{"id":39691,"date":"2006-03-24T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2006-03-24T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/stain-2\/"},"modified":"2006-03-24T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2006-03-24T00:00:00","slug":"stain-2","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/stain-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Stain"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Although the 90s were a golden period for grunge
\nmusic, it was great for rock music in general. There is no doubt
\nthat grunge records dwarfed everything else that was created during
\nthe decade. But the parallel non-grunge alternative music scene
\nproduced stunning rock albums that were as monumental in
\ninfluencing the 90s rock sound as grunge: Gentlemen (The Afghan
\nWhigs), Angel Dust (Faith No More), Bloodsugarsexmagik (Red Hot
\nChilli Peppers), and Stain.<\/p>\n

There was never any second thought on Living Colour’s
\nmusical brilliance, and the band had been making superb rock albums
\never since they debuted with Vivid. But on Stain, the group shows a
\ncompletely new level of maturity. This is the hardest and the most
\nthought provoking of the group’s first three records.<\/p>\n

Stain captures the genuine brute aggression that
\ngrunge acts possessed and portrayed so effortlessly, and finds
\nLiving Colour at its darkest and edgiest self. The band’s messages
\nof social consciousness on its previous two efforts were never as
\nin-your-face as they are on Stain, where the outcry is rasping,
\nacerbic, and stinging like never before.<\/p>\n

On “Go Away,” the band’s recurring theme of Africa
\ncomes up again, but this time the anger’s worse than ever, and the
\nsong’s heavy with bitterness; the chorus “I see the starving
\nAfricans on TV \/ I feel it has nothing to do with me \/ I sent my
\ntwenty dollars to Live Aid \/ I’ve paid my guilty conscience to go
\naway,” gives an idea of the song’s rancor. The same goes with
\n“Ignorance Is Bliss” where the words are as caustic – “Living with
\nmyself is hard enough \/ So I get away when things get rough \/
\nFamine, strife, and thoughts of war \/ Matter less than the dress
\nshe wore \/ Ignorance is bliss \/ Problems solved with just one
\nkiss,” and the furiousness is just as intense.<\/p>\n

Living Colour records generally contain an odd love
\nsong in between their messages of social outrage, just to lighten
\nthings up a little bit with a theme that’s hard to resist even for
\na band like this. Unlike the straightforward cuts of heartbreak on
\nits predecessors (notably “Broken Hearts” on Vivid and “Love Rears
\nIts Ugly Head” on Time’s Up), Stain, takes the “love” theme to
\nraunchier extent, with “Bi,” a track – as the name suggests – on
\nbisexuality that’s humorous and shamelessly real (“My lover told
\nme, well, that she’s bi \/ I wanted to scream, there were tears in
\nmy eyes \/ She said baby, baby, don’t you cry \/’Cause the one I am
\nwith, you’ve been seeing on the side”), which has a perfect outro
\nwith some cheesy hip-hop beats thrown in by guest producer Andre
\nBetts.<\/p>\n

The random experimentation with hip-hop and Betts’
\nappearance resurface on “WTFF,” which is Stain’s answer to Time’s
\nUp’s “Ology,” a 2:15 piece of random guitars tossed into hardcore
\nhip-hop beats reminiscent of “Jump” by one-hit wonder Kris Kross,
\nwhich comes across as a nice change of pace towards the end of the
\nrecord.<\/p>\n

The more eccentric second half of Stain features the only two
\nmellow cuts on this record, “Nothingness” and “Hemp.” Probably one
\nof Living Colour’s best tracks ever, “Nothingness,” a poignant song
\nabout loss and death, is simple in contrast to the record’s
\nubiquitous hard-edged sound, with no extravagant guitar-hooks or
\nsolos, only beautifully laden synth-guitar whiffs accompanied with
\nbass and drums. “Hemp” is a moody poetic narration, also adorned
\nand made magical by the psychedelic synth-guitar giving a dramatic
\nedge to the strangely spoken words.<\/p>\n

All of Living Colour’s records are nothing less than
\nexceptional, and so it is a hard task to compare one with any of
\nthe others. But having said that, Stain was a part of one of the
\nmost treasured periods of rock. Hence, it will always be a special
\nrecord in Living Colour’s catalog.<\/p>\n

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