Pills ’n’ Thrills and Bellyaches

third rate cover band. Their Step On video has pissed me off for years (decades now) for being so uninspiring and lazily plopped together. Compared relatively to the effort the Party Boys and Chantoozies put in, Happy Mondays are a sad Sunday.

I enjoyed this album more than Bummed. But the bar was still low

Fine as background music, but I did enjoy Step On

3 ⭐️

This feels like it's trying to be weird just for the sake of being weird. When it's not doing that it's just a big snooze-fest. Starting to resent the large amount of lackluster garbage on this list that's there just because it was made by Brits. This is entirely forgettable.

I can’t remember how I felt about their other record that I got on here. This one is okay, but not anything I’m likely to revisit.

Took me about halfway through before I started vibing with this album. It’s pretty good once I was on its wavelength. But I still have no clue what defines Madchester music. Is it just kind of scuzzy britpop? Who knows

The most mellon twisting album of the 90s - at once ecstatic and miserable in a uniquely Mancunian mode. Sprawling dance rock that's wild, ecclectic, hedonistic: a triumph of the pure desire to have a good time over the necessity of talent. Fun remixes too.

Sounds like a club DJ and an Oasis cover band were both hired to play the same wedding by mistake, but instead of sending one away, they forced them to play together on the same stage at the same time. Atrocious.
Also, what the fuck is with “Bob’s Yer Uncle”? That is a blatant sex crime and I someone needs to be arrested for recording that.

There was some decent music on here but I don’t like the singer. His voice annoyed me to the point where I couldn’t enjoy most of this album. Harmony was a cool tune though.

This really clicked for me in some parts. Their interpolation and sampling of the vocal melody and chorus from Lady Marmalade by LaBelle was unexpected but worked. This album felt a bit like Achtung Baby by U2. And somehow The Stone Roses and The Jesus and Mary Chain.

It's about 3.5 stars for me, rounded up to 4.

I’m at a 4.5 that I’ll bump up to a 5.

As most Americans probably do, I only know Shaun Ryder from being on “DARE” by Gorillaz. This is his band, and this is the first album we’re getting from the two albums they have on the list. I sort of knew about his speaking style, but I think “DARE” gives a sort of bad impression; it’s just a little bit out of his range, and the difference between his lower tone & the falsetto that the chorus is sung in makes him feel… not lazy, but more dulled down. It didn’t give me super high hopes going in, but I figured this would still be nice.

Thankfully, I’m a bit of a moron. Shaun’s got good vocals here; it could be the 15 year difference showing, but I just think these tracks are far more suited to his range & as such, they pleasantly surprised me. Yes, he’s still got the speaking style to his vocals, but sometimes he really does glide on the beats in a melodic way, especially when he’s surrounded by the energy of the instrumentals. Speaking of these instrumentals, I’m pretty surprised at how coherently this mix of styles works; we’ve apparently gotten Madchester albums in the past, but this is the first one that feels so upfront about it. This is 90s electronica meeting 60s psych rock (with just a hint of the Britpop sensibilities of the mid-90s to come), and it works very, very well.

Lyrically, I do think the album is a little loose, but given that this is probably filled with a handful of UK-adjacent references & my belief that the lyrics are probably the least important aspect here (though they do enhance a few tracks), it’s not that big of a deal. I think “Bob’s Yer Uncle” is the track where they matter the most, and it’s just to give even more of a creepy lean to the character being portrayed – Shaun’s whispery vocals are already slightly unsettling & combine it with an instrumental that feels as upbeat as it does, and you get the most interesting track on the album. As far my favorite goes, it’s probably “Loose Fit” or “Step On”, though it’s the type of versatile album where I can see any track being someone’s favorite.

So, why a 4.5 and not a flat 5? Occasionally, Shaun’s flatter vocals do come in & bring down the energy, and that’s part of it, but it really does just come down to the outros on this thing adding far too much filler time to the album. I’m not saying time is an extreme premium or anything, but this could’ve easily been 3-4 minutes shorter by just trimming down some of the outros that go absolutely nowhere. I know it’s probably just a radio quirk to allow hosts to get their monologues / throws to the next track in, but… save those copies for the radio stations & not for the album version, you know?

As a whole, the flaws aren’t that big, and I just found this far too enjoyable to seriously consider bumping it down to a 4; for my tastes, it’s an easy bump to a 5. I think I wanna listen to more Madchester stuff now; I’m not sure what else qualifies on the list, but I’m ready for it if it’s there. As fast as Happy Mondays goes, I can only hope that “Bummed” is as good of an album as this one was, whenever it comes up.

This sounded average and mediocre and not worthy of this list.

This album is pretty iconic, and much more solid than I expected it to be. The three best songs are the singles of course (Kinky Afro, Step On, Loose Fit), but the general vibe is great, and it's an important point in the evolution and popularisation of dance music.

Absolutely nothing about this is noteworthy.

Fantastic album. Bridges the gap between pop, dance, hip-hop and indie and creates a really tight piece that never takes itself too seriously.

I enjoyed this one quite a bit more than the other Happy Mondays album on the list. I would listen to this one again, happily.

Couldn't get past the whine

So a little less than half way through the album I realized I don't really like it. So I skimmed through the other songs hoping to hear something that'll catch my ear, but I didn't. It's like Oasis vocals mixed with The Stone Roses instrumentals but somehow it's not good despite something that could easily work. I didn't finish it, I didn't like it, I'm sure someone else would.

It was ok at best. Nothing special.

Liked it more than I remembered liking it 👍

“step on” is way better than the other songs, like those were all practice. a lot of it isn't bad though, especially the last three.

kinda ham handed with too much corn in some cringe choruses (“yippee yippee ay ye ye ye”; “do what you’re doing…”).

it’s all right.