Over-Ambitious
Things are getting a little weird down Chester way.

Six takes its name from an AA Milne book, Now We Are Six, and Mansun view Milne's Winnie The Pooh character as an exemplary figure, going through life, as he did, free of cynicism.  The choice of mascot proves telling as Six defines itself by its high ambitions which skirt the borders of ridicule.  The ambitions are to be admired, the realisation perhaps less so.

The samplers and strings approach of their successful debut, Attack of the Grey Lantern, has been set aside in favour of a guitar and FX pedals tack. More importantly, they have attempted a musical complexity, which insists that the (very long) songs should repeatedly change their rhythm and texture mid-flow.  The words "progressive" and "rock" could be mentioned. Noting different tracks is irrelevant - it's all a collection of parts, some pretty seductive, but it tends to get lost in the non-stop embroidery, over which frontman Paul Draper intones as if singing high philosophy.

There's definitely talent at work, but they need an editor: simplicity need not be the mark of the simple-minded.

(2/5) Robert Yates