Pills 'N' Thrills And Bellyach

12/30/1990 3:00 AM, LAUNCH
Dev Sherlock

The perfect Happy Mondays album. Great production, classic stolen riffs, funky looped drums and Ryder's best lyrics (much to fans' and critics' surprise, he proved a formidable songwriter when he tried). This album crystallized the spirit of the time, and marked a commercial peak for the band and the rave/baggy/Madchester movements, which had by now gone overground in the U.K. A real timepiece.