Let's get this out of the way - thanks to the ridiculous nature of regional rights and legal mumbo-jumbo surrounding album releases, we are occasionally stuck reviewing the edited and inferior US release of an album rather than the original UK or Australian version that the artist intended. That's what happened when one of our Patreon patrons selected the sophomore album Six by Mansun for us to check out. The original 1998 UK release features extra songs, a different track list and mixes, and is overall considered to the superior to the chopped-down and rearranged US version released in 1999. Back in the day, we would have made a visit to the local Virgin Megastore and dropped twenty to thirty bucks on an important version, but that option is long gone, so we're playing the hand as dealt. While the band made no secret on their debut Attack of the Grey Lantern that straight-up Brit-pop was of no interest, the band managed to craft radio-friendly pop melodies with twisted instrumentation and odd embellishments. Six takes it one step further, honing the pop songs while doubling-down on the twisted and odd, taking long divergences into instrumental passages, drastic tempo shifts and, uh, The Nutcracker?

Intro - Six

14:23 - Negative

20:23 - Legacy

26:06 - Anti-Everything

34:48 - Being A Girl

Outro - Fall Out