Mansun - Legacy: The Best of Mansun (Parlophone)
4/5
By: Thomas Hannan
Nobody knew what to do with Mansun back in the day, and on the off chance that a band approaching their weird mix of everything that probably shouldn't work but somehow does appeared today, people would be none the wiser. Pigeonholing (or perhaps not being able to pigeonhole) leads to the death of the innovator. Years on, and we're none the wiser. Mansun's death has been in vain.
But they did exist, they had hit singles, number one albums... we didn't totally ignore them, as a public, we just didn't understand. We didn't know what tactics to employ during their life, but what to do now they've gone is easy - compile 'em! Let's finish this! And 'Legacy' does a great job of that, a fantastic hits compilation perfect for the casual fan not intent on poring over every last note on the huge 'Kleptomania' retrospective set. This is streamlined Mansun - all the ones you'll remember without the spoken word sections or unnecessary 'Part Two's that so many struggled to side with.
It begins with 'I Can Only Disappoint You', the marvellous song Bloc Party aped but fell short of on 'Two More Years', before moving on to signature tune 'Wide Open Space', which still sounds pretty astounding to this day. Two tracks in and you'll get a feeling of anger than we allowed them to slip away in the manner they did, coupled with delirium in nostalgia too - hark! You couldn't as a kid understand why nobody else though this was great, and it turns out, years later, that it's stood the test of time! You were right all along! Fools!.
Well, most of it has stood the test of time. Every track on here if stripped down to its bare bones is solid as a rock, crafted beautifully and intelligently with obsessive care. The melodies are massive. But quite often, what keeps Mansun from transcending time is the production ethic. Why, for example, the need to pomp up 'Stripper Vicar' so much when the tune's sturdy enough as it is? Did 'Taxloss' always have this bad techno element to it? Was it always so painfully long? Probably, but being youthful and with a short attention span, we've not noticed until now. Alas, I remember 'She Makes My Nose Bleed' being a little better than it appears in this day and age too, but enjoy it if only because I can vividly remember the very day I bought the single, and there's some fun in that.
Some of it however you cannot fault, and we shan't attempt to here. Nope, lavish praise is all you're going to get from us if we're questioned on the invigorating short punk blast of 'Being A Girl', deliciously sweeping 'Negative' or admirably cinematically minded 'The Chad Who Loved Me'. As for that guitar riff on the song that gives the compilation its title, it's so good it makes me want to be in a Mansun tribute band just so I can make that sound be the product of my fingers in a way that doesn't involve putting a CD on, and I'm buggered if I can think of a better song than 'Six' at the minute.
We should have seen the end coming. The last three tracks are titled 'Slipping Away', 'Fool' and 'Taxloss', and the message is clear. Maybe it wasn't meant to last, but though this compilation attempts to put a full stop under everything, in death Mansun remain wonderfully confusing.
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