Pills 'n' Thrills And Bellyaches

Rock music criticism, for all its supposed involvement with such a debauched, rebellious industry, is overwhelmingly conservative and starchy, and brooks no deviation from the established diktats, demanding that tame, stuffy acts receive all the plaudits while the genuinely challenging and alive must get sidelined. Surely nobody seriously thinks that three Beatles albums belong in the top ten albums of all time? Or that U2 are somehow one of the mightiest living flag-bearers for rock 'n' roll (a mate of mine once sent me a series of links where contemporary reviewers had deemed each of U2's last 5 albums as "a return to form")? And then we have the infuriating case of the Happy Mondays, the greatest, most inventive, most iconic British group of the late 80s and early 90s, yet somehow certain critics blithely dismiss them as grubby also-rans to the Stone Roses, which leads to the patent absurdity of the Stone Roses receiving all the praise for fusing indie and dance with Fools Gold, despite the Mondays having done so earlier, more radically and better (Fools Gold doesn't really go anywhere, and its melody is oddly unmemorable for such a supposed anthem; at the same time, the Mondays were dazzling with the Madchester Rave On E.P.). One obvious reason why the critics did this: they felt they had to credit someone with such an innovation, but dance music was a wee bit tricky for them to comprehend, and anyway who wants to credit the Mondays, those slovenly thugs? No no, let's award the Roses, at least they didn't progress that far outside our ken. (For clarity's sake, I do like the Stone Roses, and will even assert that Second Coming is nowhere near as bad as its reputation suggests; well done critics, you managed to mess up there as well). So yes, it is clear to anyone with at least one partially functioning ear and an actual spine that the Mondays were not only the better band, but the ones who defined the epoch and the ones who belong more in the great rock pantheon. Kids, with that in mind, how good do you think Pills 'n' Thrills And Bellyaches is? With the fullness of time, everyone should be able to clock that PnTAB, along with much of the Mondays' back catalogue, set the agenda for much of the best British music of the 90s. Screamadelica's distillation of the E experience? The Mondays were first. Blur's sarky kitchen-sink vignettes? Grandbag's Funeral, take a bow. Jarvis Cocker's masturbation fantasies set to lyrics? Bob's Yer Uncle. Suede's flaneur sleaze? Who was ever sleazier than the Mondays? Oasis' magpie-like purloining of riffs of rock past? A technique itself purloined from the Mondays, the most brazen of thieves (literally: like their forefathers the Sex Pistols, they nicked all their instruments when starting out). The mainstreaming of dance music? Yes, other bands (significantly New Order) can claim more responsibility, but the superstar DJs of the 90s still owe quite a debt to the Mondays. It would make sense to call the Mondays the great codifiers of 90s British music, were they in any way interested in laws. Anyway, pointing out that PnTAB is influential is not the same as saying it's good, so I am fully tumescent with delight to preach to all you lost children that it's absurdly wonderful. Their previous album, the romantically titled Bummed, was also absurdly wonderful, but the two albums sound shockingly different from each other. Whereas Bummed is sordid and nebulous, PnTAB is sordid and sun-kissed, all acid house keyboards and crisp guitar melodies. PnTAB is also a textbook example of how to construct and order an album, without filler, with diversity of style yet unity of tone. How many other albums can make you dance like, well, Bez on one song, yet crack out the air guitar on the next, all the while making such a transition wholly organic? Along with this, the Mondays simply don't sound like any other band. The only bands to have come close are, as has been stated earlier, the bands who sought inspiration from these loony-tunes scallies. Your bog-standard insulated Radiohead fan will try to show disdain for the Mondays by saying they stole it all from Can and George Clinton, proving their foolishness by forgetting that the Mondays didn't care if they yoinked a melody or two, that the Mondays actually built skyscrapers on their thefts, and that the Mondays were so blisteringly original that even their pilfering couldn't detract from the fact that nothing on the planet resembled the Mondays at their peak, not even the multitude of bands that tried swiping a bit of the Mondays' shabby allure. Of course, I haven't mentioned the shiniest diamond on this jewel-bedecked album yet: Shaun Ryder's sheer magnficence as a lyricist. In my review of Meat is Murder, I spoke about the British songwriter's stance as the teller of uncomfortable truths. Shaun Ryder is an exemplar of that tradition, alongside Ray Davies, John Lydon and (quintessentially) Morrissey. Just take a look at the still-hilarious, still-biting opening couplet to album-opener Kinky Afro: Son, I'm 30 I only went with your mother 'cos she's dirty. The rest of the song, an inadequate father in utter self-pity pleading with his son to forgive him, but still too proud to apologise, with the son responding just as the father would have, understanding yet completely dismissive, remains one of the most astute character studies in all of rock (how many 90s indie songs repeat the trick of the singer explaining, "I get you, but fuck you anyway"?). Also note that, for all the hedonism the Mondays exhort, our Shaun's lyrics have not only thick strands of pessimism, but a worldly-wise stoicism. As the title says, pills 'n' thrills come with bellyaches. I have quoted one song. In fact, every song from the album can be quoted so, as demonstrations of Our Shaun's absolute lyrical expertise. Take Dennis and Lois: Honey, how's your breathing? If it stops for good, we'll be leaving. Or how about the chorus to God's Cop? God made it easy on me. That was intended to be a poke in the eye at the rabid, religiously zealous Chief Constable of Greater Manchester James Anderton, but it also serves as rather a nifty cocaine line (see what I did there?). Such pearlers cram, indeed constitute PnTAB. Shaun Ryder at his best is equal to Bob Dylan at his best, and Pills 'n' Thrills and Bellyaches is easily one of the five greatest British albums ever recorded. However, there remains the question: why did the Mondays blow it? As hagiographic as I have been, I must be honest and admit their flaws. The Mondays' embrace of pleasure led them to unremitting sexism (the year after PnTAB, they guest-edited an issue of Penthouse). After Shaun made an unwise comment made whilst high (he joked about "selling my arse for 50p", which some tabloids reported as a confession that he had been a rentboy), the Mondays made homophobic remarks when challenged by an admittedly hostile journalist. As a liberal type, these blemishes make me wince, but I hope I don't sound dismissive to say that their youthful prejudices do not diminish them in my eyes; they are my favourite band (duh), and they have meant so much to me that I will eulogise them, especially as their failings, their humanity, are part of the reason their artistry is so embraceable. My father was a homophobe, but that doesn't mean I stopped loving him. Love is not blind, but it is forgiving. To suggest some perspective, I believe it's easier to pardon the Mondays' regrettable epithets than, say, N.W.A.'s witless, self-parodic anthems to murdering prostitutes. Aside from that serious ugliness, I should talk about their record label: the barmy indie totem of Factory Records. Tony Wilson, the Yeats-and Debord-quoting newsreader who helmed Factory, declared that Factory's greatest achievement was shepherding two truly great bands, Joy Division/New Order and the Happy Mondays. He was right. He was also right about the (literal) price such shepherding cost. The collapse of Factory Records has become one of the monumental legends of music. Factory was losing money due to the crushing debts of their revolutionary white elephant club, the Haçienda, and the only option the label saw was to get the Mondays to record a fourth album. However, our Shaun had become addicted to heroin, and their manager got the bright idea to record the album in Barbados, an island free of heroin. There was no heroin on Barbados, but it was festooned with crack, the least creative drug of all. All the money Factory sent over, the Mondays spent on crack. They then sold the record equipment for crack, then they sold the studio furniture, then they sold their clothes. Eventually, when Factory got the master tapes from Barbados, they discovered Shaun hadn't recorded any vocals. They quickly bandied him to a studio in Surrey to finish the album, and the resultant album, Yes Please!, proved a substantially weakened follow-up and a commercially and (somewhat justified) critically catastrophic release. Factory went into administration and the Mondays split in internecine hatred, their legacy tarnished by their own druggy stupidity. Unfathomably, our Shaun and Bez managed a successful comeback with their next group Black Grape, producing one classic album in It's Great When You're Straight... Yeah!, and one duffer in Stupid Stupid Stupid. Black Grape broke up, and Shaun assembled a bastardised, pub-karaoke version of the Mondays in one of the tawdriest, most depressing reformations in music history, with our Shaun playing the pathetic jester for the sole intention of paying off tax bills based on name recognition alone (is every detail microscopically right? No matter, I'm printing the legend). Taking this all together, this is why critics have bestowed the baggy, pilled-up glories on the Stone Roses, glories that rightfully belong to the Happy Mondays. Just because you're the best doesn't mean you win. But why should I care? Why should the Mondays care? Despite everything, despite all the ignominy they proffered and invited, they already proved themselves one of the greatest bands of all time, with two of the greatest albums of all time, and some of the greatest songs of all time. Neither they nor I need to worry about some Pitchfork-scrutinising wanker declaring them too coarse and visceral for their milquetoast sensibilities. Nietzsche once wrote that the belly is the one reason man does not take himself for a god. The Happy Mondays assert that the belly is exactly why a man can be a god. Bez' father was a policeman.

Son, I'm 30 I only went with your mother 'cause she's dirty

I mean ... meh? There's legitimately nothing that stands out. As background music, it's utterly ignorable. Which means that there's also nothing BAD here. Nothing that snags the ear. It's just .. meh.

Didn’t particularly dig this. Nothing wrong with it but just meh. Very doesn’t belong on this list.

i don't know if its nature or nurture, is it good or is it because i'm a manc and its the law that you like the mondays? i'm going with it actually being good as i'm usually the type that if i'm told i have to like something i probably won't as it'll be bland and beige and i fucking love this album. stereotypes exist for a reason.

The sound of an indie band incorporating early rave and it actually works.

i thought i loved this album until i realised i didnt

That's not my taste in musik. But ok

I understand why this is such an important album for the Brits, but to Americans, it falls flat more than soars. It's a good album, but it's nothing earth shattering for us, and I don't think it rises above the stuff it inspired and brought about several years later with Brit-Pop and Brit-Rock of the mid to late 90's and early 00's.

Woof. Not good. And I love the idea of a happy monday

Yeah, this isn’t really it for me. Very bland aside from a few tunes. I get the appeal for some people, but I rather listen to something else! 4 out of 10

"I think that Shaun Ryder is on a par with W.B. Yeats as a poet." - Tony Wilson, founder of Factory records. He's not wrong and add to the mix the fact that Shaun's brother and rest of the Happy Mondays along with Paul Oakenfold were loved up geniuses.

For readers unaware of the Man known as Bez, Bex was a member of Happy Mondays. However, no discernible musical contribution, he. Bez’s sole function in the band was to stand on stage and shake his maracas. And that’s what this album is really - party music to shake your maracas, shake your hips, shake your ass. A fusion of dance music and indie which actually works and captures a time and a place. Try not to think to hard and just enjoy the ride.

I loved every minute of this album! Fun funky and fresh. A new favorite from a group I'd never even heard of!

With the recent creation of britpop in 1989, many new bands were emerging to pinpoint and define the sound of this very fresh new genre. Two of these bands were The Stone Roses and the Happy Mondays, however in my opinion the Happy Mondays 3rd album 'Pills n Thrills and Bellyaches' is much superior to any of the Stone Roses catalogue. This album perfectly balances between embracing the old, such as using classic guitar sounds and licks as well as bongos which are used to great effect, and pushing forward from the 80's into the 90's. The constant tempo and rhythmic change between songs gives you a constantly refreshing listen, and the beats are so damn addictive and you could listen to them for hours. This really is a benchmark album for music and usually flies under the radar for most people. GREAT!

Upbeat, fun album.

Really fun stuff I've never heard before

I’m trying to distance myself from the kind of fellow Manc who’s still walking around with bowl cuts and bucket hats in 2021, but I cannot deny that I genuinely think this is a great album. No standout tracks for me, but the whole record hangs together as such a mood. It was such a great production decision to get Paul Oakenfold involved. It’s not technically as good as the likes of The Stone Roses, but it is a bit more fun.

Eh

The last time we got a Brit-pop album I mentioned that I hoped that it was the last album of this wretched genre that I would have to listen to. Well, Surprise! ... those sneaky Brit authors have another one up their sleeve. Why can’t they spread their wings and offer up something different like the Bulgarian women choir or Tibetan throat singers instead of the same old boring Brit-pop? FML.

Wretched

The Mondays sure knew how to write a hook, didn't they? I'll spare you the effusive praise for this, but will note that this album and a few of its contemporaries basically spoiled me - for a good while I naively expected every new release to be of this quality, and was usually sorely disappointed. Of course, I have no expectations at all these days, just a fond memory trying to figure out the logistics of "Bob's Yer Uncle"

This Madchester scene is new to me but if they're all like this I'm going to have to check more out. This is really great stuff. Very dancey and psychedelic while still being clearly rock. I can hear a lot of influence on later dance punk and psych music I listen to.

Quality album this, really like it from start to finish

Really good groovy tunes

This album was a pleasant surprise. Never heard of these guys and I was intrigued when I saw Paul Oakenfold had a part in this production. I assumed it would be more heavily electronica than it was. I enjoyed the funky grooves. Great vibes!

This is a dissolute old acquaintance. I it has more hooks and more variety in pacing than I remembered. A live version of WFL I heard years ago is still my favourite work of theirs. A scary amount of time also I saw Bez DJ at the Exit Festival in Novi Sad. Actually, there was a dude next to him who seemed to be doing all the DJ-ing while Bez kept up something that could be called patter. I think I saw the actual DJ swat Bez’s hands away from a button or knob one time he tried to touch something. A fun set! My highlight was when he tried to rouse the crowd. “Yo Bosnia!” The crowd booed. “Yo Serbia!” The crowd cheered.

INXS did it first and better. Sounded pretty good though.

Rolling Stones vibes on a few tracks. I like the brightness in the percussion without the 90’s compressed vocals shoved down our ear holes. Cool album.

This might be a weird take but it sounds like what U2 would be if they were more indie / electronic sounding. Not sure if that’s a compliment or a criticism. Had never heard it before, and I was pleasantly surprised, but also didn’t hear anything mindblowingly memorable to warrant a 5 rating.

At Hawkins elementary I ate lunch in the cafeteria. We all had assigned seats and once you sat down, you weren't allowed to move until the lunch bell rang 35 mins. later. Kids, myself included, would eat the Little Debbie's first and then make our way through the PB&J's only to leave the less desirable food untouched. Others bought lunch which was stuff like pizza or mac'n cheese with fries, and limp veggies. Like limp and discolored, rubbery carrots and lima beans-type veggies. What kid eats lima beans ... like ever? Eating took roughly 20 mins. to complete. The remaining time was often spent pulverizing the leftovers and adding some ketchup and milk to create some disgusting concoction and then daring each other to drink it until the bell rang. Michael Gunter was the only kid I remember who actually followed through on the dare. I'd never heard of The Happy Monday's until today and after hearing it, I would've thought this would've been placed a little further into the '90s based on their sound. There's a lot of layers within the music, people talking, bong-ripps, white people rap, makeshift instrumentation, sampled loops and other superfluous noise that, when combined makes me think of Michael Gunter and cafeteria-time at Hawkins elementary. The result of this mish-mash is a deep, full-bodied experience that's messy and convoluted but not as terrible as you'd think. It almost makes me wonder if Michael Gunter actually enjoyed drinking that sludge. After all, he was awarded with a legendary status for that. But then I remembered he earned that for spewing chewed-up ketchup, lima-bean disaster milk all over Paul Pyle who was lucky enough to be in direct line of fire from Michael's pie hole. Paul Pyle, for his part, had to stay seated until the bell rang, was forced wear his stinky sweater for the remainder of the day and earned the nickname 'puke pile' for the rest of fifth grade.

This was not quite entirely my thing, which is a little surprising. I feel like Happy Mondays inspired some bands that I like more, and the Fall also embraced this kind of sound around the same time, and I like those albums. But this one was just fine to me. Sorry Happy Mondays, more like Adequate Tuesdays amirite?

I guess you had to be there/on ecstasy.

The first track was my favorite; the rest was fine.

Kinda just mediocre rock that isn't really special in anyway. Super forgettable.

Can we please be done with this Madchester stuff soon? I mean, how much can you milk the concept of The Slightly Shoegazing Rolling Stones with Acid House samples? It's tiresome. On some tracks they break out into a fun ruckus, which is alright but most of it is not. I went back to The Stone Roses (#65) for a quick comparison and while that one bored me, this here - with the front geezer loosely talking in his two or three notes all the time - is irritating. Cool cover, though.

more british mediocrity

1. kinky fro - 1 2. cop - 0 3. donovan - 0 4. funeral - 0 5. looze - 0 6. denniz - 0 7. uncle - 1.5 8. ztep - 1.5 9. holiday - 1 10. harmony - 1 11. ztep on - 0 12. kinky - 1 13. looze - 1 14 uncle - 1 15. man - 1

Wondering who I wronged in the world to get two Happy Mondays albums back to back. This has me feeling bummed out and with a bellyache, and I hope I never have to listen to this god-awful band again.

Awful album. No more words. Sounds like some mixtape from an amateur band.

Do you ever fantasize about being able to go back in time to experience the high points of musical history? Maybe it’s the 1920’ with jazz and speakeasies, or NYC in the 70s and CBGB. What about Swinging London in the 60s? All of that would be incredible to witness. Anyway, this album sucks ass and I am glad 90s rave culture passed me by. Good riddance.

A hugely important album to me. It came out when I was a teenager and showed that new music could be good, when I thought I'd missed all the good stuff that happened in the 60s etc. It still holds up today. Great music, great swagger.

I still remember the first time I heard this aged 13, a classic!

Brilliant. Love this album.

Huge fan of this. Again a large part of my musical awakening, the Mondays sound is just so full, and real. Plus they were from Salford, and so was I. You do wonder how they managed to make this when you saw what they got up to. Dennis and Lois is summer. Funky as fuck.

Perfect for a summer's day. Just a snapshot into the Madchester scene which still sounds good today. I'm surprised it hasn't aged more considering it was so of its time.

Dead on the floor tired but this is a lot of fun

Shambolic genius. High point of Madchester/baggy and indie/rave crossover. Album isn't perfect, but the best bits, stolen from all over and blended to perfection - Kinky Afro, Loose Fit, Step On etc are fantastic fun. It was a great time to be 16.

A perfect album now the sun is coming out. It's going alongside The Stone Roses debut and New Order's Technique as incredible summer day-drinking albums from '89/90. It has no clever messages really, just a hedonistic let's-get-fucked-up vibe which is enthralling. Rock and pop and funk and dance all come together wonderfully 05/05/24

Funky, druggy and tawdry, with that combination how could I give it less than five stars?

Crea un ambiente muy lindo en el cual estar, musicalmente tiene cosas interesantes. Por momentos me recordó a INXS.

Your first impression of an album is almost always the cover. So when I saw this egregiously colorful, vomit inducingly bright hodgepodge of what seems like old school candy and food wrappers, I knew I was in for something. I actually love this cover. It’s like a Where’s Waldo page. I can’t stop looking at it. This is like that CD you randomly find in a music store, and buy because you like to cover, but forget you own and never listen to. And it gave me an idea of what it might sound like before I had even heard a second of music. This is a product of its time in the best possible way. Released late into the first year of the 90’s, it seems as if they waited as long as they could and soaked up as much of the beginning of the era and the end of the 80’s as possible. This is so 90’s it would make millennials cry. From its cover art to its mix of acoustic and electronic drums to its jangly guitar riffs that are pumped so full of effects it’s almost like a shoegaze record. This has a song called Loose Fit for god sake, which is entirely a play on the trendy fashion style of the time period. And it’s just so damn creative. I was not bored for one second. It’s an album that totally warrants and deserves a front to back listen with no breaks. It’s not too long and provides a unique flavor of the same vibe with every song. This makes me want to throw on some baggy pants and skate around my neighborhood, but I’m not capable of doing either of those things, so this works. The worst part about this is that the title is Pills 'n' Thrills and Bellyaches and not Pills, Thrills and Bellyaches. Rating: 10/10!

Heaps of fun, like a more intriguing version of the Stone Roses

Masterpiece. Amazing album.

Mega fedt! Klart noget der skal ind i min rotation. 3 banger tracks, og det har bare hjerte og spiller. Mega fedt cover også

That's a nice punky album

You talk so hip you’re twisting my melons man. Nonsense was never so cool You probably had to be there but if you were this is close to perfection. 30 odd years disappear in an instant

Best so far

All the hits a great swooshy diy rave guitar bender. Could something like this happen again id like to think so.

Tried to put aside my preconceptions about this, buts it's still a five star album all day long.

Good fun. Not sure about the intentionally off singing, but I enjoyed it and like their musical output. I pushed it from 4 to 5 stars purely because it would be funny if this was our group's top rated album.

Kinky Afro is one of my favorite songs of all time. Listening to the album again, I realize how great Harmony is too. The rest is more like 4* but I'll give it 5* for Kinky Afro.

Wow

Amazing

This album is ridiculously listenable to - bearing in mind that it's not clear how much the band played on it, how much was due to production wizadry, and it is clear how Sean Ryder was 'vocalist' rather than singer. Along with the first Stone Roses album a memento of a quite uniquely British artform: baggy.

It's an album so tied up with the British music movement of late 80s/90s, that I wonder what other nationalities make of it. Some guys stole some instruments, learned to bash out a tune and worked out that the guy they gave the mic to was a genius. Working class boys played in guitar bands and hoped to be famous and get out of the terrible lives they had. This gang of boys then took some ecstasy, went to the Hacienda and discovered rave. Then rather than throwing their guitars away and becoming a dance band they put it together. OK there were producers that helped, but this was the moment it all worked. They were too much of a shambles to be a stadium band, or to dry out or to keep it all together for a few more albums. But on this album, in that year, they created something absolutely unique and brilliant.

Brilliantly sunny tunes, so evocative of the early 90s. From the party classic Step On to the superbly cheeky Bob's Yer Uncle, it's a great ride, pun intended. You're twisting my melon man!

4.5

Amazing vibes

Not the most outstanding album here but I had a good time.

Liked this much, much more than the other HM album. Best pure 90s album I think on this list. It's northern, working class and full of upbeat hopefulness which defined the decade.

A gobby smartarse yelling over Balearic fusion with a heavy dose of studio gloss. It shouldn't work, but it does. Loads of fun, catchy tunes and memorable lyrics. Favourite song: 'Dennis and Lois'.

Know iit well

I'd forgotten how much joy I get out of listening to Happy Mondays, something about them just makes me ummm Happy. Fave songs Kinky Afro, Loose Fit, Bob's Yer Uncle, Step On.

Bloody love this album. Best opening line of any album

Such a massive vibe. Reminds me of Spiritualized but more party

I really liked this album. The voice compliments the music very well, and either by itself would simply be doing this album a disfavor. The music is great in that the melodies draw you in and keep you there. Many songs have a sort of pop feeling to them or at the very least an upbeat tone. In addition, there are some funk-inspired songs, which is a plus for me personally. Overall, it was a very enjoyable experience. Favorite track: God’s Cop

I got "Bummed" a couple of days ago and really liked it, so I went into this one thinking it would be on the same level of enjoyment; however, I was disappointed. The album cover is really cool, and I think fits the genre and style they were going for. The album feels like a mellowed down version of "Bummed," a more radio friendly version that takes a lot less risks. This album is still enjoyable, but I think this one is just not as good as "Bummed." The lyrics are a little more bland on this album, and the songs are more upbeat which, in my opinion, isn't an improvement over "Bummed"'s sound. I do have some praises over "Bummed" though. The flow of the album is much better. It is a much more coherent album, and it does this by taking less risks. The psychedelic tone still comes through on many tracks and (in most cases) done much better than on "Bummed." Highlights: 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, and 10.

super cool

Kinky Afro is pretty good

Very good, love the ambience of the first track, love the chaos of the second one, and the in-between chaos and calm of the last 2. Fantastic album.

I've never heard of this band before, but I'm glad I now have because every song on this album is a total banger.

Incredible, vinyl quality

Good vibes

Great album. Really bridges the gap between new wave and Britpop. I will definitely be returning to this album

This album was ever-present for me in college (roommate's favorite) but I did not own it myself. I wasn't really into it at the time (I was more into classic rock) but appreciated it way more now. Would listen again.

Sorpresa grata. La verdad me la pasé muy bien con este disco, tiene que su rock, que su eclecticismo, que sus beats, que sus texturas chidas, que sus vocales culeros que suenan edgy. Desde la flauitita de bobs yer uncle, la onda britpop de Gods Cop, hasta las vibras de The Doors en Grandsbag Funeral, un disco que no aburre. Mood: 0% skips.

Manchester. I’m not a great fan of this stuff but it’s significant. And this is a good example. 3.5

In the immortal words of David St Hubbins, it's such a fine line between stupid and clever. And this band is right on that line. Were the Happy Mondays a bunch of ham-fisted, untalented, drug-addled chancers and plagiarists who stumbled into a music career as a cover for their ecstasy dealing, or were they the outsider poet geniuses of a new postmodern musical scene that melded indie and dance? Well, kind of both... The band's management were really smart in following through on the wonderful Wrote For Luck single, where Paul Oakenfeld and Steve Osborne had produced an excellent and innovative remix. it was an unusual call to hire remixes to produce the whole album, but it works. The band are technically limited (and that's being a bit generous), but the groovy dance production courtesy of Oakenfeld and Osborne suits them well. The dance production really highlights their strengths and covers up their weaknesses as a band (particularly the inept drumming). Some of the songs here are a bit rubbish, clearly the result of some pretty forgettable jamming, but edited and cobbled together by Oakenfeld and Osborne into a seemingly coherent and eminently danceable album. Overdubbing Rowetta's vocals over a number of the songs helps a great deal, too. I find Sean Ryder's loose and impressionistic lyrics both infuriatingly stupid and also full of fresh and surprising imagery. He can't really sing, but he can get the point across. The Mondays didn't really have their own musical ideas: they pilfer and grab musical snippets from wherever they please. But when they play back their magpie gleanings, they emerge in an idiosyncratic and unfiltered way that actually is something fresh. This accidental innovation is a mixture of lack of musical knowledge, carelessness, low inhibitions, and heavy drug use. I suspect this sounds great if you are off your head on acid. I'm sure this was great in the Hacienda in 1990, but at the end of the day, all I can really hear is the drugs. So many drugs. 3.5 stars

Heard of but never heard. Instant like. Added to my faves.

I enjoyed this much more than I thought I would. Four stars from me.

Rating: 9/10 Amazing, simultaneously catchy, psychedelic, and creative.

Cool, fun Madchester album. "Kinky Afro" and "Step On" are both pretty great. 4 stars.

A good time capsule record. Like Life On Mars-ing to the grottiest, dingiest Madchester nightclub, investigating and hanging out with all the lowlife and having a mildly decent time. Chief gargoyle Shaun Ryder comes up with lots of memorable lines and you really hear chief dancer Bez’s contributions too. Gold is struck on the super ravey, earwormy and iconic Step On along with Lady Marmalade rip-off Kinky Afro and Loose Fit. The rest is generally ok but not especially catchy and it’s mainly helped by the dance beats which do tend to be more comedownish than partytastic. Grandbag’s Funeral and Bob’s Yer Uncle probably the two other main highlights. Low 4 stars. “You’re twisting my Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, man”

One remembers these cats as drug-addled knuckleheads, however awesome-timely-appropos their tunes were for a narrow set of circumstances (dark and late, clubs and drugs). But this record holds up well and substantively enough to cause one to rethink that real-time thesis. There's more proper rock (some roaring and snaggletoothed guitars; some most infectious drumming [or drum programming]) to this than one recals, with the club music tropes, effects and sub-structures adding compelling flourishes and intensifying glorious hooks. See how "God's Cup" ends with ripping/shearing guitars, staccato, stringy synth pulses, and controlled but driving drums – what a poweful mix to serve both club and arena (or headphones). "Kinky Afro" is a great opener, from the vaguely ominous acoustic strumming that starts thing to the "yipee-yippee-ya-ya-yay" call at end. "Bob's Yer Uncle" is not just a masterpiece of sexy sleaze, but offers a touch of haunt to make it most memorable. "Step On" is just as excellent, but in an orgiastic, ebullient mode ("twistin' my melon, man!") – these were happy drugs taking effect. "God's Cop" and "Loose Fit" are also highly effective. Just great and so fun to be reminded of just how much so.

There's some cracking tracks on here, but it's still only the third best album by the Monday. Blinders like Kinky Afro and Step on are surrounded by average fare like Donovan and Dennis and Lois. You get the impression here they succumbed to their own success. They got far enough up their own arseholes that the record stood until Oasis came along. Still worth a listen though

Donovan Bob‘s yer uncle

Pretty enjoyable

Need to start by complaining about the fact that there are two Happy Mondays albums on this list (at the same time - this isn't a case of removing one and replacing it). When I got "Bummed" I complained that they reminded me of James who don't have an album on the list (even though Happy Mondays opened for them!). Also, the lyrics on Bummed were so crass I took a point away from my rating. The good news is that this album is much better, sounds more unique, and the lyrics aren't so crass (except Bob's Yer Uncle <insert eye roll emoji>). I still question why this band needed two albums on the list, but this album was a fun listen and the lyrics didn't detract this time. If the editors ever revise the 1001 going back further than the last 10 - 20 years they should remove Bummed and keep this album. I'd listen again, so that's a 4 for me. Favorite tracks: Kinky Afro (reminded me a bit of The The), Donovan (do I hear an 80s King Crimson-type guitar line? Noice), Loose Fit, Step On (cover of "He's Gonna Step On You Again" by John Kongos - 1971 - the original is pretty cool. Check it out).

An important album at an important time for UK music. I can imagine if you aren’t from the UK and/or late 80’s/early 90’s wasn’t your thing then you might not like or understand the album. Or you probably like Velvet Underground 🤮