Little Kix
| Little Kix | ||||
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| Studio album by Mansun | ||||
| Released | 14 August 2000 | |||
| Recorded | 2000 | |||
| Studio | Astoria on the River Thames | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 52:14 | |||
| Label | Parlophone | |||
| Producer | Hugh Padgham, Michael Hunter | |||
| Mansun chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Little Kix | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |    |
| Leonard's Lair | |
| NME | (3/10) |
| Pitchfork Media | (6.8/10) |
| Select | |
Little Kix is the third album by English alternative rock band Mansun, released on 14 August 2000. It marked a departure from their previous style, employing a more commercial sound.
Little Kix was Mansun’s third album, and was a dramatic turnaround of the band's sound after the sprawling Six, dropping its predecessor’s prog rock styling for a more commercial and soulful sound. The album was recorded in difficult circumstances in Pink Floyd's old studio on a boat, Astoria. For the first time, bandleader Paul Draper wasn't producing the music in any capacity. Hugh Padgham was hired instead. Theoretically Padgham should have had a good affinity with the group as he had previously worked with David Bowie one of the group's major influences.
It later transpired that Draper had been removed from his position of band producer by the record company, to make sure that the album was more "independent local radio friendly". The band found themselves in serious conflict with the record company, which insisted on lyrics being changed and songs that the band had written off being pushed to the fore as singles. Draper cited "Forgive Me" as a particular example where what he described as a Prince homage was stripped of its sexual and ironic lyrics at the record company’s insistence and wound up sounding earnest and pretentious.
Draper states in the liner notes of Legacy: The Best of Mansun that "Fool" was intended as a throwaway Jimmy Webb track. He explains that, reading a book on song writing by Jimmy Webb "...Inspired me to write an ironic song that is now my least favourite Mansun track. Bowie intro, comical chorus lyrics and guess what? The label wanted it as a fucking single! I couldn’t believe it". Prior to the release of "Fool" it had been rumoured that the band had suggested rerecording "Until the Next Life". On a fan Q&A Draper stated that the working method was greatly different from his work on the former two albums. He wrote: "Little Kix was the only album I had to make demos for, the rest I just made up as I went along".
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Wikipedia