Happy Mondays, Bummed, 1988
"Happy Mondays are a difficult band to work with." -Nathan McGough, manager
Bummed is a great album. Are Happy Mondays a great band? Probably not, but on this record everything seems to line up perfectly- the band, the scene, the label, the drugs, and the guy who just played shakers. Most importantly, Martin Hannett's super dense, reverb-drenched production is disorienting in the most joyful way. It's not often the words "hellish" and "colorful" can both be used to describe the same music, but that seems to be what they were going for.
Here is a cute little TV documentary on the making of the album, which manages to capture McGough asking an apprehensive Tony Wilson for more money to invest in the record. (Of course, the band really just wanted more drugs.)
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