Busier than ever, Shaun Ryder hits again on the new Black Grape album.
Shaun Ryder is making up for lost time, it seems.
Following the a handful of shows in support of this album, Happy Mondays embark on a tour with Inspiral Carpets and Stereo MCs next spring, and he’s recently announced a lengthy jaunt round the country for Q&A shows. Who would have thought he would be the most hardworking of his generation?
For all his other projects however, there is a sense that – if the Mondays are his first love – Black Grape is his most musical wife.
The surprise success of debut album It’s Great When You’re Straight…Yeah! in 1995 was a real fillip. While there were many chefs in the Happy Mondays kitchen, Black Grape had only two (sorry Bez), his relationship with Paul Leveridge (Kermit) seemingly one of mutual appreciation. Loaded with street smarts and musical talent, the duo make a fearsome musical combination.
As they continue to be, nearly 30 years later. Orange Head (those fruit references just keep coming) is wonkishly and gloriously off-kilter, full of chilling energy and customary brio, but contemporary.
Take the first two singles: the fizzing electro of Milk (‘trying to hold my demons in, I keep my bad side down/I never ever fed the wolf cos it would chew my mind’) is more than capable of enticing some big-fish-little-fish moves, but with added face-melting guitar towards the end. Vintage Black Grape, with Kermit whispering then snapping while Ryder bawls his way throughout.
Or the righteous Pimp Wars, like a party at the beginning of the night, with a chorus that only he would even attempt: ‘I just can’t get to grips with this…bad driver, muff diver.’ Yes, you read that correctly.
Other up-tempo tracks are immediately recognisable, either through deprecating humour – such as the layered beats and Chicago-house shuffle of Panda, where Ryder observes ‘we’re getting old like the Rolling Stones’ – or the use of sinister brass on the sleazy Self Harm (‘spins a web not a yarn’) which, if not covering Theme From Peter Gunn, is certainly riffing on it.
Largely it’s a party atmosphere, the Latino vibes and dubby groove of opener Button Eyes immediately displaying a lyrical confidence from Ryder (‘you’ve just got to try and tweak me’), or the compressed percussion of Quincy (surely a tribute to Jones) and funky guitar which also owes a debt to Chic.
But it’s not one-note: Dirt is all attitude with a sparseness built around a chiming loop and a genuine, full-blooded rap by Kermit essentially adding hip-hop to Black Grape’s musical jigsaw.
Meanwhile, the seven-minute In The Ground is a different thing entirely; epic in scope with accordions, Morricone-esque guitars and beefy bass, it’s a tale of death delivered by two narrators. Kermit regales the story of a death in a family while Ryder gives away much less, but the theme is clear. The glistening, sparkling final minute of music, which bears no relation to what’s gone before, puts the cap on a track which easily takes a place in the top tier of Ryder’s canon.
Part Of Everything fares less well, cosmically contemplative and slow, it’s the closest thing they’ve ever come to a ballad, Kermit observing: ‘I am part of everything, da rock, da air, da tree.’ Shaun follows suit and, as such, it’s tough to tell whether it’s meant to be sarcastic or not. If not, sadly the earnestness doesn’t really suit them. A rare misstep, but to be lauded for its ambition.
It will probably be the most popular song on the album as, with their psychedelic pop Black Grape, and Shaun Ryder in particular, have long made a career out of defying expectations.
