Set. The final song on this particular disc, (Im In
A) Wide Open Space (remix performed by Greg Downey and Mansun), is a
brand new 7 minute dance reimagining of Wide Open Space, which with
trance-like sensibilities, touches of piano and hypnotising Balearic
beats, works really well and would sound fantastic booming away in a
club! An excellent and contemporary way to close this historic package.
If youre new to Mansun, then this will be an ideal entry-point
collection. Or for long-term fans interested in revisiting this era
although some of the bonus tracks can be found on Kleptomania
as a completist, CDs 2 and 3 + Pauls liner notes
are well worth your time. And thanks to digital remastering, sounding
crisper and clearer, yet still dark and divine, one of the great debut
albums of all-time just got even better! So with much to love, dont
delay, upgrade to the Attack Of The Grey Lantern 3CD Special
Edition today.
A very special thanks to Scott @ EMI Music, for all
of his time and help.
www.pauldraper.net
www.pauldraper.net/links.php
Tracklisting
CD 1: Original Album
1. The Chad Who Loved Me
2. Mansun's Only Love Song
3. Taxlo$$
4. You, Who Do You Hate?
5. Wide Open Space
6. Stripper Vicar
7. Disgusting
8. She Makes My Nose Bleed
9. Naked Twister
10. Egg Shaped Fred
11. Dark Mavis / An Open Letter To A Lyrical Trainspotter
CD 2: Bonus Tracks
1. Egg Shaped Fred (alt. version)
2. Ski Jump Nose
3. Lemonade Secret Drinker
4. Thief + Secret Track
5. Take It Easy Chicken
6. Drastic Sturgeon
7. The Greatest Pain
8. Moronica
9. The Edge
10. The Duchess
11. No One Knows Us
12. Things Keep Falling Of Buildings
13. Rebel Without A Quilt
14. Vision Impaired
15. Skin Up Pin Up
16. The Gods Of Not Very Much
17. Moronica (acoustic)
18. Lemonade Secret Drinker (acoustic)
19. The Most To Gain
20. Flourella
CD 3: Bonus Tracks
1. She Makes My Nose Bleed (acoustic)
2. The Holy Blood And The Holy Grail
3. Wide Open Space (live)
4. Drastic Sturgeon (live)
5. Grey Lantern
6. The Impending Collapse Of It All
7. Ski Jump Nose (live at Derby)
8. Wide Open Space (acoustic)
9. Closed For Business
10. K.I. Double S.I.N.G.
11. Everyone Must Win (Draper/Devoto)
12. The Worlds Still Open
13. Dark Mavis (acoustic)
14. Stripper Vicar (live)
15. Egg Shaped Fred (acoustic)
16. The Impending Collapse Of It All (acoustic)
17. Ski Jump Nose (acoustic)
18. (Im In A) Wide Open Space (remix performed by Greg Downey
and Mansun)
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