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The good news is that, musically speaking, Living Colour refused to follow the trend. The bad news is that this record was left underappreciated by alternative radio.

In many ways, 'Stain' is a departure from the previous two records - in fact, bassist Muzz Skillings had been replaced by Doug Wimbish, producer Ed Stasium had been replaced by Ron St. Germain, and the bright pop art of the first two records had been replaced by a stark image of an imprisoned woman-child. Even Corey Glover had cut his locks.

Taking a page from the Metallica/Bob Rock playbook, the production is very clean and the guitars are in your face. Most of the tracks can be characterized as unmemorable hard rock ("Ignorance is Bliss", "Wall") or punk ("This Little Pig", "Mind Your Own Busines"), with just a few dashes of sonic experimentation that seems a little forced ("WTFF", "Hemp"). Nonetheless, there are a few standouts that make this record worthy of 3 1/2 stars - the beautifully orchestrated "Nothingness", the tongue-in-cheek novelty tune "Bi", and the hard-driving to-the-point single "Auslander".

I do not think that Living Colour can make a bad record. In the end, however, there is nothing particularly ahead of its time on 'Stain'. Still, the record does not deserve the commercial obscurity caused simply by bad timing.


Stain!   July 8, 2001
 5 out of 5 found this review helpful

The addition of legendary bassist Doug Wimbish was an inspired move! The brothers in Living Colour have never sounded angrier and more focused than they do on this, thier final studio album. The opening "Go Away" roars and sounds like a battalion of tanks coming to flatten everything in it's path. Corey Glover unleashes a parched, barking, gruff and soulful delivery on this track that may frighten you upon first listening and the lyrics are classic ("I don't want anybody to touch me, I think that everybody has AIDS, What's the point in praying for you, You're gonna die anywayhay!"), frightening? You better believe it! and that's whole point. Upon it's release in 1993, guitarist and band founder Vernon Reid described the album as "music for misfits" and he couldn't be more right. As violent as most of "Stain" sounds, the LP also has moments of sheer beauty the most notable example being the guitarless ballad "Nothingness". Recorded outside at night (listen close and you'll hear the crickets chirping in the background) with lead vocalist Glover singing into a satellite dish for a stunning double tracked effect, "Nothingness" is a moment of absolute perfection, it simply can't be touched. My personal faves are the walloping "Leave It Alone" (don't you just love the coda with Vernon soloing over the top of Doug's funky, popping bass and William Calhoun's fat bottomed drumming?), the punk attack of "This Little Pig" (the reference to the Rodney King beating that opens the track will drive the point home) featuring one of the albums most inspired solos( Vernon simply riffing hard, heavy and relentless on the same three chords for nearly a minute) it WILL have you banging your head. The art-rock pretensions of "WTFF", "Hemp" and the trippy, multi-layered, psychedelic closer "Wall" which bangs you over the head with it's message of Acceptance and Non-Predjudice. Special Musical Note: Drummer William Calhoun is in especially fine form on "Auslander", his snare and foot work on the choruses is ferocious! I really hated to see them go, but the the best black rock band on the planet went out with a bang! Living Colour, you are sorely missed.


Mommy...?   February 19, 2003
 5 out of 6 found this review helpful

Stain is wildly uneven and manages to make me shiver when I hear it. The dark and foreboding sound signal that the end of Living Colour was coming. There is so much friction and tension in the sound that you really feel unclean when you listen to Stain.

For example, the song Bi is Corey Glover's view of the bisexual community. Whether or not this song is autobiographical, I don't know. But some anguish is clearly put on display when Glover sings "My lover told me that she's bi/I wanted to scream/There were tears in my eyes/She said `baby, baby, don't you cry/'Cause the one I am with/You've been seeing on the side.'" Keep in mind, this was before Jerry Springer, and a love triangle like this was only slightly less common than nowadays.

Vernon Reid pulls out all of the stops on his guitar playing this time around. The weird noises he would tease us with in previous albums now takes center stage and each song seems to get progressively more out-there with the guitar performance. It gets to the point where a song such as Wall gets completely swallowed in the noise towards the end. Of course, you can't let that get in the way of the song's message: we must all act like neighbors if we want to be neighbors.

Ignorance Is Bliss is probably one of Living Colour's finest moments. A brisk 12/8-meter keeps the song pumping while Reid plays an angular yet appropriate guitar riff. Glover sings about the ignorance of the common man and how is destroys our leverage as citizens rather than protects us. It really does rock hard. The William Calhoun-penned Nothingness is a great song too. The style is solitary, sounding much like it's title.

Bi and Leave It Alone were co-written by Living Colour's new-but-not-for-long bassist Doug Whimbish. Although he does show some unique talent on Stain with his bass playing, Doug's plans with the band were cut short when Living Colour disbanded.

Stain is a very manic-depressive album. It has a hard time defining what it wants to be and never seem to settle on an identity, from the first drum beat of Go Away to the last guitar noise of Wall. Being Living Colour's most sinister sounding work, it deserves an honorable mention for taking advantage of their stature. But Stain is, without a doubt, the sound of a troubled band.