When
Happy Mondays fell apart in 1992, most observers assumed that Shaun Ryder would never recover from his numerous drug addictions. No one could have ever predicted that he would return to the top of the charts three years later, relatively fit and healthy, with a new band that fulfilled all of the promises of his old group.
Black Grape is what
Happy Mondays always were, only better. Leaving behind the stiff musicianship that plagued even the best
Mondays records,
Black Grape's debut,
It's Great When You're Straight...Yeah, is a surreal, funky, profane, and perversely joyous album, overflowing with casual eclecticism and giddy humor. Working with a band that is looser and grittier than
the Mondays, Ryder sounds reinvigorated, creating bizarre rhymes that tie together junk culture, drug lingo, literary references, and utter nonsense. Ryder's lyrics have always been freewheelingly impenetrable, but now he's working with
Kermit, a rapper that is the equal of his skills. Even better, the music has deep grooves and catchy pop hooks that come straight out of left field. From the blaring harmonica of the triumphant "Reverend Black Grape" and the trippy sitars of "In the Name of the Father" to the seedy, rolling "Shake Your Money" and the stinging guitars of "Tramazi Parti,"
It's Great is filled with music that goes in unconventional directions without ever sounding forced. Not only is
It's Great When You're Straight a triumphant return for Ryder and his sidekick Bez, it's the first album they have ever recorded that justifies all of the hype. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine