It's Great When You're Straight...Yeah is the debut studio album by the English rock band Black Grape, released on 7 August 1995 through Radioactive Records.

Following the breakup of Happy Mondays, frontman Shaun Ryder formed Black Grape with vocalist Paul "Kermit" Leveridge and dancer Bez.

His role was covered by Carl "Psycho" McCarthy when the band went on a UK tour in early 1996; Bez left shortly after, citing financial disagreements.

It's Great When You're Straight...Yeah received generally positive reviews from music critics, several of whom saw it as an update to Happy Mondays' sound and highlighted Ryder's lyricism.

[3] Frontman Shaun Ryder bailed on an interview with the rep; after a band meeting, where they realised it would be difficult to revive interest with the label, they decided to break up.

[4][5] Following this, Ryder lived in Cheshire, left his long-term girlfriend, and started to date Donovan's daughter, Oriole Leitch; dancer Mark "Bez" Berry became a local celebrity around Manchester.

[9] Bez and Ruthless Rap Assassins member Paul "Kermit" Leveridge then joined Shaun Ryder's act, which was now named Black Grape.

[18] Nicholl and Dime paid for the band to record home demos; they were unsuccessfully shopped around to multiple labels, many of whom felt it unwise to spend money on Ryder.

[15] Ryder told Bourke that he wished to make an album that combined the sounds of hip hop group Cypress Hill and rock band the Rolling Stones.

[15] Bourke suggested one producer, former Altered Images member Stephen Lironi, who would help shape Black Grape's song structures.

[20] Bourke then suggested producer Danny Saber, who worked with artists that appealed to Ryder's music taste, such as Cypress Hill, House of Pain, and Bobby Womack.

[29] His cousin was getting married; the customer service officer at the airport allowed him to stay one night for the wedding before he returned to Los Angeles, California.

[33][34] Ryder said Lironi's involvement as a co-producer came from Radioactive wanting the album to have a rock element to it so as to avoid leaning too heavily into hip hop territory.

[21] Ryder felt Saber was a perfect match with the band, adding that he gave the recordings a poppy sound, comparing them to Pin Ups by David Bowie (1973).

[38] Tom Lord-Alge mixed the recordings at Encore Studios in Los Angeles before they were mastered by Ted Jensen at Sterling Sound in New York.

[39][40] Author Lisa Verrico wrote in her book High Life 'N' Low Down Dirty: The Thrills and Spills of Shaun Ryder that with its "funky basslines, stuttering hip hop beats, odd noises, psychedelic effects and jubilant brass section," she dubbed it the "ultimate party album".

[45] Ryder attributed the various religious imagery across the album to Samuel L. Jackson's character Jules in the 1994 film Pulp Fiction, in the way he would recite Bible passages as well as his own Irish Catholic upbringing.

[51] It includes additional vocals from Emma Day and Carl "Psycho" McCarthy, the latter of whom Kermit knew from the band Moss Side and would later make remixes of "Revered Black Grape".

[58] Kurfirst wanted a crossover hit, and after hearing "Kelly's Heroes", had the band add a big guitar riff to appeal to rock fans.

[78] The booklet includes a similarly edited photo of a younger Michael Jackson, as well as an image of the band and Saber sitting on the roof of an amusement arcade in Skegness.

[34][75] While returning to the UK from Spain, Kermit fell ill.[52] Upon arriving at Monsall Hospital in Manchester, he was diagnosed with sepsis, which was explained at the time as drinking bad water.

[52][83] American journalists were invited to visit and interview the band; it went unsuccessful due to Bez missing his flight, Kermit still recovering, and Ryder falling ill after being in Jamaica.

[95] The music video for "Reverend Black Grape" was filmed in Ancoats, Manchester, with some interior shots at a bar in the same city, with director Don Letts.

Ryder took a liking to Letts because of his musical style with that band, going as far as to say that the video was highly influenced by Big Audio Dynamite in its religious imagery and cowboy atmosphere.

[117] Ted Kessler of NME expanded on this, saying that it was a "record drenched in so many different styles and influences that it puts the recent achievements of Blur and Oasis in sharp perspective.

"[110] AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote that It's Great When You're Straight...Yeah omits the "stiff musicianship" that soiled Happy Mondays' work, calling it a "surreal, funky, profane, and perversely joyous album" that is "overflowing with casual eclecticism and giddy humor.

"[114] Chris Adams of Lollipop Magazine also praised its mix of styles: "Stylistically, this album's all over the fucking place, and like the Beatles' Revolver, it's all the stronger because of it.

[119] The Irish Times writer Tony Clayton-Lea said it "kicked Happy Mondays into touch with a sequence of swaggering dance-pop tunes that still sound like no one else.

Rolling Stone writer Jason Cohen wrote that Ryder's "ranting – crisply phrased if somewhat slurry – melds in vibrant harmony with Leveridge's raps, toasts and croons.

[119] The Guardian critic Caroline Sullivan wrote that Ryder was "fantastically coarse on parts of this LP, shouting, swearing and, undoubtedly, elbowing his mates as he sings".