Six Six  Negative  Shotgun  Inverse Midas  Anti Everything  Fallout  Serotonin  Cancer  Witness To A Murder (Part 2)  Television  Special/Blown It (Delete As Appropriate)  Legacy  Being a Girl (Parts 1&2)

'Six' takes its title from two references: a book by AA Milne and a character in TV series 'The Prisoner'. Both favourites of the band, the influences are indictive of the subject matter - personal issues replace the imaginery characters of their first album. Songs about tramps sleeping in doorways and having an AIDS test lie alongsides songs about catholicism and taoism (a philsophy some eastern religions are based on). Musically though, influences are fairly absent - Paul's idols Bowie and De Voto do seem to have helped tailor the sound, but really 'Six' is pretty unique - there is no sound like it. This is because although there is only 13 tracks on the album there are hundreds of tunes, and only a few choruses. The structures are truly revolutionary, and that is not the only originality. The band, fed up with the music industry supporting more and more prog rock have made guitars sound un-like guitars, with the use of many effects pedals and under-used mixing techniques. And yet the album was still based on Mansun playing live, so even though the album would be impossible to play live as it is, there is a feeling of natural aggresion and ad-libbing.

The album kicks off with the lead track, and a great one it is too. An epically long track, showing both the wide vocal ability of Paul Draper (droppin the falsetto being a great success) and the amasing guitar talent that is Dominic Chad. Starting of very poppy, it descends into heavy rock, before swimming up through a wealth of sound effects into fucked up funked up electronica cum pschodelia and seemingly effortlessly back into a  pop finish. But when is that finish? The track chops and changes direction at the scariest of moments and pulls it off nonetheless. My favourite bit has to be about 6 minutes through where all hell has broke loose and they start to mess with the vocals, and the lines 'And you see, how they shiver to conformity, did you see? The way I cower to authority! And my life, it's a series of compromises anyway - It's a sham...' become brilliantly funky. Six is so original you'll be completely perplexed first listen, but hooked by the third.

Next comes 'Negative', which disappointingly has been toned down from it's raw feedback-induced live version. Paul's raw low voice again is mixed and his last notes of the sentence vibrate into the distance, creating a remote (WOS?) feeling. The song is very dense, with loads of melodies and sounds all flowing randomly over one another - listen carefully and you'll hear something new each time. The track is definitely very fast, Andie did a great job keeping the drumming upto the changing tempo so well. Paul's voice rises in pitch and strength for the chorus' increasing the energy of the track considerably, and probably making it the next single.

Next comes a track that's already a live favourite, even though it has never before been released. A song based on the book 'The Tao Of Pooh', it is absolutely fantastic. Really three songs woven into one, it seems so much more than that with all the crazy sounds (listen out for Mutley) running all over the top. They seem to change instruments throughout the song, which is one of the most live sounding on the album, despite being the most cleverly mixed - a true masterpiece. It's so freestyle and compliant-free it's a breath of fresh air to most modern guitar records. In danger of descending into a structureless mess of feedback from here on, the album calms down for 2 minutes with the piano break that is 'Inverse Midas'. An appropriate title, for the song is a complete opposite to what has come before - an 'Imagine' of a song, powerful yet clean of mixing - just Paul singing and Chad on piano. My only grievance is how short it is - Chad should be proud for writing this - if you liked 'Face In The Crowd' (obscure instrumental b-side) you will love this.

'Inverse Midas' seemlessly (as the songs melodies melt together) transforms into 'Anti Everything', which again has brilliant drumming, and crazy sounding guitars, but for me the vocals don't seem very aspiring, and apart from the shout 'I tell you anti-everything' there is little to remember this song by. Next comes Tchaichovsky in the guise of 'Fallout' which turns into rock-pop after a minute with the great line 'Did Stanley Kebrik fake out it with the moon', only to return a minute later to the the tubular bells and yes, more great drumming. Sound effect-less, it still is crowded with what sound like much more than the two guitars and one bass it probably consists of - the middle of this would make a good intro, other bits a good end, and the end, well a good beginning. In fact the end of this begins 'Legacy', which confusingly doesn't follow it on the album.

What does is 'Serotonin', a song about drug-induced migraines. Probably my least favourite track on the album, though it does have great drumming (ahhhh... I've said it again). Definitely the least commercial track, Paul & Chad share the vocals, whilst stove seems to lead the persistent melody in the background - definitely wierd. Not wishing to leave 'wierd' behind we wobble drunkedly into the 9 minute rock-fest 'Cancer' which somehow runs at a speed that changes smoothely on the fly. A few minutes in it's descnded into a hippy clap-a-long ('I'm emotionally raped by Jesus') followed by a war-like bass drum solo, and then into three (at least) melodies simultaneously, set in a stereo pan that flies around the listener. Then we're back into the fluid tempo'drock over-laid with a million effects, before swirling into the first finish. But not the last - you see 'Cancer' has two ends, sown together by some brilliantly effective pianioing by the Chadster. And like the finale 'Being A Girl', Part Two whilst being in the same guise as the first is at the sam time a completely different beast. The powerful full-on yet definitely overly mixed second half, is a 'Dark Mavis' of a finish to Part One of 'Six', and probably is a little too depressing to fit in too well with the rest of the album.

To create a vinyl feel to the album, the two halves (sides) are seperated by an interval (to represent the momnet when you have to turn the record over). This, zanily, is started with graniose opera over an harpsichord, and descends into poetry about the 'murder' of Brian Jones, the Rolling Stone who died in AA Milne's old swimming pool, and the writer of the track, Dominic Chad, 's idol. More intrigingly, the poetry is read by none other than Tom Baker, ex-Doctor Who. The reason for this seems to just be Paul's a great fan and Tom's got a great voice, Paul: "One of my biggest influences is Spike Milligan, and we wanted the most funny and outrageous thing we could think of to go in the middle... I love Tom Baker and Doctor Who. I was conjuring up a load of images when I wrote the words and he seemed to fit in with them. He didn't know who we were at all but he said he found it amusing!" Anyway it's the wierdest track Mansun have ever done, and definetly one that wouldn't survuve outside of it's position as a seperator.

Through the fuzz/squeal of feedback the second part of the album starts and it's obvious forom the onset that is more commercial, and yet not commercial for commercials-sake: the tracks are just are innovative. Part Two kicks of with the truthful 'Television', mixed around samples from one of Paul's most favourite programs 'Sky News'. It features some great guitaring from the genius that is Dominc Chad, and is another long track, with lot's of vibrato and backing giving it a very BIG feeling, almost as if it was recorded outside. This naturally contradicts the close knitted studio feel of all the 'Sky News' samples laid over the top - but as I said, this isn't an 'easy' album! Television eds brillinatly as television does with static, a high pitched squeal and the national anthem (or one second of it).

Next is a track that describes Mansun to a tee - 'Special/Blown It (Delete As Appropriate)'. Mansun walk thst particular knife-edge between genius' and over-zealous experimenting popsters. A brilliant song, it feels great (paradoxally) to sing the line 'I've blown every single thing I've done' by this point - becuase you don't care! The band by this point has taught you it's philosophy through music and you are left to enjoy the definite singles in pure bliss. Not that their happy tracks - it's just Paul sounds like he's enjoying it under all them complex lyrics, detailing the band's possible future. 'Special/ Blown It' is a rock-fest, a real head-banger, which should lend itself to live perfomances well, despite being the most simple track on the album. It dies out through the sound of seagulls which the band used before on four/five EP to 'Legacy', which as Paul writely stated sticks out like a sore thumb to the rest of the album, as it is much too simple and depressing to fit in with the mood of 'Six'

Finally we have 'The Police' sounding first part of 'Being A Girl', the second single from the album, which makes a great unexpected big finish to the album, ridden with live volume changes, blasting volume just after you'ld expect it. Just after the single version dies, part two of the track kicks in, an itchy, wierd-tempo ridden swirling bizarre experience. The second part features the same chorus, but except from that, is a track in it'sown right, and is probably the least expected finish you could envisage. The track is abundant in punk energy, and yet shows dense musical talent from all four corners of Mansun, plus the omnipresent mixing desk. Vocals leave us, and we are left to enjoy this talent pur for a couple of minutes before it echo'sout of existence, into another AA Milne poem, over another harpsichord and marching drums again, which fade into the distance leaving us confused, dazzled, but fulfilled. This is the most innovative guitar based record ever, and an impressive improvement since their first album.