Mansun Retold

Paul Draper revisits his past with Mansun Retold, reworking eleven songs from his years at Mansun and reshaping them with a renewed perspective. Recorded at The Loft Studios in Surrey and co-produced with Paul “PDub” Walton, the album features arrangements from Audrey Riley’s string quartet and drums by Julian Fenton, who played with the band in their early days. Draper himself takes on acoustic bass, guitar and piano, presenting a stripped-back and more reflective take on tracks that once defined a turbulent moment in British alternative music.

From the hushed tension of ‘Dark Mavis’ to the stark candour of ‘I Can Only Disappoint U’, these songs become a conversation between Draper’s younger and older selves. He describes the project as choosing favourites from the Mansun catalogue that could be rebuilt by an unplugged acoustic band and reshaped for both new listeners and long-time followers.

Emerging from the era of ‘Attack of the Grey Lantern’, ‘Six’ and ‘Little Kix’, Mansun developed a devoted cult audience. Nearly three decades on, Draper returns to that world with a clear-eyed intent to reconsider — rather than recreate — the work that first defined him.