Something happened earlier this year which we had no right to expect – a fine new Happy Mondays album. With Shaun Ryder’s stock as high as it has been since the first Black Grape album, now is a good time to re-asses these two albums.
Bummed, which originally came out in 1988, fuses rock guitar with more the rhythmic elements of both Northern Soul and the growing rave scene. The album kicks off with ‘Country Song’, which is the Happy Monday’s attempting country music, but not like any country music that you will have heard before. After this interesting start the album heads more towards the dance/rock mix which the Happy Mondays are known for. Singles such as ‘Wrote For Luck’ and’ Lazyitis’, although failing to chart, were big favourites around Manchester. The reissued version includes the ‘Rave On’ EP from 1989 and a series of remixes, two tracks stand out in particular – a six and a half minute ‘Club Mix’ version of ‘Hallelujah’, and ‘Lazyitis’ (One Armed Boxer), which features country singer Karl Denver, and is well worth hearing.
Pills’n’Thrills & Bellyaches from 1990 could be considered their breakthrough album, containing hits such as ‘Kinky Afro’, ‘Loose Fit’ and ‘Step On’. The album is more focused than its predecessor, and the production from Paul Oakenfold brings more dance elements into the music. ‘Kinky Afro’ opens the album in style with its infectious chorus, chain saw guitar and hypnotic drum beats. ‘God’s Cop’ continues the aural assault with lyrics taking in such topics as handing out fish, getting stoned with the chief, and Shaun Ryder proclaiming that ‘God makes it easy for me’. The third track ‘Donovan’ is a bass driven comedown after the first two songs, but this is then followed up with the fury of ‘Grandbag’s Funeral’. The album continues with Loose Fit and ‘Dennis And Louis’, before the tender and romantic ‘Bob’s Yer Uncle’ (that is tender and romantic by the Happy Monday’s standards, and features a hushed Shaun Ryder asking ‘What do you want to hear while we are making love’). The wonderful ‘Step On’, with it’s magnificent refrain ‘You’re twisting my melon, man’, and ‘Holiday’ (basically a re-recorded ‘Moving In With’ from Bummed), lead up to the last track ‘Harmony’, a strange reworking of ‘I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing’. This was a fantastic album when it origianllly cam out, and still sounds fresh today. The re-issued version comes with 4 fairly ordinary remixes, extra song ‘Tokoloshie Man’, and a DVD of their videos from ‘Tart Tart’ through to ‘Judge Fudge’.
