supporting labelmates Pixies. Critical reception Bummed was met with generally positive reviews from music critics. NME writer James Brown lauded the album's "shocking originality" and found that its sound would "fit startlingly amidst the rapid mutation of the current underground dance boom." Q Martin Aston said it "continues the band's warped version of Northern Soul rhythms, with stabbing guitars and Hammond organs, wayward sequencers, a dislocated rhythm section and surly sardonic vocalist ... [The] only real failing is its lack of versatility, but it's Happy Mondays' stroppy spirit that counts most of all." Tony Beard of Record Mirror noted the band's musical development, writing that "the sound they slip into is a world away from the cack-handed northern funk they used to bash out." Chicago Tribune journalist Greg Kot complimented Hannett's production, calling it "one excellent reason" for listeners to buy the album. Reviewing Bummed in retrospect for AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine praised Hannett's production as "all smeared colors and harsh edges," and wrote that "decadence has rarely sounded as dangerous as it did in the hands of the Mondays and this is where they reveled in that debauchery, pumping out stiff psychedelic funk as Ryder spat out rhymes of luck, lazyitis and fat lady wrestlers." Writing for The Guardian, Alexis Petridis said "[a]lmost 20 years on, Bummed sounds extraordinary, but wildly abstruse". He expanded on this, calling it the "result of the copious intake of ecstasy". Priya Elan of NME felt the album "actually dated best" out of all of the band's releases, despite Hannett's "raw production show[ing] the Madchester sound in its infancy". BBC Music reviewer Daryl Easlea wrote that it had a "heart and spirit that beats away", stopping the "album from [the brink of] collapse". Mojo Danny Eccleston credited Happy Mondays with creating "a new kind of psychedelic punk-funk" on Bummed. Commercial performance and accolades Bummed peaked at number 59 on the main UK Albums Chart, and number two on the UK Independent Albums Chart. Factory saw the album's initial sales as highly disappointing, though they were not concerned due a large cashflow injection from the sales of New Order's Substance (1987) a year prior. By early 1989, it had sold 15,000 copies. Due to the success of the remixed "W.F.L.", the album's sales reached the threshold for gold certification in the UK. "Lazyitis – One Armed Boxer" charted at number 46 on the main UK