Black Grape – It’s Great When You’re Straight… Yeah

Black Grape was founded by former members of The Happy Mondays, Shaun Ryder and Bez (a.k.a. Mark Berry). New band members included rappers Paul “Kermit” Leveridge, Carl “Psycho” McCarthy, drummer Ged Lynch (all three from the first wave of UK hip-hop, and influential Hulme, Manchester act Ruthless Rap Assassins), guitarist Paul Wagstaff (from the Paris Angels), and Oli “Dirtycash” Dillon on ocarina.

 It’s Great When You’re Straight… Yeah contains 10 catchy songs with influences from indie-pop, alternative, funk, disco, with rough guitar, rapping all glued together and produced by American Danny Saber. Upon release in 1993, the debut album immediately charted #1 in the UK Albums chart and was certified Platinum. It’s Great When You’re Straight… Yeah includes the UK Top 2- singles “Reverend Black Grape”, “In the Name of The Father” and “Kelly’s Heroes”.

It is a surreal, funky, profane, and perversely joyous album, overflowing with casual eclecticism and giddy humour. Working with a band that is looser and grittier than the Mondays, Shaun Ryder sounds reinvigorated, creating bizarre rhymes that tie together junk culture, drug lingo, literary references, and utter nonsense. Ryder’s lyrics have always been freewheelingly impenetrable, but this is now working with Kermit, a rapper that is the equal of his skills.

Even better, the music has deep grooves and catchy pop hooks that come straight out of left field. From the blaring harmonica of the triumphant “Reverend Black Grape” and the trippy sitars of “In the Name of the Father” to the seedy, rolling “Shake Your Money” and the stinging guitars of “Tramazi Parti”, It’s Great is filled with music that goes in unconventional directions without ever sounding forced.

Not only is It’s Great When You’re Straight a triumphant return for Ryder and his sidekick Bez, it is the first album they have ever recorded that justifies all of the hype.

Vinyl, LP, Reissue, Stereo