| Release Date: | ?????, 1997 | Track Listing for CD1: | 1.closed for business 2.k.i.double s.i.n.g. 3.everyone must win 4.the world's still open |
| Track Listing for CD2: | 1.closed for business 2.dark mavis [acoustic] 3.stripper vicar [live] |
Lyrics
Closed for Business
Reviews:
"Closed For Business"
Flushed with success after the "Attack Of The Grey Lantern" LP, Mansun's reinventions take new form with this grandoise, epic little number. Similar in style to Radiohead's "Paranoid Android", this at first seems formless, with orchestras tuning up, meandering acoustic doodlings and a big swoonsome chorus. After a couple of listens however, this lodges into your mind and expands into a thing of some loveliness: music to dream to. By taking this grand romantic direction, Mansun do themselves nothing but good, as they are up there with the best of the Manics and Radiohead when it comes to passion.
First song on CD1 "K.I.Double.S.I.N.G." opens with the sound of "Holidays In The Sun" goosestepping, which runs throughout this sixities-influenced classic, echoing surf guitar wrapping round the playground ditty lyrics. The sound of an intelligent band experimenting and having fun, it is - like Suede and (grudgingly) Oasis manage to do - a b-side with the Mansun/Howard Devoto collaboration. Starting off scarily like Sigue Sigue Sputnik, this soon improves into a sci-fi soundtrack, with the song itself phasing in and out of the electro-mix like the Tardis. Another non-disposable b-side. Last up is "The World's Still Open", the most traditional "indie" song on the EP and the one with the biggest Tune. Slightly psychedelic and Beatles-y, most bands would be happy to put this one first.
This EP proves that "Attack.." was no fluke, and that Mansun are producing some of the most vital and exciting music around today. Out in a field of their own now, having left most influences behind, they are a band to pin your hopes to. Watch them burn.
The second CD contains an acoustic version of "Dark Mavis" and a live take on "Stripper Vicar". Classics both. This CD also has a multimedia section (the infamous "Taxloss" video plus more), but I can never get these things to work. Bloody computers.
Rating: 10/10