Returning from a six-year hiatus, Black Grape’s fourth studio album largely succeeds in its endeavour to keep the party going strong long after The Haçienda has closed its doors. Orange Head gets off to a slow start with ‘Dirt’, a downbeat, gritty opener, though the pace is soon picked up on the jubilant-sounding ‘Button Eyes’, a Latin American-inspired number that will soundtrack a fair deal of dad-dancing on their upcoming tour dates.

Staying true to Black Grape’s genre-bending principles, Orange Head ebbs and flows between grungier, industrial sounds of the morning after, without failing to account for those eccentric highs of the night before. And while the likes of ‘Quincy’ and ‘Loser’ fail to leave much of a lasting impression, shortcomings are accounted for on the revealing ‘In The Ground’, which sees Shaun Ryder and his companion Paul ‘Kermit’ Leveridge glossing over their respective traumas in a jovial manner only they could get away with. ‘It’s sleazy and they’re greedy and nobody’s pretty,’ cries Ryder on penultimate track, ‘Self Harm’, offering a rather succinct summary of the things he’s seen on his travels during 40 years spent rattling around the music industry. Clearly somewhat weathered by his extended, tumultuous time in the limelight, Ryder makes no effort to sugarcoat his experiences as he shudders at the thought of enduring ‘too many relapses’ (‘Panda’), and playfully quips ‘I find it funny that I can’t sing’ (‘Button Eyes’).

Like the vast majority of Madchester alumni, Black Grape have never fully succeeded in attempting to replicate the euphoric feel of their early output, but that’s not to say there isn’t replay value in Orange Head. Whether the album’s contents will warrant an updated version of their greatest hits remains to be seen, but there’s more than enough here to keep crowds on their feet for the foreseeable future.

Black Grape: Orange Head is released by DGAFF Recordings now.