Customer Reviews

Amateur Night at the Big Top

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
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2 star:		(1)
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If this were a general album review, I would be hard-pressed to give it more than 3 stars. But it is a 5-star album for Mondays fans, simply because something is better than nothing (right?). This sounds at times like a recorded drug trip, which it probably was for the most part. The vocals are burried and Shaun sounds horrible at times. Lyric it is not, more spoken word riffing and story telling. The music is akin to a slightly sinister lounge/chill with a good deal of dub tossed in. Not in any way ground-breaking, the music is nonetheless well crafted. Unfortunately, there are not enough guitars to really compare this with HM or BG, but it does have the unmistakeable howel of Shaun. From prescient and witty to utterly juvenile, you gotta love 'em. Keep it coming Shaun, we need your voice!

To be short, a cool vocal album with Shaun behind dancy music. A must buy for true fans of the Happy Mondays and Black Grape. Scooter Girl is an excellent track. It stayed in my mixed cd player for quite some time. Anyway, much better than that with Bez, though we love 'im.

Shaun Ryder is one of the most overlooked artists of his time, as was his now classic and infamaous late 80's early 90's band Happy Mondays (Made a little less obscure from the recent, brilliant,Winterbottom film "24 Hour Party People.") The Mondays were heralded to be the next Rolling Stones but didn't quite live up to the hype mostly because of the bands excesses and tumultuous recording sessions - but they were contenders for sure. Buy this album, check out the Mondays, check out the novel and film "24 Hour Party People," - in short investigate the entire Manchester, England ("Madchester") scene. It was a period not to be forgotten, nor overlooked in music history. Artists like Ryder, much like "The Pogues'" Shane MacGowan need to be exposed more, but unfortunately this world has been taken over by the vapid and innane music debacle called "Hip Hop" (The art form where all the videos and music sound and look exacly the same.) Less overexposed and hyped Beyonces/Jay-Z's and Combs (Who do these over payed clowns think they are with their silly catch names anyway; P-Diddy has Sean John, Ryder had Armani Loose Fits?) and more of the real hard knox stylings of performers like Shaun William "Effin'" Ryder! Long live the Mondays and Madchester, Godbless and Buy it!