Bummed

Bummed was recorded in six weeks at the Slaughterhouse studio in Driffield.[3] The band's manager Nathan McGough stated that the group were heavily taking the rave drug ecstasy during the recording. Describing the drug's impact on the recording, McGough recollected: "There was a lot of ecstasy taken on a daily basis during the making of Bummed, we took two hundred E with us but they ran out after ten days so I had to go back to Manchester and collect another hundred. Bummed is definitely an E album, perhaps the first full album ever made on that drug".[3] Frontman Shaun Ryder also noted the influence of LSD and the 1970 film Performance on the sessions.[3] Producer Martin Hannett, known for his work with Joy Division and New Order, saturated the recording in effects such as reverb and echo.[4] The band provided the alcoholic Hannett with large amounts of ecstasy to keep him from drinking during the sessions.[4]

Referring to the origin of the album's name, the band's drummer Gary Whelan recalled that "'Bummed', was a saying at the time. Shaun used to say he was out all night and he bummed her all night long, a slang word for sex. I didn't even know what the album was called until it came out."[5]

The sleeve for the album was designed by Central Station Design, a Mancunian design agency known for their hand-painted and collage-based album covers for the Happy Mondays and other Manchester-based acts. The front cover is a cropped portrait of Shaun Ryder, while the inner artwork of the vinyl release include two pictures of a nude female model.[6]

Several of the songs on this album were later remixed. These included "Mad Cyril", "Wrote For Luck" and "Lazyitis". "Mad Cyril" was remixed into "Mad Cyril (Hello Girls Mix)", "Wrote For Luck" was remixed twice, firstly into "WFL" and then "Wrote For Luck (Think About The Future Mix)"; Vince Clarke remixed the former, Paul Oakenfold the latter. "Lazyitis" was remixed into "Lazyitis - One Armed Boxer" which featured Scottish singer Karl Denver on guest vocals. Paul Oakenfold would become vastly important to Happy Mondays when he produced their next album Pills 'n' Thrills and Bellyaches.

In 2007, Warner released a double album collector's edition on 5 November 2007 (2007-11-05). This release collected the original 1988 album with a second disc of remixes from the era.

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[2]
Chicago Tribune	[7]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[8]
The Guardian	[4]
Mojo	[9]
NME	9/10[10]
Q	[11]

Q magazine awarded Bummed three stars out of five. The album, wrote Martin Aston, "continues the band's warped version of Northern Soul rhythms, with stabbing guitars and Hammond organs, wayward sequencers, a dislocated rhythm section and surly sardonic vocalist ... [The] only real failing is its lack of versatility, but it's Happy Mondays' stroppy spirit that counts most of all."[11] AllMusic praised Hannett's production as "all smeared colors and harsh edges," and wrote that "decadence has rarely sounded as dangerous as it did in the hands of the Mondays and this is where they reveled in that debauchery, pumping out stiff psychedelic funk as Ryder spat out rhymes of luck, lazyitis and fat lady wrestlers."[2]

In 2006, Q placed the album at #18 in its list of "40 Best Albums of the '80s".[12] The album was also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.[13]

• Bummed (Adobe Flash) at Radio3Net (streamed copy where licensed)
• Bummed (Adobe Flash) at Myspace (streamed copy where licensed)
• Review from Stylus Magazine