Mansun - Legacy - The Best Of Mansun

This greatest hits compilation should be greeted with the rapture and worship it deserves by the swelling ranks of Emos you see clustering around Cockburn Street of a weekend. More than any other band (save maybe Placebo), Mansun managed to turn the tide against the sports-gear clad, proto-Chav deadweight of late Britpop. Live, they were incredible, displaying a prog-rock extravagance, both sonic and visual, that made Supergrass and Blur's 'lawks-a-lawdy guv'nor' routine look like camp music hall, and Oasis look like the bunch of dreary, talentless hooligans they in fact were. Mansun were a little camp, somewhat hooligan, and were deadly serious about both.

Their concept album 'Attack of the Grey Lantern' was a melodramatic masterpiece, songs playing out the League of Gentleman-esque drama of Mavis and her transsexual priest father, immortalised in Stripper Vicar. Paul Draper's lyrics had the casual offhanded English-ness of Damon Albarn's work, but were sung in an epic rock caterwaul, somewhere between Bowie and Freddie Mercury.

The surreal touches in Egg Shaped Fred, Taxlo$$, and The Chad Who Loved Me made his lyrics feel timeless, even when they were shallow. Their look was immaculate – the Manics' army chic and eyeliner, but worn in an infinitely more masculine way. Their gigs were all savage carnality and purple passion – Mansun were a band that even made men wet. Their influence can be felt today in bands like the late Hope of The States and The Futureheads.

At the time, Mansun were one of the few British bands that made sense – they made grunge's awful transition to nu-metal irrelevant by being ours; at the same time they were the cure for Britpop. Their demise was a sore point, but getting to hear Wide Open Space, I Can Only Disappoint You, and Being A Girl again makes it worth the abandonment. Thank you, Mansun, for putting the mystery and drama back into British music. Now re-form and get back in the studio! [Bram Gieben]