Mansun appreciation

Submitted by TechnicalTrash95 t3_10p0wsy in Music

90s guitar band Mansun are often forgotten. Maybe it's because they weren't around for that long or because they appealled to the alternative crowd. But in their few years they were around they put out a tremendous amount of quality material. A lot of it being b-sides on their many EPs they put out. Two out of the three albums they released were fantastic and they could have possibly been one of the biggest bands of the 00s had they lasted.

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GizzardEUizzard t1_j6hs6k6 wrote

They were the first band I saw live, unless you count their support act (Cecil). At the end of the gig, Draper threw his plectrums into the crowd, and one of them cut my friend’s eyelid (he was chuffed about it and kept said plectrum).

I wrote them a letter (remember those?!??) to tell them how great it was, and they sent me a signed poster and a signed 7inch vinyl of Stripper Vicar. For these things, I will always love them. First album is still fairly solid now, so yeah.

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TechnicalTrash95 OP t1_j6hucpc wrote

I thought Six was the masterpiece. They had so much creativity which is scattered throughout all their album tracks and b-sides. The last album was mostly crap but the fourth one was beginning to sound hopeful.

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GizzardEUizzard t1_j6ipp9l wrote

More of a Grey Lantern kind of a chad myself, but it’s all good.

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bwainwright t1_j6i420f wrote

Attack Of The Grey Lantern was a much under rated album. I had it in heavy rotation when I was at college/university, and managed to see them live a couple of times around the same time.

The arrangement on "The Chad Who Loved Me" is still a beautiful piece of music with the strings, the subtle acoustic guitar dropping in and then the lead electric guitar echo'ing the melody of the strings.

"Wide Open Space" is - for me at least - still one of the standout tracks of the 90s/BritPop era. To the point where it became massive across genres. As well as being a great indie guitar anthem, DJ Paul Oakenfold created the "Perfecto" remix of it which was massive in clubs at the time, especially Cream when he was resident there.

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TechnicalTrash95 OP t1_j6j5rrd wrote

Wide open space is excellent but I've heard it a lot. One of my favourites off the first record is mansuns only love song. There's a lot of good syths used on that album. Also Chad was a fantastic guitarist for the band. They could have done so much more if they hadn't imploded. The fourth album was going back to the style of the first. Such a shame.

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TheDirtyBubb1e t1_j6hu5cm wrote

Never saw them live, but drank in the same pub as them back in the day (The Good Mixer in Campden) and they were a nice bunch of lads. The Chad Who Loved Me is my favorite track, https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=R1DwkPlzVS0 shame they didn't have more success

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Miserable_Special_73 t1_j6hvaaq wrote

One of my faves. So many hidden gems scattered throughout the unreleased and rare stuff. Paul Draper’s last solo album is well worth a listen too. I often think they came along at the wrong time - never seemed to quite fit in a scene and ended up completely imploding.

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