Artist: Happy Mondays
Album: Yes Please!
Label: Factory
Released: 22 September 1992
UK Top 100 Albums: 14
US Billboard 200: 94
Produced: Tina Weymouth, Chris Frantz
File Under: The Drugs Don’t Work
Background
Yes Please! is often remembered as the end. The end of Madchester, the end of Factory Records, and the end of the Happy Mondays. To many, it was the sound of chaos finally catching up with the band.
But for me, it’s different. I bought it on cassette in 1992, played it endlessly, and loved every messy, funky, off-kilter moment. Decades later, it still feels underrated.
🍌 Barbados Breakdown
By 1992, the Mondays were in trouble. Factory Records was sinking, Shaun Ryder’s drug use was no secret, and the recording budget was long gone. Instead of Salford, the band flew to Barbados with Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth of Talking Heads as producers.
It should have been paradise. Instead, it was meltdown. Cheap crack, endless distractions, and clashing personalities turned the sessions into rehab rather than recording. Bez went home early, Paul Ryder fought with Shaun, and progress was painfully slow.
Yet somehow, an album emerged. Not perfect, but not the disaster history claims.
🎛 Funkier, Cleaner, Still Weird
Yes Please! doesn’t revisit the rave-fuelled chaos of Bummed or Pills ’n’ Thrills and Bellyaches. Instead, it takes a different route:
- Less rave, more rhythm
- Less acid house, more Afrobeat and funk
- Fewer electronics, more groove
Highlights include:
- “Angel” – hypnotic, bass-driven glide
- “Stinkin’ Thinkin’” – tight, slinky groove
- “Sunshine and Love” – warm and woozy
- “Monkey in the Family” – proper Mondays weirdness
- “Theme from Netto” – ridiculous title, surprisingly brilliant
It wasn’t the Mondays on autopilot. It was a band trying something new, even if they were falling apart.
💔 Flop or Forgotten Gem?
On release, Yes Please! bombed. Critics dismissed it, fans were confused, and sales were weak. Within months, Factory Records collapsed.
In the Madchester story, this album became the punchline: the drugs, the overspend, the collapse. But that’s too easy.
If Pills ’n’ Thrills was the high, Yes Please! was the comedown. Fragile, weary, uneven – but still full of strange charm.
📼 My Tape, My Time
Owning it on cassette felt like loyalty. By 1993 it was uncool, Britpop was brewing, and even Shaun Ryder seemed to walk away from it. But I kept playing it.
I found new details in its loose, spacey sound. Mostly on hill walks writing bloody awful poetry. It may not have had the swagger of “Kinky Afro” or the manic energy of “Wrote for Luck,” but it was still the Mondays. Different, but still them.
🧠 Why It Deserves a Revisit
It’s no masterpiece. Some songs wander, and the backstory is impossible to ignore. But strip that away and there’s plenty to admire:
- Shaun Ryder’s surreal spark
- Paul Davis’s atmospheric keys
- Tight, funky grooves from Frantz and Weymouth
- More soul than it was ever given credit for
It’s a record that captures a band at breaking point – but still creating.
🎵 Where to Start
If you’re new to Yes Please! (or haven’t heard it in years), try these tracks first:
- “Stinkin’ Thinkin’” – one of their best grooves
- “Angel” – bass-heavy and hypnotic
- “Sunshine and Love” – hazy and mellow
- “Monkey in the Family” – odd, funky, brilliant
Ignore the reviews. Skip around. Let it grow on you.
💬 Final Thoughts
Yes Please! isn’t the disaster it’s made out to be. It’s flawed, funky, tense, and strangely moving. Not the Mondays’ finest record, but not their worst either.
For those of us who lived with it on cassette, rewinding and replaying until the tape wore thin, it remains a glorious mess worth revisiting. Underrated? Definitely. Forgotten? Not here.
A masterpiece? Just maybe that too.
The Listening Log 
Leave a comment