Rating:
Genre:
Rock
Release Date: 12/13/1990
Run Time: 43:46
A swirling, neo-psychedelic kaleidoscope of hallucinogenic drugs, trippy beats, borrowed hooks, and veiled threats,
Pills 'n' Thrills & Bellyaches is
Happy Mondays' masterpiece and the peak of the entire
Madchester craze. Where
the Stone Roses were
pop classicists,
Happy Mondays pushed
pop into the ecstasy age.
The Mondays' cut-and-paste rhythms and melodies are clearly influenced by
hip-hop and
electronic dance music, and their songs have the same sort of twisted internal logic, subverting conventional
pop song structures while reinterpreting oldies, occasionally stealing entire songs and claiming them as their own (
John Kongos'
"He's Gonna Step On You Again" is transformed into
"Step On," LaBelle's
"Lady Marmalade" provides the basis for
"Kinky Afro"). Most of the musical collage is the creation of producers
Paul Oakenfold and
Steve Osborne, but the vision of
Pills 'n' Thrills & Bellyaches belongs to
Shaun Ryder, who reveals himself as a surreally gifted lyricist. Lifting melodies at will,
Ryder paints a bizarre vision of modern urban life, fueled by sex, drugs, violence, and dead-end jobs -- and instead of lamenting the state of affairs, he celebrates them in his hoarse, arrhythmic, tuneless holler. His thuggishly surreal sense of humor and appropriation of hooks became enormously influential on British
rock & roll in the '90s, particularly on
Oasis' sense of style.
~Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
Cart 0 items
Listen
