Attack of the Grey Lantern (2 Viewers)

[Lili Marlene]

3cd version, out June 7th. No really, it's come to this, Mansun reissues.

Personally I can't fucking wait! Finally, all those awful early EP's together in the same place (and a few of the later good ones). Everyone Must Win = reason enough for this to exist

Disc: 1 1. The Chad Who Loved Me 2. Mansun's Only Love Song 3. Taxloss 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 (Album Version) 11. Dark Mavis / An Open Letter To The Lyrical Trainspotter

Disc: 2 1. Egg Shaped Fred (Alternate 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. Duchess 11. No One Knows Us 12. Things Keep Falling Off Buildings 13. Rebel Without A Quilt 14. Vision Impaired 15. Skin Up Pin Up 16. The Gods Of Not Very Much 17. Moronica (Acoustic Version) 18. Lemonade Secret Drinker (Acoustic Version) 19. The Most To Gain 20. Flourella

Disc: 3 1. She Makes My Nose Bleed (Acoustic) 2. The Holy Blood And The Holy Grail 3. Live Open Space 4. Drastic Sturgeon (Live) 5. Grey Lantern 6. Impending Collapse Of It All 7. Ski Jump Nose (Live) 8. Wide Open Space (Acoustic) 9. Closed For Business 10. K.I.Double.S.I.N.G. 11. Everyone Must Win 12. The World's Still Open 13. Dark Mavis (Acoustic) 14. Stripper Vicar (Live) 15. Egg Shaped Fred (Acoustic) 16. Impending Collapse Of It All (Acoustic) 17. Ski Jump Nose (Acoustic) 18. (I'm In A) Wide Open Space (Remix performed by Greg Downey & Mansun)

Taxloss, mod rock
Junk pop, chart hop
Mop top, swap shop
Who'd you nick your cliché off?

 

[BonsaiSuperstar]

New Grave is back!!

 

[Lili Marlene]

Now that they've split it's about time Idlewild started reissuing their albums, pavement style

Not to mention the King Adora 10 year anniversary of 'WE R 4 Real manics fans' or whatever their first album was called (Smoulder is still a great song though)

 

[worthit]

That guy who went from Turn to Idlewild is cursed.

Does this mean Six is next? I is John Snr will be delighted.

 

[ilovehoovering]

Now that they've split it's about time Idlewild started reissuing their albums, pavement style

funny you should say that...EMI released a second Idlewild compilation recently and there is talk of 100 Broken Windows being reissued this year!

 

[Lili Marlene]

Oh yeah? I'd buy that. Probably their best album.


unless their last two were secretly amazing since I never bothered with them.....


what was the second compilation? Can't find it googling the wiki

 

[ilovehoovering]

It was just called The Collection.

 

[Andy_aurel]

Does this mean Six is next? I is John Snr will be delighted.

Me too, I'd be all over any six era extras.

 

[Lili Marlene]

Me too, I'd be all over any six era extras.

most of the b-sides are on this yoke, you might be able to find a download copy if you google around

http://www.pauldraper.info/thedeadflowersreject/

thing about six is, from what he says in the ten year anniversay blog, there wouldn't be any outtakes since they were literally recording it chronologically as they went along. So the first note on the album is the first idea they had and the last note is the last thing they wrote.

Mind you that blog might have been completely fictional the way he was going on in it....

 

[Andy_aurel]

Cheers for that John.

 

[Lili Marlene]

Someone posted this on the Popjustice forum which is worth quoting in its entirety

apologies for the length of this post, but it's a big one)

Well, sadly, it seems one of the major contributors to the bands demise is that Stove had been stealing money from the rest of the band. During the Little Kix era, basically Stove was in charge of the finances of the band, and had been taking more than his share for some time - we're talking thousands. This was discovered shortly before the Kleptomania sessions.

When the band discovered this, they confronted him, where he admitted it, broke down and was fired from the band. He signed away all royalties so will never get any more money from any Mansun release. Word is he did some jail time too.

This of course makes the fourth albums title more sad as they named it Kleptomania, which is what he claimed to suffer from. The band went on to record Kleptomania as a three piece. Before the inevitable break up and in band fighting.

Also the re-recorded version of Thief that appeared as a hidden track on that album? Yep, a dig at Stove.

Paul Draper hates him now and takes any opportunity to bad month him in interviews. It’s a real shame.

As for Little Kix, my theory is this; We now know that Paul had been fired as the bands producer and was there simply to write songs and sing. He took this badly, as one of the aspects he loves about being in the band was producing the work. EMI decided otherwise after hearing Six and brought in Hugh Padgham to take over the reigns and make the album more radio friendly like Coldplay.

Paul still writing the tracks, and knowing that the band was compromised and going to fail, included very obvious digs to the record label within the album. If you actually look at the titles and the lyrics, it stands out a mile.

The first track A New Beginning contains this refrain:

“So I go to work and smile And I'm happy with myself
A brave face for my crowd Correcting all my faults
With prescription medicine My trouble surges”

“Correct my errors and my faults To be someone who is appeased With who I am for”

Then the middle 8 contains:

“Right then, I have to make a choice. I'm gonna start right over as another boy
Just got to poke me, kick me off my arse. Make it rhyme, make it bland, make it sell
So she said "knew you off the TV, Never mind, you must have had it easier
Than me, tell me what's your secret" Make it rhyme, make it bland, make it sell”

A direct link about the albums lyrics and music being made more MOR and radio friendly. And that he isn’t happy about it.

Ever wondered why I Can Only Disappoint U’s chorus makes no sense in context to the verses? Simple; The chorus is a message to the record label and critics. He has no hope of pleasing them.

Electric Man again has a reference to having to change:

“So I took advice and changed a little, Hope that others like me more
Hope that you would trust me once again
Once again, once again, I am lonely once again
I hope that you would trust me once again”

which could be interpreted as having to make the mass public like the band, and for the record label to use him as producer again

However the most telling lyrics are Goodbye, the albums closing track (and I mean, the title couldn’t be more blatant)

“You're so constructive but so full of shit
You said, I could have been a superstar but I sing like a girl
There's no rock and roll when your life's in a mess
Paid to scrawl lipstick across my chest”

One of the criticisms that the band, and especially Paul, has faced from the press is that he sings in a feminine voice at times and that can put off the majority. The irony now is most indie singers use falsetto (hello Keane).

The 'Lipstick on the chest' is a reference to Paul writing Stripper Vicar across his chest for promo photos. He’s basically saying everything he tried was debunked by the company, and told to do for money.

And finally"

“I must say goodbye to you We must say goodbye We must say goodbye to you”

Paul has admitted in interviews since the band split that he knew during Little Kix that the band was over, and this repeated lyric was aimed at the band and the fans. He wanted to walk away.

So there you go.

there, indeed, is where you go.

 

[Lili Marlene]

Liner notes for this reissue are great fun

'I've no idea what this song is about'

'we always did this one live cos it was easy to play'

'weird shit'

 

[mel gibson]

can't wait for six to be reissued! television is probably my favourite song by them
"THIS IS SKY NEWS" fucking genius!