Black Grape's debut revs up with a command from lead singer Shaun Ryder: "Oh, come all ye faithful, oh, joyful and triumphant!/Gather round while I blow my own trumpet!" The biblical bellowing seems appropriate: Black Grape are a resurrection of sorts – Ryder was formerly the main man in Happy Mondays, the most experimental, groove-ridden and recklessly Dionysian gang to come out of England's pivotal Madchester (Manchester) scene in the late '80s.

The Mondays imploded in classic it's-better-to-burn-out, etc., fashion, mostly because Ryder was, as he has said, "cracked out of me brain." But as the title of It's Great When You're Straight ... Yeah suggests, Ryder's messed-up past is just that – past. Black Grape teams him with covocalist Kermit Leveridge (ex-Ruthless Rap Assassins) and a rubbery musical core. The result is an exuberant '90s pop party, a hip-hop/white rock/dance club collage suffused with punchy cultural substance and great stylistic reach.

With his shady background and Northern England working-class accent, Ryder is a surreal street-beat poet whose raucous authenticity masks a careful lyrical craft. He's class conscious, art conscious, race conscious and, especially, pop-culture and consumption conscious. References include Dirty Harry, "the great smell of Brut," "Planet Reebok" and the holy trilogy of Batman, Jesus and Bruce Wayne. On "Shake Your Money," he delivers a bleak but melodically uplifting account of drug-dealing hooligans; riding a creamy Stax/Volt groove, he actually sounds soulful. Elsewhere, his ranting – crisply phrased if somewhat slurry – melds in vibrant harmony with Leveridge's raps, toasts and croons.

Black Grape's foot soldiers are guitarist Paul Wagstaff and drummer Ged Lynch, and co-producers Danny Saber and Stephen Lironi on keyboards, guitar, bass and programming. Former Happy Monday dancer Bez is also involved, although, as usual, his recorded contributions are inaudible – he's credited, metaphorically, with "vibes." Together they create a funky pop architecture of loping drum programs, hard guitar riffs and creepy ambience, rolling easily from raga to rock to Caribbean rhythms. It's great that Ryder's straight (yeah), but what's even greater is his dizzyingly weird and infectious new band, which is anything but (yeah). Black Grape are bent in all the right ways. (RS 721)

JASON COHEN