Six is the second album by English alternative rock band Mansun, released in September 1998 via Parlophone. It was released in the UK and Europe on 7 September 1998, and in the US on 20 April 1999, with an alternative running order, different artwork, and the re-recorded single version of the title track. In an interview prior to the release of Six, Paul Draper stated that the "interlude" "Witness to a Murder (Part Two)" was included to separate the album into two parts as a tribute to old-style vinyl albums.
In a rave review for Uncut, critic Steve Sutherland described Six as "the most ridiculous, confusing, complicated, over-reaching, frustrating, inventive, hyperactive, surprising and liberating record to yet appear from the post-Britpop stable." Jon Garrett of PopMatters conceded that the album is "not for everyone" but was impressed by its "debauched beauty", calling it "the sound of a band collectively snubbing its fan base and smashing expectation to spectacular effect".
Early in I was baffled by the art/prog suggestions of the genre descriptions for this, as it lead in with straightforward new-wave inflicted Britpop. The art shows up pretty quick however, and if anything the sound leans too eclectic, tending to lack of a coherent voice. The artier side didn't always work for me - spoken word stuff rarely does it for me in this context - overall I thought it was good but not great.
Wow this was a lot of fun. I liked the sound of it quite a bit, and bonus star for the Dance of the Sugarplum Fairies sample in Fall Out which made things feel a bit more seasonal!
This was fine, seems a bit before it's time for sure. When I was listening to it, I assumed that it was from the early 2010s. It being late stage Britpop I'm sure was a thing. Because I'm guessing Britpop people don't like more progressive things like this. Anyway, this was an okay listen, too long for sure, nothing super remarkable.
I usually love albums that keep you guessing and pivot effortlessly between sounds, unafraid to change a track's feel at a moment's notice. This LP takes that idea so far to the extreme that it suffers as a result instead – the listener never gets a single chance to rest and absorb a base-level idea of what the band is trying to say, instead whisked off to the next motif/idea/progression without a change to digest. The result is an overstuffed, scattered assemblage of pieces rather than any cohesive whole. The random Nutcracker section only invites 'everything but the kitchen sink' accusations, and the band never focuses enough on one track to make them more memorable than this one Christmas quotation. Never thought I would encounter an LP so chimeric it has no personality of its own, but this album seems to have achieved the impossible here.
What’s with the length on some of these songs. Several rhythm and tempo changes with instrumental sections that drag it out for minutes without much impressiveness. This album varies greatly in tone as well. A holiday instrumental to begin one song was really what made me question this album. Way too scattered and not something I’d revisit. 5.2/10
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