Album Review: Paul Draper - "Cult Leader Tactics"

 

Paul Draper's second solo album following his extended hiatus after the break-up of Mansun was something I was excited to see land in my reviews pile. As I've mentioned when I did an SFTJ on Mansun many moons ago, I loved the band's classic debut Attack of the Grey Lantern but subsequent releases never really did it for me. Having missed Draper's comeback, 2017's Spooky Action, I was interested to see how his sound had evolved since those halcyon days.

Similar to a lot of Mansun's work, Cult Leader Tactics is an album with a theme running through it, in this case people using manipulation to get what they want. Whether it's fraudulent self-help gurus (the title track), dysfunctional relationships (You've Got No Life Skills, Baby!), sniping critics (Talkin' Behind My Back) or the serial liars governing this country (Internationalle), there's a fair amount of Draper's trademark venom here and it's a much better album for it.

Musically, it's solid as well - you can definitely recognise the traits of the classic Mansun sound here but as songs like Dirty Trix with its synths and trippy drum machines or the full on early '80s synth pop with teeth soundalike Everyone Becomes A Problem Eventually (which appears to be about some of the friendships Draper made in the music business which have now turned sour) show, there's been an evolution going on here as well to bring things up to date with the times.

Overall, Cult Leader Tactics is the sound of Draper at his acid-tongued sharpest and makes for 40 minutes of enjoyably sinister and uncomfortable listening. A soundtrack for these weird dystopian times we live in, it's definitely well worth your investigation.

Bandcamp Link

NITE SONGS RATING: 🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌑🌑 (8/10)

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