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Mansun are Paul, Chad, Stove and Andie... They have hit the singles chart with titles such as 'Take It Easy Chicken', 'Stripper Vicar' and this track, the pulsating Top15 hit 'Wide Open Space'.
It might have seemed more logical to use the bigger and more recent hit 'She Makes My Nose Bleed', but posterity has rather vindicated this selection. Though far from their biggest chart hit in the UK, 'Wide Open Space' is perhaps their most-remembered song nowadays - it's also the closest they came to a hit in the US, although that's still not very close to be fair.
Not unlike James, there was always something rather self-admiring about Mansun, and their obsession with gimmickry and in-references. Nonetheless, I have to hand it to Paul Draper, who wrote produced and sang this (apparently he claims to have played all the instruments as well): this is a brilliant piece of record-making, cleverly arranged for multiple guitars, pianos and Mellotron. Importantly there's enough variation in the arrangement to hold your attention without it distracting from the melody. The words were apparently an afterthought, which is a good excuse for me not to try and make sense of them - but don't think I didn't notice you slipping the word "bugger" into the backing vocals, Draper! Tut tut. It's not the rudest word ever on a Now! album but that's another story.
My one complaint is that the edit featured here (and on other compilation albums) has a rather inadequate fade (presumably because somebody was afraid of running into the next track) rather than the full close of the original single and video.
Also appearing on: Now 40
Available on: Attack Of The Grey Lantern (Collectors Edition)
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