Happy Mondays | ||
| Allmusic Biography : Along with the Stone Roses, Happy Mondays were the leaders of the late-80s/early-90s dance club-influenced Manchester scene, experiencing a brief moment in the spotlight before collapsing in 1992. While the Stone Roses were based in 60s pop, adding only a slight hint of dance music, Happy Mondays immersed themselves in the club and rave culture, eventually becoming the most recognizable band of that drug-fueled scene. The Mondays music relied heavily on the sound and rhythm of house music, spiked with 70s soul licks and swirling 60s psychedelia. It was bright, colorful music that had fractured melodies that never quite gelled into cohesive songs. Unwittingly or not, Happy Mondays personified the ugly side of rave culture. They were thugs, purely and simply -- they brought out the latent violence that lay beneath the surface of any drug culture, even one as seemingly beatific as Englands late-80s/early-90s rave scene. Under the leadership of vocalist Shaun Ryder, the group sounded and acted like thugs, especially in comparison with their peace-loving peers, the Stone Roses. Ryders lyrics were twisted and surrealistic, loaded with bizarre pop culture references, drug slang, and menacing sexuality. Appropriately, their music was as convoluted. Happy Mondays were one of the first rock bands to integrate hip-hop techniques into their music. They didnt sample, but they borrowed melodies and lyrics and, in the process, committed rock blasphemy. For a band that celebrated their vulgarity and excessiveness, Happy Mondays appropriately were undone by their addictions, but they left behind a surprisingly influential legacy, apparent in everyone from dance bands like the Chemical Brothers to rock & rollers like Oasis. With their second album, 1988s Bummed, Happy Mondays became British superstars, particularly Ryder. Pills n Thrills and Bellyaches, released in 1990, marked the height of the bands popularity, creativity, and influence; although the record made the Top 100 albums chart in America, it didnt establish them as stars in the U.S. After that, the fall was quick. By the time they released their next studio album, Yes, Please, Manchester had disappeared from public consciousness; it sold respectably, but the group didnt have the commercial impact that they had just two years before. Besides the lack of public interest, Shaun Ryder had become addicted to heroin, tearing the band apart in the process. At a high-level record contract meeting, Ryder walked out for some "Kentucky Fried Chicken," which was the bands slang for heroin. He never returned and the group quickly fell apart. Ryder and the Mondays full-time dancer, Bez, re-emerged in the mid-90s with Black Grape. The band released its critically acclaimed debut, Its Great When Youre Straight...Yeah, late in the summer of 1995. Black Grapes sound pursued the same direction as the Mondays, only with a harder, grittier edge to their sound and lyrics. In 2007, 15 years since their last record, the band (minus about half the original members, including guitarist Mark Day) released their fifth studio album, Uncle Dysfunktional. | ||
 | Album: 1 of 17 Title: The Peel Sessions Released: Tracks: 7 Duration: 29:05 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 Kuff Dam (04:20) 2 Freaky Dancin (04:24) 3 Olive Oil (03:24) 4 Cob 20 (05:16) 5 Tart Tart (04:41) 6 Mad Cyril (03:57) 7 Do It Better (03:02) |
 | Album: 2 of 17 Title: Forty Five EP Released: 1985-09 Tracks: 3 Duration: 11:35 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Delightful (03:38) 2 This Feeling (04:17) 3 Oasis (03:40) |
 | Album: 3 of 17 Title: Squirrel and G-Man Twenty Four Hour Party People Plastic Face Carnt Smile (White Out) Released: 1987-09 Tracks: 10 Duration: 36:16 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Kuff Dam (03:06) 2 Tart Tart (04:25) 3 ’enery (02:22) 4 Russell (04:53) 5 Olive Oil (02:36) 6 Weekend S (02:23) 7 Little Matchstick Owen (03:42) 8 Oasis (03:45) 9 24 Hr Party People (04:40) 10 Cob 20 (04:21) |
| Squirrel and G-Man Twenty Four Hour Party People Plastic Face Carnt Smile (White Out) : Allmusic album Review : Happy Mondays debut album was in retrospect a false start, but not as much of one as has been claimed. Production by John Cale was an odd choice -- certainly fewer bands were out there who had less of an open connection to the Welsh legends musical approach -- but the end results capture the cluttering mess of the bands approach well enough. The wild card is the presence of original member Paul Davis on keyboards, who adds some subtle touches throughout that make the band sound a touch more relaxed than they really were, as on "Oasis." (Bez wasnt around at this point -- but then again, was he ever around even when he was in the band?) Shaun Ryder certainly is well on his own way, though, his attitude-laden delivery already finding the perfect balance between random incomprehensibility, sharp images, and inspired nonsense. The albums standout track and more or less title cut "24 Hour Party People" -- ironically only included after the fact when the song "Desmond" had to be pulled for its blatant Beatles borrowing -- is a blast, a partying call to arms that is all about fun and chaos at once. If the remainder of the album can mostly be called a fusion of disco-tinged funk and Ryders vocal insanity, though, its still a great fusion, not quite the heights of the near future, but by no means a washout. The combination of slick and rough on songs like the well-groovy "Tart Tart" is offset by the quiet prettiness of the band at points. "Olive Oil" sounds a bit like a queasy Smiths song and both "Cob 20" and "Kuff Dam" almost sound a bit like the Cure. CD copies of the album include a variant of "Little Matchstick Owen" called "Little Matchstick Owens Rap," which originally appeared as the B-side to "Tart Tart." | ||
 | Album: 4 of 17 Title: Bummed Released: 1988-11 Tracks: 10 Duration: 37:30 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Country Song (03:24) 2 Moving in With (03:36) 3 Mad Cyril (04:36) 4 Fat Lady Wrestlers (03:25) 5 Performance (04:09) 6 Braindead (03:10) 7 Wrote for Luck (06:05) 8 Bring a Friend (03:45) 9 Do It Better (02:29) 10 Lazy Itis (02:48) |
| Bummed : Allmusic album Review : Only a year after the intermittently thrilling Squirrel and G-Man, Happy Mondays snapped into focus on its sophomore album, 1988s Bummed. "Focus" is an odd word for the persistently addled, violently hedonistic Mondays, yet Bummed has its own peculiar drug logic, loping into view with the two-stepping "Country Song," a cut so twisted it goes far beyond irony, then settling into the dense groove of "Moving In With," its hook buzzing and circling, causing a cacophony. Such vivid, concrete textures are a hallmark of producer Martin Hannett, the Mancunian legend who has been brought on board to give the Happy Mondays direction by doing the opposite of what he did with Joy Division. His production for Unknown Pleasures was stark, austere, but Bummed is all smeared colors and harsh edges, a fistful of razors and menace cutting viciously into the subconscious. This is nasty, nightmarish music delivered with a lascivious leer by Shaun Ryder, a hallucinatory accidental poet portrayed on the albums garish cover as some kind of harlot put out to pasture. Decadence has rarely sounded as dangerous as it did in the hands of the Mondays and this is where they reveled in that debauchery, pumping out stiff psychedelic funk as Ryder spat out rhymes of luck, lazyitis and fat lady wrestlers. Hannetts bright, brittle production amplifies everything, creating a swirling hyper-reality thats almost a sonic black hole sucking everything into its vortex -- slide guitars, sound clips from "Performance," maniacally looped drum machines, Beatles melodies, drums that are pushed to the front of the mix so it all is a relentless assault, from the ears down to the loins. As jagged and lacerating as all this is, theres a sense of evil glee, that the Mondays want to drag you down to their level, but theres no sense of seduction here; youre either with them or not, as Bummed is music for after youve already succumbed to the dark side. | ||
 | Album: 5 of 17 Title: Madchester Rave On EP Released: 1989-11 Tracks: 4 Duration: 18:55 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 Hallelujah (06:23) 2 Holy Ghost (02:50) 3 Clap Your Hands (03:29) 4 Rave On (06:11) |
 | Album: 6 of 17 Title: The Peel Sessions: 1989 Released: 1990 Tracks: 3 Duration: 11:20 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 Tart Tart (04:35) 2 Mad Cyril (03:50) 3 Do it Better (02:55) |
 | Album: 7 of 17 Title: Hallelujah Released: 1990-03-20 Tracks: 7 Duration: 34:28 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 Hallelujah (MacColl mix) (02:40) 2 Clap Your Hands (03:29) 3 Holy Ghost (02:49) 4 Rave On (06:12) 5 Hallelujah (club mix) (06:27) 6 Rave On (club mix) (05:39) 7 W.F.L. (Think About the Future mix) (07:12) |
 | Album: 8 of 17 Title: Pills ’n’ Thrills and Bellyaches Released: 1990-04 Tracks: 10 Duration: 43:54 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Kinky Afro (03:59) 2 God’s Cop (04:58) 3 Donovan (04:04) 4 Grandbag’s Funeral (03:20) 5 Loose Fit (05:07) 6 Dennis and Lois (04:24) 7 Bob’s Yer Uncle (05:10) 8 Step On (05:17) 9 Holiday (03:28) 10 Harmony (04:02) |
| Pills ’n’ Thrills and Bellyaches : Allmusic album Review : At their peak, the Happy Mondays were hedonism in perpetual motion, a party with no beginning and no end, a party where Pills N Thrills and Bellyaches was continually pumping. The apex of their career (and quite arguably the whole baggy/Madchester movement), Pills N Thrills and Bellyaches pulsates with a garish neon energy, with psychedelic grooves, borrowed hooks, and veiled threats piling upon each other with the logic of a drunken car wreck. As with Bummed, a switch in producers re-focuses and redefines the Mondays, as Paul Oakenfold and Steve Osborne replace the brittle, assaultive Martin Hannett production with something softer and expansive that is truly dance-club music instead of merely suggestive of it. Where the Stone Roses were proudly pop classicists, styling themselves after the bright pop art of the 60s, the Mondays were aggressively modern, pushing pop into the ecstasy age by leaning hard on hip-hop, substituting outright thievery for sampling. Although its unrecognizable in sound and attitude, "Step On," the big hit from Pills, is a de facto cover of John Kongos "Hes Gonna Step on You Again," LaBelles "Lady Marmalade" provides the skeleton for "Kinky Afro," but these are the cuts that call attention to themselves; the rest of the record is draped in hooks and sounds from hits of the past, junk culture references, and passing puns, all set to a kaleidoscopic house beat. Oakenfold and Osborne may be responsible for the sound of Pills N Thrills and Bellyaches, certainly more than the band, which almost seems incidental to this meticulously arranged album, but Shaun Ryder is the heart and soul of the album, the one that keeps the Mondays a dirty, filthy rock & roll outfit. Lifting melodies at will, Ryder twists the past to serve his purpose, gleefully diving into the gutter with stories of cheap drugs and threesomes, convinced that god made it easy on him, and blessed with that knowledge, happy to traumatize his girlfriends kid by telling them that he only went with his mother cause she was dirty. Hes a thug and something of a poet, creating a celebratory collage of sex, drugs, and dead-end jobs where theres no despair because only a sucker could think that this party would ever come to an end. | ||
 | Album: 9 of 17 Title: Live Released: 1991-09 Tracks: 13 Duration: 1:15:35 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Hallelujah (07:19) 2 Donovan (05:48) 3 Kinky Afro (04:40) 4 Clap Your Hands (05:26) 5 Loose Fit (05:13) 6 Holiday (03:51) 7 Rave On (05:28) 8 E (03:14) 9 Tokoloshe Man (04:45) 10 Dennis and Lois (04:52) 11 God’s Cop (05:10) 12 Step On (07:25) 13 Bob’s Your Uncle / WFL (12:17) |
| Live : Allmusic album Review : While the band frequently sounds stiff, and Paul Ryder frequently sounds stoned, Live is a better proposition than it sounds. Instead of relying strictly on the studio arrangements, Happy Mondays open up their grooves and play some new songs. Its an intriguing album, especially for dedicated fans, but its not as convincing as Pills n Thrills or Bummed. | ||
 | Album: 10 of 17 Title: Yes, Please! Released: 1992-11 Tracks: 10 Duration: 48:38 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Stinkin’ Thinkin’ (04:20) 2 Monkey in the Family (04:41) 3 Sunshine and Love (04:46) 4 Dustman (03:44) 5 Angel (05:52) 6 Cut ’em Loose Bruce (04:26) 7 Theme From Netto (04:13) 8 Love Child (05:12) 9 Total Ringo (03:38) 10 Cowboy Dave (07:43) |
| Yes, Please! : Allmusic album Review : By the time of 1992s Yes, Please, Happy Mondays had succumbed to the excessive lifestyle they had so enthusiastically promoted. Lead singer Shaun Ryder, who had always acted as both the mouthpiece and musical visionary for the band, sounds as if he couldnt be bothered, and the music reflects his disinterest. In the hands of Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth (Talking Heads, Tom Tom Club), the groups music loses much of its distinctive, thuggish edginess, as well as its reliance on current dance trends, becoming faceless, undistinguished dance-pop sludge. Yes, Please was not a particularly good way to say goodbye. | ||
 | Album: 11 of 17 Title: Double Easy: The U.S. Singles Released: 1993-09-14 Tracks: 16 Duration: 1:17:43 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 24 Hour Party People (04:38) 2 Wrote for Luck (03:44) 3 Lazy Itis (02:48) 4 Mad Cyril (Hello Girls mix) (03:54) 5 Hallelujah (MacColl mix) (02:40) 6 Step On (Stuff It In mix) (05:53) 7 Tokoloshe Man (04:20) 8 Kinky Afro (03:59) 9 Loose Fit (12″ version) (06:26) 10 Bob’s Yer Uncle (12″ version) (06:51) 11 Judge Fudge (06:19) 12 Stinkin’ Thinkin’ (04:20) 13 Sunshine & Love (04:04) 14 Angel (04:07) 15 W.F.L. (Think About the Future mix) (07:12) 16 Hallelujah (club mix) (06:27) |
 | Album: 12 of 17 Title: Loads Released: 1995-11-02 Tracks: 16 Duration: 1:11:46 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Step On (05:19) 2 WFL (Vince Clarke 12″ mix) (06:12) 3 Kinky Afro (04:17) 4 Hallelujah (MacColl mix) (02:40) 5 Mad Cyril (04:39) 6 Lazy Itis (02:48) 7 Tokoloshe Man (04:20) 8 Loose Fit (05:07) 9 Bob’s Yer Uncle (05:10) 10 Judge Fudge (04:01) 11 Stinkin’ Thinkin’ (04:20) 12 Sunshine & Love (04:49) 13 Angel (05:52) 14 Tart Tart (04:25) 15 Kuff Dam (03:06) 16 24 Hour Party People (04:38) |
| Loads : Allmusic album Review : With the exception of Pills n Thrills and Bellyaches, Happy Mondays had difficulty expanding their ideas into full albums, which makes the singles compilation Loads all the more useful. It contains all of the bands hit singles -- "Step On," "Kinky Afro," "Hallelujah," "Lazyitis," "W.F.L.," "Tokoloshe Man," "Loose Fit," "Bobs Yer Uncle," "24 Hour Party People," "Mad Cyril" -- plus several important album tracks, making it an excellent distillation of the bands career; as an album, only Pills n Thrills provides better listening, and Loads is arguably just as good as an introduction, especially for casual fans. The first 10,000 copies of Loads included an extra disc, Loads More, a compilation of remixes making their debut appearance on CD, including Bernard Sumners "Freaky Dancing," Mike Pickerings "Delightful," Martin Hannetts "Lazyitis," and Vince Clarkes "W.F.L."; all of the remaining mixes are by Paul Oakenfold. Since the remixes date from the height of Happy Mondays career, they provide useful insight on the bands talents as a dance group. | ||
 | Album: 13 of 17 Title: Greatest Hits Released: 1999 Tracks: 15 Duration: 1:15:58 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Step On (05:19) 2 The Boys Are Back in Town (clean mix) (03:47) 3 W.F.L. (06:13) 4 Kinky Afro (03:59) 5 Hallelujah (club mix) (06:27) 6 Mad Cyril (04:36) 7 Lazyitis (One Armed Boxer) (03:53) 8 Loose Fit (04:57) 9 Bob’s Yer Uncle (05:10) 10 Judge Fudge (04:01) 11 Stinkin’ Thinkin’ (04:20) 12 24 Hour Party People (04:38) 13 W.F.L. (Think About the Future mix) (07:12) 14 Stayin Alive (12" mix) (05:28) 15 Step On (Twistin My Melon mix) (05:57) |
| Greatest Hits : Allmusic album Review : The German collection of Happy Mondays Greatest Hits closely contends with 1995s excellent Loads, though the absence of a few classics, and the inclusion of a few inferior remixes, places it below its predecessor. While both of them include the half-dozen tracks that couldnt be left off a Mondays compilation -- "Step On," "24 Hour Party People," "Kinky Afro," "Hallelujah," "Loose Fit," "Bobs Yer Uncle" -- Greatest Hits presents a few songs in extended mixes that dilute the potency of the originals. One bonus to pique the interest of fans is a very rare B-side, a psychedelicized cover of the Bee Gees "Stayin Alive." | ||
 | Album: 14 of 17 Title: The Boys Are Back in Town Released: 1999-05-10 Tracks: 4 Duration: 17:50 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 The Boys Are Back in Town (clean mix) (03:48) 2 Lazyitis (The One Armed Boxer remix) (03:54) 3 Loose Fix (The Perfecto remix) (05:58) 4 The Boys Are Back in Town (Perfecto remix) (04:10) |
 | Album: 15 of 17 Title: Step On Released: 2005 Tracks: 11 Duration: 1:19:26 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 Kinky Afro (08:05) 2 Loose Fit (08:19) 3 Reverend Black Grape (06:46) 4 Bob’s Yer Uncle (06:48) 5 Step On (08:48) 6 Donovan (04:47) 7 Hallelujah (08:30) 8 Mad Cyril (05:18) 9 WFL (Wrote for Luck) (06:51) 10 Stinkin’ Thinkin’ (07:22) 11 24 Hour Party People (07:47) |
 | Album: 16 of 17 Title: The Platinum Collection Released: 2005-12-05 Tracks: 15 Duration: 1:08:27 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Step On (05:19) 2 Judge Fudge (04:00) 3 The Boys Are Back in Town (03:46) 4 Lazy Itis (02:48) 5 W.F.L. (06:12) 6 Cut ’em Loose Bruce (04:26) 7 Stinkin Thinkin (04:19) 8 Bobs Yer Uncle (05:09) 9 Tokoloshe Man (04:20) 10 Mad Cyril (04:37) 11 Theme From Netto (04:13) 12 Tart Tart (04:22) 13 Sunshine & Love (04:44) 14 Stayin Alive (12" mix) (05:28) 15 24 Hour Party People (04:36) |
 | Album: 17 of 17 Title: Uncle Dysfunktional Released: 2007-07-02 Tracks: 12 Duration: 50:12 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Jellybean (05:51) 2 Angels and Whores (03:30) 3 Deviants (04:00) 4 Rats With Wings (04:26) 5 Cuntry Disco (03:47) 6 In the Blood (03:57) 7 Anti Warhole (On the Dancefloor) (04:08) 8 Rush Rush (04:20) 9 Uncle Dysfunktional (04:00) 10 Dr Dick (04:09) 11 Somebody Else’s Weather (04:44) 12 Patunia (03:20) |
| Uncle Dysfunktional : Allmusic album Review : Man, Uncle Dysfunktional has a really ugly, garish cover -- but such a revolting image is the only appropriate art for a comeback album by Happy Mondays, for there has been no band that epitomized ugly and garish like the X-addled thugs from Manchester. Even when they got colorful, which was a lot, it was with nasty clashes of color. They didnt match and they didnt care, and that same sense of malevolent, cheerful sloth infects this, the first Happy Mondays record since 1992s Yes, Please and Shaun Ryders first since the largely ignored 2003 project Amateur Night in the Big Top. This is called the Mondays, but most of the band hasnt shown up: only Ryder and his faithful sidekick Bez, plus drummer Gary Whelan, whose presence may be the only reason outside of marketing that this isnt called a Black Grape record. Then again, the Black Grape albums -- particularly the excellent 1995 debut Its Great When Youre Straight...Yeah -- felt more like Mondays albums than Yes, Please, for Ryder was the sound and spirit of the group, no matter who was backing him as a band or pulling levers on the board. Given all that, why not reclaim the name? What else is Ryder going to do anyway? He seems to admit that directionless as much on Uncle Dysfunktional, as this isnt a bracing return to form as much as it is an acknowledgement that this kind of lecherous electro-funk is what he does best, so why not do it anyway? That might not make for a kinetic album, but theres a casualness to Uncle Dysfunktional thats appealing, as the tapestries of loops, samples, and synths have a filthy, lecherous quality thats kind of seductive, even if its not quite irresistible. What is nice is that the Mondays pretty much steadfastly refuse to change -- there are a couple of flourishes that identify this as a 2007 release, such as the blipping electronic bhangra of "Anti Warhole on the Dancefloor," but theyre not forceful and theyre swallowed out by beats that could have been heard ten or 15 years ago. Again, this doesnt seem like laziness as much as a shrug of "this is what they do," and theres something endearing about that. If only Ryder could have been arsed enough to really write some lyrics -- or even some lines -- that linger in the imagination, Uncle Dysfunktional would have had some longer staying power, but as it stands its a not-bad-at-all comeback thats at least better than Stupid, Stupid, Stupid and it offers one stone-cold Ryder classic in the gleefully vulgar "Cuntrydisco," a hazy blend of Hawaiian steel, "Bob George" samples, silly voices, and nonsense thats as good as anything hes ever done -- even if it does suggest that he could have done an album as good as this if he only bothered. | ||