Happy Mondays: Greatest Hits

iTunes Review

When the Stone Roses and Inspiral Carpets were bringing back flowery psychedelia during Manchester’s heyday, Happy Mondays stuck to their football- hooligan roots. Their druggy, thuggish antics have become almost as legendary as the hits they left in the wake of a short-lived movement where acid house grooves were successfully fused with U.K. indie-guitar-pop. The Mondays defined Manchester’s baggy era by reworking John Kongos’ 1972 single “He’s Gonna Step On You Again” into the 1990 dance floor hit “Step On.” Though not chronologically sequenced, it makes sense for “Step On” to open this comp, as it was the Mondays’ most successful single next to the soulful “Kinky Afro,” a slow-burning, modern-rock chart-topper. Fans of the band’s early rave-inspired jams should delight in hearing the pulsing “Wrote For Luck” from 1988’s Bummed and of course 1987's “24 Hour Party People," which has become a Northern England anthem of sorts. The sultry cool of “Bob’s Yer Uncle” totally makes up for their turning Thin Lizzy’s “The Boys Are Back In Town” and the Bee Gees’ “Stayin’ Alive” into lazed-up come-down lullabies.