*** Black Grape

STUPID STUPID STUPID

(Radioactive)

Madchester madman Shaun Ryder was never content to be Happy Mondays. Nope, Ecstasy Tuesdays, Heroin Wednesdays, and Acid Thursdays were (and very possibly still are) the main orders of business for England's reigning have-a-good-time-all-the-time hooligan. In case you're wondering what a weekend might look like in the Ryder household, consider this disc by his latest band of merry pranksters, Black Grape, your invitation to drop by.

Like '95's salacious dub-inflected funkfest, It's Great When You're Straight . . .Yeah, Stupid Stupid Stupid is gleefully that and so much more. It's a house party, with the material functioning as one blunt-buzzed groove. On "Get Higher" the voice of Ronald Reagan opens the festivities with the announcement that reefer is in abundant supply and that he and Nancy are hooked on smack (so that's why he was always nodding off). Elsewhere, Hammond organ, sitars, and a battalion of horns fuel potboilers like "Tell Me Something" and "Spotlight," and Ryder's slurred, Mad Hatter vocals leer and trip through ditties like the autobiographical "Dadi Waz a Badi." Is this stuff essential? No. But it's like a good party: you wouldn't wanna miss it.

-- Jonathan Perry