After the success last year of their No 1 debut album Attack Of The Grey Lantern, and eight hit singles, Mansun release their second album Six on 07/09/98.

Recording the new album began late last year and has continued on and off until June this year. Gone are the samplers and strings, though the sense of sound and lyrical exploration is massively heightened. Also gone is the characterisation that informed the first album.

"One big difference is the lyrics", says frontman Paul Draper. "My words for the last album were trying to tell a story but the new lyrics are much more personal. On the first album we were singing from the perspective of people who’d never been out of Chester.

"This record was a lot easier than the first one. For a lot of reasons we were more of a studio band. Having toured non-stop for nearly 3 years, this time in the studio, we set up in a circle and played live. The new songs are much better live than our earlier stuff. The earlier stuff had a lot of samplers and strings on, so when we played it live, it became more punky. This time our songs sound exactly the same."

Paul describes the results as "Very popy in a really weird way. We wanted to do something different. 12 months after Grey Lantern, every f**ker’s releasing string-drenched ballads, which is the last thing we’d want to do now. There are tracks that aren’t even 2 minutes long. We’ve been listening to Captain Beefheart, old Prince bootlegs and Talking Heads".

Mansun’s next single Being A Girl will be out on 24/08/98.

All work, words, quotes, and everything on this page was taken directly from Radio 1