Attack of the Grey Lantern is the debut album by English alternative rock band Mansun released on 17 February 1997 via Parlophone. The album spent a total of 19 weeks on the UK Albums Chart.
When Attack of the Grey Lantern was released in February 1997, it charted at No. 1 on the UK Albums Chart. The album was preceded by four singles, the first of which "Egg Shaped Fred" was released a year prior. "Egg Shaped Fred" was Mansun's début single for Parlophone Records and made No. 37 in the UK. The following three singles ("Stripper Vicar", "Wide Open Space", "She Makes My Nose Bleed") all made the top forty each improving of the previous singles' chart position. The final single released from the album was "Taxloss" which followed the album in April 1997 and made No. 15.
In the US, Mansun enjoyed their only chart success with "Wide Open Space" reaching the modest position of No. 25 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart.
NME reviewer Mark Beaumont, while noting that by the album's end "we still haven't the foggiest idea of what Paul Draper is on about", praised Attack of the Grey Lantern as "music for an unrealistically massive film script that verges on the awesome with almost every fondled fret."
Pretty sure this is the second offering from the band but I can't remember how similar the first was or how it struck me. This was very good, proggish rock somewhere more along the Queen-ish end of the Brit spectrum. The lead vocals have a little more sneer and whine to them than I strictly care for but that's a quibble.
Attack of the Grey Lantern is an indie rock album with rave reviews. For some reason I don't really get it. Nothing stands out and I've heard it all before. An ok album I guess, nothing more.
I liked the other Mansun album on the list “Six”, and this one is good too. If limited to 1001 albums probably wouldn’t consider both, but we aren’t limiting ourselves to 1001 albums for the user suggestions.
At first wasn’t quite as appealing as “Six” but it grew on me. At times was getting Tears for Fears and Oasis vibes in a good way.
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