Happy Mondays - 'Uncle Dysfunctional' (Sequel) Released 02/07/07

It's fifteen years since 'Yes Please' and the lads have dusted off the powders and Shaun Ryder has seen the light and swapped crack and scag for mountain biking and healthy tucker, and there's maraca man Bez on board and only one other original Mondaze instrumentalist in Gaz Wheelan so how it's a Mondays album and not Black Grape? - kerching! 'Uncle Dysfunctional' is a stew of mish-mash musicality, anarchic madness and mayhem with addled street-verse from the W.B. Yeats of pop (oh Tony Wilson, how could you) suitably dressed in druggy doggerel and with baggy tunes for the fans of varying degrees of import and immediacy.

Opener 'Jellybean' is a "fooking large" tune that's vintage and baggy with indie-dance hooks and a blurting Ryder - "...now that I am naked I'm a lady...it's good to press my tits against the floor...make crazy babies..." providing the finest moment, yet for a band making a point of going clean, druggy nostalgia and references loom large with tracks such as the anthemic 'Angels And Whores' and its "...I'm a drug addicted alcoholic..." sample set to a psychedelic-dance toon with banjo riffs and "...give me the real thing..." cries of glee and Ryder's boundaries re-established - "...crack/ crack/ get back...". 'Rats with Wings' counsels "...slow down and take the joy off..." to a funky b-line and tune dedicated to The Geto Boys, and 'Rush Rush' covers Debbie Harry from Giorgio Moroder's 'Scarface' soundtrack coming over all flaccid and limp.

Lyrically, things get misshapen on many tracks such as 'Deviants' - "...we're deviants/ we need this shit/ ups/ downs/ inbetweeniants..." and guest rappers ????? (un-named) with mangled mashed-psyche verse from Ryder as he squeezes it out, and 'Cuntry Disco' with its ribald title and bedroom window lunacy is set to a funky country twang. Brotherly connections with Bez are affirmed with 'In The Blood' - "...it's in the blood man!...I'm gonna build a fucking house next door to you..." with riffs and melodica keeping it vintage and funky with wittily titled 'Anti Warhole On The Dancefloor' shaking its beat to the bangra causing a stir, and 'Weather' written after kicking methodone after 15 years of use writhing and grooving in its dislocation - "...cos it's too hot for speedo's...". Brassy offerings come with title track 'Uncle Dysfunctional' and Ryder's current obsession with air hostesses matched to the 'Reverend Black Grape' groove.

'Uncle Dysfunctional' is held together by parental advisory stickers with loads of colourful pub language and heralds the Mondays are back and on skewed-form. It's gonna be a sultry summer for the Sly and the Family Stone of Salford, and whether they can hold the applecart together as they've done on the album is the stuff that sells papers.