Customer Reviews

Pills Thrills & Bellyaches

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

After reading a few lazy reviews I felt confidently compelled to write about how I felt about this album, and what it means to me. I was 18 when this album was released. I was heavily into electronic music as well as rock music, but at the time it was hard to find good mixtures of both within the same band. Anyone who has bought music for a good portion of their lives knows how an album that is listened to at the tender age of 18 can profoundly affect the way they hear every album for the rest of their lives. Having been a dj for a few years up to this album's release, and realizing that i had heard quite a bit of mind-bending music, I can definitely say that this album was perfect in its execution of both rock and pop ideals, and continues to stand the test of time to this very day. This album, together with Primal Scream's "Screamadelica", and Shamen's "En-Tact" lp's, embodied the meshing of the dance and rock interface forever making it a cool thing for rockers to put on a dance tune, and ravers having a great rock album to throw on after a hard night of dancing. Regardless of what anyone has to say, this album does matter. I don't expect an 18 year old today to understand it and perhaps they shouldn't. I'm sure the only interest a teenager has in this album nowadays is to hear the first (and best) album Paul Oakenfold ever produced. But this album is essential and a must have. It sounds better than ever now, and still makes newer dance/rock albums by bands such as Garbage sound trite in comparison. These days the bands I get off on are Autechre, Spiritualized, Strokes, etc. These bands have nothing in common other than they make gorgeous and soulful noise. Pills, Thrills 'N Bellyaches aided me in destroying my borders and parameters of how certain music should be heard. Nothing in the realm of music is more important than that. Treat yourself to an important piece of music history, folks, and buy this album. You owe it to yourself to know why music today sounds the way it does.

Update: November 26th, 2009 -
A few comments on my review inspired me to mention that, despite my review being over eight years old, I still feel the same way about this album. My comment about the "18 year olds not getting it" was kind of stupid, and I don't know what compelled me to write that at the time. I seem to remember being on an Oakenfold-hating period which still continues today. The comparisons to Garbage are also out of date, but I think the statement of the Mondays being better than current dance/rock bands is applicable in 2009 (LCD Soundsystem and Killers come to mind). Anyway, if you do check out this album make sure you get the recent remastered edition with bonus tracks. It sounds incredible!

I'm reading the other reviews and, with the exception of one (the five star), I can't believe how apathetic they are. This was a defining album for the early '90s. I sought this one out when reestablishing my collection (after losing CDs over the years). Anyone who was seriously into music at that time (the club and radio DJs, the local musicians, etc.) had and appreciated this album. If you think this album is not "good enough" to own, you're probably not old enough to drink yet. Every decade has a dichotomy of music - the hard, dark side (Nirvana, Pearl Jam) and the light side (Happy Mondays). You should have both in your collection...

It's impossible to not enjoy English music of the early 90s. While the US was occupying itself with Nirvana and grunge, the UK was turning out masterful works by Blur, The Charlatans, Happy Mondays, Primal Scream, The Stone Roses; not to mention a whole group of talented second tier bands.

I can't think of a release that sums up the entire British baggy rave scene as this one does. An incredible mix of groovy beats, chunky bass lines, funky guitars along with utterly unique vocals. Music that sounds as good today as it did back then, able to easily overcome so much of today's blandly overproduced stuff.

There are so many outstanding tracks such as "Kinky Afro", "God's Cop", "Dennis and Lois", "Bob's Yer Uncle", "Step On"...

Wonderfully produced by Paul Oakenfold and Steve Osborne.

Emphatically recommended.

To all die hard HM's fans, I apologize. I am not someone who has been a HM fan for years, nor do I have their first tape from that concert in Chet's basement for Suzy's birthday from twelve years ago.
I am a newbie to the HM's and here is my attempt at an unbiased review:
This is a great cd. I have been a fan of Stone Roses for over ten years, and have never even tried out the Happy Mondays. Recently I saw the movie 24 Hr Party People and decided to buy this album on a whim. This is great stuff - front to back. Impressive guitar "noise", infectious drumlines, and those crazy, unapologetic vocals. Diggin' it - buying more.

Let me start off by saying that Happy Mondays' "Pills 'n' Thrills and Bellyaches" is one of best dance records of the last 25 years. With that said, it is also one of the most defining of its period. The Madchester genre and is one of the most well documented, so I won't go into much on the subject, but out of all the excess and drug fueled controversy that came out of that era, this was the album that showed the best of the time. Those looking for more serious stuff from "The Stone Roses" or "The Charlatans", you are barking up the wrong tree. The guys of Happy Mondays' only know how to party, and they do it twenty four hours a day.

While Shaun and gang are hardly consistent on album, when the band are on, they are on. And when they are most on, is on this album. The record starts with the unbelievably catchy "Kinky Afro", which features jangly acoustic guitars, sleazy Ryder rhymes, and a bite of LaBelle's "Lady Marmalade".

The album is quite diverse and focused (which previous albums lacked), switching from the thumping beat funk of "God's Cop" to the smooth rhythm section of "Donovan", which has a fascinating second half burst of insanity. Ryder pens some of his funniest lines on the rambling "Grandbag's Funeral", and the drug anthem "Holiday".

Let it be said, you do not need to be on drugs to enjoy this album, but I can imagine it helps. In addition, you don't have to be British or familiar with the Madchester scene, as the grooves on this record transcend anything as simple as country boundaries.

The pinnacle of the album (and arguably, the scene), is "Step On", which is one of the finest singles of the decade. The sound produced here is the band's style at best, shuffling beats, thumbing bass, jagged guitars, and unforgettable melodies. The more slow tempoed stuff like "Bob's yer uncle" and "Harmony" still keep the flow going so you are still nodding your head when the beats have stopped.

Many will find this album to be out of date, or disjointed, but don't listen to them, they have no soul! This is a funky album with songs that you'll be jamming to for a long while. 15 years on, the grooves of Shaun Ryder, Bez, and the rest of the gang, remain as relevant as ever.

People who just bought this for "Step On," that's a shame. Not even a Happy Mondays song, it's a John Kongos song. BUT- if you're a madchester fan, this album is awful darn close to God. Every song on it is memorable. They go through my head while I try to sleep.

I'd heard great things about this band, and they were always lumped together with New Order as being one of the great groups to hang around The Hacienda club. They were also tied to the Stone Roses when it came to that whole Madchester fad. Naturally, I had great expectations for them. I bought the CD for a buck, ripped the it and tuned in. The first track, "Kinky Afro" didn't really do it for me. Was this band all hype? Guess what, they weren't! "God's Cop" came on and suddenly, we've got a nice effects-pedal driven guitar and some really nice dance beats going along with it. Who the heck cares about what the vocals are talking about. I don't even see the relationship between them and the title. All I know is that the music is great. And this friendly collission of nonsense keeps on going for the rest of album. The rest of the CD is, for the most part, nothing but grooves and gee-tars getting it in order to create some fantastic music.

Hightlights include: "God's Cop," "Grandbag's Funeral" and "Step On."

I'd suggest you invest in this album; it's fantastic dance music... or is it rock music... hey, that blurryness is part of the magic of late 80s/early 90s Madchester stuff!

The mythology surrounding the `Happy Mondays' asks:...were they Drug-addled geniuses merely representing their social environment?, or a bunch of chancers that use drug abuse to stimulate creative output?? The answer is that they were both...both incredibly musically gifted, yet firmly a product of the ecstasy generation. But if you've ever heard "Kinky Afro" you'll soon realise the confident vocal swagger of `Liam Gallagher' originated here. In a sort of skewered fusion of what is probably their musical influences (soul, Pop, House, rave, psychedelia & Dance) they make some of an all inclusive hybrid of styles that worked many influences into short 3-4 minute songs. But showing how drugs can sometimes provide the creative vision...they steal the show with the utterly addictive "God's Cop"...a song that personifies the ecstasy culture, with singer `Shaun Ryder' sounding decidedly under the influence...reaching musically higher and more profound than anything they'd done before...it seems a shame that the drugs that created this landmark album, would prove to be the bands undoing, in future album releases.

This album will swallow you whole and take you into the druggy, hallucinogenic world of the Happy Mondays. It all starts with the Lady Marmalade-influenced "Kinky Afro" and from there takes off. Must be heard to be believed!

I picked this record up secondhand for next to nothing in the basement of The United Methodist Church over there on Verbena Avenue. God's benison go with you Pastor Gainus Sikes, your gaff's a goldmine. There it was in any case in a plastic basin with, of all things, a Kenny Rogers cassette. Just the tape too, no cover. Those Salford scallywags leapt right into my hands out of sheer terror. That's half off today, said a perfectly dressed little old lady, we're having a sale. Half off in a thrift shop, I said. Sold, I said. I very nearly galloped back to my hut. I'd heard only good things about, but had never actually listened to, Pills & Thrills and while I was gearing up to be suitably impressed I don't believe I was in any way prepared for the frankly colossal dose of high-grade wang dang doodle delivered by this trippy little disk. I even managed somehow to listen to it out of order the first time, starting off with Holiday which is I think the second last song but what did I care, I was already on the trolley by the time I'd noticed. Ever since then I can't hear Holiday without experiencing an irresistible urge to drift off to sleep in a shrubbery for a week or two. Pappataci Fever if I know me. And would you just look at Mister Intergalactic Laxative himself in there too! I haven't thought about old Cosmic Bananas since I can't exactly remember. You hardly lose with this album. I would complain that it's on the short side if it wasn't such a sure sharkey to play on repeat--I've had this sucker on for literally days at a stretch. But eventually I had to get up and go to work. Happy Mondays everybody.