Yes Please!

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Yes Please!
Yes Please! cover
Studio album by Happy Mondays
Released September 22, 1992
Genre Madchester
Length 45:59
Label Factory Records/London Records
Producer(s) Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth
Professional reviews
Happy Mondays chronology
Live
(1991)
Yes Please!
(1992)
Loads
(1994)


Yes Please! was the final studio album by British band The Happy Mondays. Generally seen as their poorest work, it was released in 1992 and was produced by Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth of Talking Heads. The album is most famous for sinking independent label Factory Records, costing a too-large sum to record. It is speculated much of the money was spent on quenching the band's voracious appetite for drugs. When the money ran out, it is rumoured they even sold pieces of the Barbados studio in which it was recorded, in an effort to raise money to feed their addiction.

Contents

[edit] Sound

It is reasoned by many that one of the reasons for the album's failure was the change of producer between 1990's Pills 'n' Thrills and Bellyaches and this one. Paul Oakenfold, that album's producer was unavailable to produce Yes Please! The new production team, Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth, drastically changed the band's sound from that of the previous album. Whilst before the Happy Mondays sound had been grounded in a fusion of Rock and Acid House music, here it was changed to a rather more out-of-date style of 80s Synth Pop combined with Caribbean influences. While the band had previously enjoyed almost universal critical approval for their music, the change of sound on this album garnered a huge critical backlash against the band. One reviewer writes of the album: "In the hands of Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth, the group's music loses much of its distinctive, thuggish edginess, as well as its reliance on current dance trends, becoming faceless, undistinguished dance-pop sludge." [1]

[edit] Track listing

All tracks written by the Happy Mondays.

  1. "Stinkin' Thinkin'" – 4:17
  2. "Monkey in the Family" – 4:41
  3. "Sunshine & Love" – 4:46
  4. "Dustman" – 3:44
  5. "Angel" – 5:51
  6. "Cut 'em loose Bruce" – 4:26
  7. "Theme from Netto" – 4:13
  8. "Love Child" – 5:12
  9. "Total Ringo" – 3:38
  10. "Cowboy Dave" – 7:43

[edit] Singles

  • "Stinkin' Thinkin'"
  • "Sunshine & Love"
  • "Angel" (no release at retail)

[edit] Personnel

  • Chris Frantz (Producer)
  • Tina Weymouth (Producer)
  • Steven Stanley (Mixing)
  • Mark Roule (Recording)
  • Simon Machan (Programming and Sampling)
  • Scott Hull (Editing)
  • Paul Ryder (Bass Guitar)
  • Shaun Ryder (Vocals)
  • Mark Day (Guitars)
  • Bez (Bez)
  • Rowetta (Backing Vocals)
  • Gary Whelan (Drums)
  • Paul Davis (Keyboards)
  • Bruce Martin (Percussion)
  • Kermit (Additional Vocals on "Cut 'em loose Bruce")

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ Allmusic.com Review