Julian Cope presents Head Heritage

Funny, I've been away for a few days, but found myself pondering a similar subject - 'next biggest thing' bands that utterly failed to deliver - that led me onto a prime example a band taking a glorious wrong turn: Mansun's Six album. I wasn't a huge fan of their debut (Attack of the Grey Lantern, rubbish title) but I really liked the lead single from Six (the distinctly Police-like Being a Girl), so took a punt... Blimey, with a sound that's Pro-Tooled within an inch of its life, it swings wildly between genius and unlistenable, often within the same song, but it ain't half ambitious/odd - imagine if the Manics had done OK Computer. Topped off with this atrocity of a sleeve http://www.a-reminder.org/music/?p=2425 - like Pendragon, only worse - it's no surprise that it sank their chances of before they'd even really got going. Their third and final album was lacklustre, tail-between-the-legs wimp rock - lead single 'I Can Only Disappoint You' said it all...