Bummed

Never heard before this, maybe heard the name of the band somewhere. It was sort of interesting.

I read “psychedelic funk” and got excited as those are both genres I like. I did not like this. It felt significantly worse than Pills n Thrills. The vocals are just absolutely buried here. Fat Lady Wrestlers and Lazyitis were good enough to save this from a 1.

i don't like how this guy sings

Bummed indeed. This is just some nothing with instruments and vocals.

Tedious.

Seems that their most popular songs are the random mixes done after the original album came out.

And this, kids, is the real reason why you should say no to drugs …. you’ll end up making a fucking terrible album. Unconscionably bad.

The Good: We’re trying to start the week off positively!
The Bad: Try as we may, Monday’s tend to not be too happy…
The Ugly: Bummed should have given us a clue…

I think that bit by bit this list is turning me into a massive music snob, resulting in my instant disdain for anything that hailed from the British Isles and was, predominantly, only known in said isles…

Not that this album was bad, just a little late to the party in my opinion. They are trying to be something that was cool in a previous period, while adding something new… that just sounds old.

If I were to start a band that tried to sound like Led Zeppelin, I would fail hard… this is evident with all the new bands being hailed as the new Led Zeppelin, who nobody ever listens to, as there is only 1 Led Zeppelin…

On a brighter side, so as not to stay bummed, this is the last album of this band I have to listen to!

2*

Today is Wednesday and this album definitely did not help with rendering it a "happy" one. Failed on many levels then.
Music is pretty annoying. The singer does not even try

eh bem dançante, até. não eh ruim, só é bem esquecível.

num sei se devia tá aqui não, mas não foi uma experiência ruim, então tá valendo

It's OK

2.5/5.0: Mixed

i was pretty bummed when this popped up. it certainly wasnt a happy monday(mostly cause it was a thursday). pretty boring overall, but it was fine.

Наче й ок гурт і музика непогана, але якось надто фоново для мене пройшло.

I definitely don't think it's as strong as their other record in this book, nor do I think that it's essential in the least, but I'm not as down on it as some other folks here. I dig the bagginess in general.

3.5/5

Sounds terrible, doesn't make any sense, rarely in tune, but a jolt of pure party energy and magical guitars.

I’m at a 3.

Definitely a step down after “Pills 'n' Thrills And Bellyaches” clicked so nicely, but make no mistake; I didn’t hate this album. This is just not as good, plain and simple, and it’s because of one very loud & very obvious decision in the production / recording process. This thing is utterly drenched in reverb. There’s a gag on the SiivaGunner channel (video game music with comedic bait & switch changed melodies / mashups) where a certain subset of uploads of Kingdom Hearts songs are heavy on the reverb, to sell part of the joke, but for this album, it feels like a very defined & intentional choice to center the album around it. It *deeply* makes the album suffer.

It’s not in the compositions; these are well composed songs, occasionally bringing to mind bands like Tears for Fears, U2, and to some degree, Joy Division & Talking Heads. It’s not in Shaun Ryder’s vocals; as muffled & buried in the mix as they are, I think he generally tends to bring a decent gravitas to the emotions he’s trying to pull off on the tracks, though there are a few dry vocal structures. It is partially in the writing; you can tell the verses were an afterthought here, given that so many of the second verses are just minor rewrites of the first verse to fit the same syllabic structure, & a lot of the lyrics here are just kinda crass for the sake of it to some degree.

It is solely in the mixing / production process where this album buries itself to a totally fine 3 – the synth work gets the most reverb, creating a cavernous effect that acts as almost a reverse wall of sound, opening up far too much. The percussion / guitar are generally more unfazed by it, but the synths overwhelm them, and in turn, Shaun Ryder’s vocals get it the worst, already buried under both the guitar & percussion, before the synths just run them all over. To its credit, the album at least tries to find a balance in the compositions where the synths are played down, to let the other aspects get a bit of shine, but those moments are fleeting. Once the synths come back in, the mild annoyance just resurfaces with them.

Overall, it’s a fully competent 3; not a bad album, per se, and I do genuinely hear a sort of appeal for this grittier, Shoegaze-ier, post-punk influenced form of Madchester, before ‘90s house music gave Shaun Ryder the chance to enter a much more commercially appealing soundscape… but it’s not the sort of Madchester that works for my tastes. If someone wants to give this a 4 or even a 5, if they made a compelling enough case, I could maybe understand it. I do think the people giving this a 2 are justified, though. I’m at a 3 just because I found it to be utterly fine, and not much more than that. It probably did leave some type of influence though, so… good on Shaun & friends, I guess. I’ll take “Pills 'n' Thrills And Bellyaches” every time, though.

If you google Bez from Happy Mondays, you will understand why this album sounds the way it does

Funny guys but unfortunately the album was shit. Sorry lads

2 ⭐️

I don’t love this. But it’s not terrible and gets points for being so drug-addled. May have benefited from less bombastic production.

This was quite an awful experience, no redeeming qualities to earn a single star

Real mixed bag - some interesting tracks but most of it I found either not that enjoyable or unpleasant