Shaun Ryder says his new solo album is “nonsense”.

The Happy Mondays star has insisted his upcoming record, ‘Visits From Future Technology’, includes lyrics that are just as whacky as they’ve always been, despite the tracks being written completely sober.

Speaking about his upcoming single, titled ‘Mumbo Jumbo’, he said: “I'm a lot more sober, but it's still the same stuff I always wrote about - nonsense and mumbo jumbo. It's not made that much difference to my personality. The song ‘Mumbo Jumbo’: ‘I've got 75 percent jellyfish textses’ - what the f*** is that?”

But the 58-year-old rocker is adamant his new music is much better than his first solo LP, ‘Amateur Night in the Big Top’, which was released in 2003 and was made as he went cold turkey in a bid to quit heroin.

Speaking to the Daily Star newspaper, he said: “It was something that I did because I was turkeying my t*** off and I was trying to stay focused. To me this is my first solo album.”

Meanwhile, Shaun recently hinted he has huge surprise guests lined up for appearances on the upcoming record.

He said: “The management I had weren’t interested [in a new album] and no one would put it out, so it just got left.

“Then, during this COVID madness, it got rediscovered.

“I remembered what a great time we had making it and how good it was.

“You’d be amazed if you knew who was playing the saxophone, the drums and guitars, they’re that famous we’re not saying.

"So we played with it, touched it up and tickled it, brought a few new things out, and did some new vocals.”

The ‘Step On’ hitmaker started creating the album over a decade ago, and it will be released on August 20 via his new SWRX Recordings label.