CD Review

Living Colour | Stain

In the spirit of spreading useful information, the Liberator staff assembled a diverse crew of five dedicated reviewers, took a road trip to the Exclusive Co., and picked up a copy of Living Colour's new disk, Stain. We liked the stylishly red tinted gem case, and had heard that Living Colour took a new direction with this disk. As a group, we rated the disk on a 1-20 scale, with each of the five reviewers rating it from I to 4, with the total being the overall score.

Our five reviewers preferred the following types of music:

Alternative Pop: Think REM, They Might Be Giants, Wire. Not afraid to use melody, but far smarter than top-40.

Industrial/Rhythmic: Strong, danceable rhythm makes my uncle bob throb. Think of Front 242, KMFDM, Information Society.

Pre-Punk Blues Funk: A fairly wide spectrum of groups, actually, such as Basehead, Black Sheep and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones.

Blues/Funk/Groove/Metal: Again, a pretty good spread of groups, but including metal and thrash.

Alternative Metal/Pyscho Music: Dead Milkmen, Velvet Underground, Sniper Q, They Might Be Giants. If it's weird and smart, it's good.

Alt. Pop: Stain was fairly solid listening, and a couple of tracks ("Leave It Alone," "Nothingness") really came together as a coherent expression of a serious concept; the problem that seemed to ride through the whole disc was that the vocals, far from expressing any new ideas or imagery, tried to hide behind a solid wall of thrashing and dissonant guitars and synth noise. I found myself really enjoying about four of the tracks, (including the delightfully whimsical "Bi"), but would not recommend this disk to everyone.

Industrial/Rhythmic: Solid listening? Like banging one's head on concrete. I found two or three tracks, with great effort, that were of value. I especially liked "Bi" and the sequenced nature of "WWTF." I agree that no new ideas, aside a sample or two, were expressed on Stain. Sounds like the same old cockrock to me. [shrug]

Pre Punk Blues Funk: I enjoy just basically everything from harsh to mellow, Ice-T to the Toasters. Living Colour is one of those bands which is fairly universally liked, because their music is hard, but not hard core. It carries a strong message and strong beats. This album, Stain is no different. The third track is great, it cuts to the jam, gets the slam and beats the beats. Good mellow sounds in "Leave it Alone." The most important thing about LC , I think, is their lyrics. They speak out on social issues , self-identity and the evil of racism, not bullshit fullacrap, lame-ass, weak music. I liked this album, but it didn't really converge on a lot of new ground. Except for "WTFF," which is pretty industrial. But hey, Like Levar Burton says... "But don't take MY word for it."

Blues/Metal: I enjoyed listening to this album for the most part. Some songs really stand tall and rip your innards out with its hard rhythm tracks (i.e. "Ignorance," "Leave It Alone" and "Auslander"). One track that had me shitting my pants in surprise was "WTFF." This track sounded like A Cypress Hill rhythm track. "This Little Pig" was, what seemed to me, another song about brutal cops. I'm sad that LC has stooped to writing about such topics as this. We already have, what, a BILLION rap groups bitching about it. However, the music was very good. The CD ended on a good song, "Wall," which had a trouble ending, much like that of a car trying to start without an engine. To sum it up for you, the album was pretty good. It had heavy metal, groovy rhythms and a little something you can dance to. I leave you with this, "Shit a little lovin' cause you're my hunka hunka burning urinary track."

Alt. Metal: Longtime fans of Liying Color won't be disappointed in their latest release, and anyone with the slightest appreciation of hard rock will find it hard not to like this album. Heavy, slamming songs, some with topics, other just for the sake of music, dominate this disc, many of which ("Leave it Alone," "This Little Pig") deal with social problems. A couple of softer, almost surreal pieces ("Nothingness," "Hemp)" occasionally give the listener a break between the noise. The result is a very satisfying and well-balanced disc, something not to miss. Don't forget to make a note of the new bassist, Doug Wimbish – he has a unique style which puts the bass into the foreground much better than on previous releases.

Industrial/Rythmic: I guess. If you like it, listen to it.

Alt. Pop:
Alt.-Metal:
Blues/Metal:
Industrial:
Pre-Punk:

Out of Twenty we gave Stain a twelve rating, meaning that as a group we thought it was better than most of the discs out there, and probably a fairly good buy. But hey, Like Levar Burton says... "But don't take MY word for it."