Pop Voodoo

Pop Voodoo is the third studio album by British band Black Grape, released on 4 August 2017 through UMC. After a one-off show in 2010, Black Grape reunited to play a show in April 2015, by which point, they were being managed by Alan McGee. Following a tour of the United Kingdom and a collaboration with Paul Oakenfold, the band worked on a few ideas for new songs. They travelled to Spain in September 2016, initially as a writing trip, before it evolved into recording sessions for their next album. Recorded was done at Martin "Youth" Glover's residential studio in Sierra Nevada, Spain and in London. Pop Voodoo is a funk, pop and trip hop album that sees several instruments being played by Youth, alongside a variety of session musicians. Pop Voodoo received generally favourable reviews from music critics, many of whom praised frontman Shaun Ryder's lyricism, the upbeat music and Youth's production work. It peaked at number eight in Scotland and number 15 in the UK. Preceded by a supporting slot for Richard Ashcroft on his UK tour, "Nine Lives" was released as the lead single from the album in June 2017. "I Wanna Be Like You" was then released as the album's second single the following month, ahead of festival appearances, such as Splendour and Rock Against Racism. After a performance at the Star Shaped Festival, the band went on a UK tour in late 2018. Background and development Following the demise of Happy Mondays, frontman Shaun Ryder formed Black Grape with Paul "Kermit" Leveridge, release two studio albums, It's Great When You're Straight...Yeah (1995) and Stupid Stupid Stupid (1997). They split up in 1998; Ryder reformed Happy Mondays, which later released their fifth studio album Uncle Dysfunktional (2007). Around 2009, Ryder conceived the idea of reuniting Black Grape, which amounted to a one-off show in 2010 with drum and bass musician Tom Piper covering Kermit's parts. Kermit did not participate as he was going through several personal issues, such as a health problem that required a pig's valve in his heart and his mother dealing with Alzheimer's disease. Ryder said no further plans had been made as their management had no interest in continuing with the band. Veronica Gretton, former head of the band's previous label Radioactive Records, had emailed Ryder, telling him about the upcoming 20th anniversary of It's Great When You're Straight...Yeah.