Stupid, Stupid, Stupid. Well yeah, Shaun Ryder's never

exactly come across as Elvis

Costello, that's for sure. But while he'd have you see him as a

limey

counterpart to Larry, Curly and

Moe (a kinda British Shemp, who, by the way, I always thought

was

underrated -- the guy

had some wicked

footwork going for him), Ryder -- ex of the ultimate party band,

Happy

Mondays, and now of

the ultimate party band Black Grape -- is about as crazy as a fox.

Stupid, Stupid, Stupid?. Yeah, right. Here's a working

class

Brit who's willingly played the part of the whacked-out guttersnipe

and become a rich man doing

it. Not too stupid. Which isn't

to say that Ryder isn't authentic. Lord knows he's done his share

of

what middle-class society

considers to be stupid things like, for instance, drugs, drugs,

drugs. Lots

of them, mate! So he leads off

here in BG's sophomore effort with a song about -- you guessed it

-- dope!

"Get Higher" is laid-back,

spliffed-out funk, featuring what sounds like parts of Ronald

Reagan's

old speeches spliced together to

form phrases such as "Nancy and I are hooked on heroin." Cool.

Ryder's

telling the press that in reality this is done by

a "Ronald Reagan impersonator," but to believe that you'd have

to be ...

Stupid, Stupid, Stupid. Which is one thing producer and

Black

Grape multi-instrumental

Renaissance man Danny Saber isn't. It's his ace production and

arsenal

of instrumental touches that

almost disguise the fact that this album just doesn't pack the punch

of

the band's debut, the ironically

titled It's Great When You're Straight . . . Yeah!. You might

say the tail is wagging the dog a

bit too often here -- say bow wow wow, Mr. Ryder. Tracks such as

"Marbles"

and "Dadi Was A Badi" are

territory that he's done better on previous

albums, such as the Happy Mondays' classic

Pills, Thrills and Bellyaches, even if he'd be loathe to admit

it. The insistence here on

repeating simplistic choruses ad infinitum start to grate

after a while, making you either

want to turn off the stereo or go ahead and drink yourself . . .

Stupid, Stupid, Stupid -- which might not be a bad idea,

because if you can get relaxed

enough, this album begins to sound better, and you can

appreciate the

more inspired moments that pop

up (such as the dance-floor winner "Squeaky," featuring a neat

circular

guitar riff from Saber, or the

neo-heavy metal funk of "Rubber Band"). The perverse

Grapesters even

leave the best for the very

last, with the "low-ryding" Latino funk of "Words" conjuring a

near-soundtrack feel for a yet-to-be-made Martin Scorcese flick.

Just

when you're ready to write off Ryder as a spent force, you realize

that would be a . . .

Stupid, Stupid, Stupid thing to do. So what can I tell ya?

Consistency is the last thing

you'd expect from a guy like Shaun Ryder, and here he's a little

too

content to pass off attitude as

inspiration, at times just doing the minimum to get by. And from

the

sounds of it, he's also tired of

carrying around rappers Kermit and Psycho who, except for

"Money Back

Guaranteed," are almost

unnoticeable here.

Which begs the question, can a Happy Mondays reunion be far

behind? What did

you say -- that's a damn

stupid idea? Well of course it is! So keep your ears

peeled.