Track Listing

1. Stinkin' Thinkin'
2. Monkey In The Family
3. Sunshine And Love
4. Dustman
5. Angel
6. Cut 'em Loose Bruce
7. Netto
8. Love Child
9. Total Ringo
10. Cowboy Dave

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #51973 in Music
• Released on: 2000-01-04
• Number of discs: 1

CD Description
By the time this album was recorded and released in '92, the Happy Mondays had visibly unraveled. Travelling to Barbados to record with Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz, the band--Ryder in particular--was spiraling into a pit of drug addiction.
The first half of this CD is very strong. Featuring rehab favourites "Stinkin Thinkin", "Monkey in the Family", "Sunshine and Love", and "Dustman", the drug theme quickly devolved into a drug-addled mess: Ryder spent less and less time in the studio and more and more time on the streets of Barbados looking for crack rocks. Not long after, Ryder excused himself from the record company meeting where the Mondays were renegotiating their contract to go buy heroin. They were instantly dropped from their label and the Happy Mondays were no more. This album is a lot better than its initial reviews stated. YES, PLEASE has a penetrating honesty about thedisintegrating state of its creators, making it a confession album easy to like.

Customer Reviews

Cut 'Em Loose, Shaun
The story surrounding "...Yes Please!", often repeated and (probably) largely apocryphal, obscures the what should be the focus: the music.

Frantz Weymouth's production is immediately obvious - they really did a good job on this record. I don't know how much (if at all) they directed the music, but there's none of the murk or trendy dance affectations of Pills Thrills. The only other time the Mondays had a producer who understood them was when Bernard Sumner did "Freaky Dancing".

In terms of the songs here, most of them are good, with one or two real moments of genius:

Sunshine & Love - one day this'll be on a film soundtrack, and people will be falling over themselves to say they always loved it.

Stinkin' Thinkin' - should have been the Mondays biggest radio hit. Like a lot of radio hits, you can listen to it loads and loads of times and not get bored of it.

Cut 'Em Loose Bruce - my theory is that the title for this one comes from the now-excised final verse of Rolf Harris' "Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport", which landed Rolf, (rightly I think), in a bit of a racism pagger. Thankfully, Cut 'Em Loose Bruce is a character who sets outlaws free, not a sweaty Antipodean farmer on his deathbed "kindly" allowing his Aboriginal farmhands their liberty.

Theme from Netto - a real genius track. Largely instrumental apart from Ryder going "Netto" every now and then, this is the opposite of filler instrumental. If Bruce Foxton had written this for "The Gift" instead of 'Circus', Weller might not have emptied The Jam. Again, a track that will no doubt appear on a Hollywood film soundtrack at some point. And again, a track that you can listen to loads of times without getting bored of it.

Love Child - more genius. If Noel Gallagher had listened to this, he might have thought twice about the opening lyrics of "Stand By Me". A song that works on many levels, and probably confirms AHW's contention that Shaun Ryder was the best lyricist since John Donne. Rave on.

Funkadelia with the Mondays!
I really can't understand what all the reviews on Amazon.com and others are talking about. I was initially reluctant to buy the album after it was given poor reviews everywhere but I took a chance and it's great! Following Pills 'N' Thrills was always gonna be impossible but this was a damn good effort - the Mondays classic sound and beat embellished with the full on backing singing of the brilliant Rowetta and a percussion onslaught throughout the album. Some songs are weak on melody admittedly, but where Shaun Ryder fails, Rowetta usually picks up the pieces. Standout tracks are the funky Theme From Netto, the summery Sunshine and Love, Cut 'Em Loose Bruce and the wicked closer Cowboy Dave. I would thoroughly recommend this album - especially as a feelgood prelude to the summer - the album reflects the location where it was recorded - Barbados. What a shame the original band aren't together still.

Happy Mondays Rave on!

Ideal summer tune car space blast off album.
Mixed by the Tom Tom Club (a couple of ex-Talking Heads members) and produced in Barbados, this album was released to a barrage of criticism, which was unjust in my opinion.

Being one of the few people who has owned since release and listened to this album thoroughly, I feel I am better placed to assess it than the music press which panned it at the time.

Basically, if you like other Happy Mondays work, then I can think of no reason why you should not also find something worthy in this album. It still has all the 90's housey housey dance qualities accompanied by Ryder's quirky lyrics and postmodern 'use of other people's stuff'.

However, it also has a theme of subtle syncopation and changing rhythmic attitude running throughout. From the laid back Stinkin' Thinkin', to the staccatto tension of Cowboy Dave and the happy bouncy House of Sunshine and Love. I suppose recording in the Carribean influenced their mindset slightly too, so we see use of a chat man on Cut 'Em Loose Bruce, reminiscent of Ryder's later outing with Black Grape.

Overall, if you ignore this album it is your loss. But you'll be running away from classic Ryder lyrics, such as Total Ringo's "I can't stand the thought of her dropping another" (not a reference to drugs, but children!), and Sunshine and Love's opening line "If I'm being sneaky, then somethings just freaked me..."

It may be eclectic at times, but if this is just the random result of a load of dirty, grown-up street urchins from Salford then there must be a god.