*** Mansun

ATTACK OF THE GREY LANTERN

(Epic)

Back in their native England, Mansun's debut CD has already garnered favorable comparisons with Radiohead's moody The Bends. But its daring and the accomplished breadth of grandiose musical styles and sounds is probably closer in vision to a Brit-pop answer to the Smashing Pumpkins' sweeping Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. On Attack of the Gray Lantern Mansun start with your basic guitar/bass/drums/ vocals and add hip-hop beats, atmospheric keyboards, and other assorted noises (record scratches, church bells, cows). The disc has everything from gorgeous mid-tempo pop ("Naked Twister" and "Mansun's Only Love Song") to raunchy guitar anthems ("Take It Easy, Chicken," "Egg Shaped Fred," and the single "Wide Open Space") to a pair of superb string-laden ballads that bookend the album ("The Chad Who Loved Me" and "Dark Mavis"). And it's all produced with precocious confidence by 23-year-old singer Paul Draper, proving he may just be England's answer to Billy Corgan. Where Draper will go from here is anyone's guess. But he's certainly created a stunningly ambitious foundation on which to build.

-- Ben Heller