''Disgraceful'' is a 1995 album by British band

Dubstar Dubstar are an English indie-dance duo,Note: An American indie hip hop artist has released some tracks and video via the Internet under the name "Dubstar", but is not connected to the band in any way. performing songs with hints of Britpop, dre ...

. It is also their debut and was released in October 1995 on the

Food Records Food Records was a British rock record label set up in 1984 by David Balfe (formally of Zoo Records), who later took on Andy Ross as his partner. Originally formed as an independent record label with distribution going through Rough Trade Distr ...

label, a division of

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its break-up in 201 ...

that was also home to Blur. The album features two covers; "Not So Manic Now" which was originally recorded by Brick Supply on their 1994 EP ''Somebody's Intermezzo'', and "St. Swithin's Day" which was originally recorded by

Billy Bragg Stephen William Bragg (born 20 December 1957) is an English singer-songwriter and left-wing activist. His music blends elements of folk music, punk rock and protest songs, with lyrics that mostly span political or romantic themes. His music is ...

on his 1984 album ''

Brewing Up with Billy Bragg ''Brewing Up with Billy Bragg'' is the second album by Billy Bragg, released in 1984. While his debut album ''Life's a Riot with Spy vs Spy'' (1983) was performed by Bragg accompanied only by his guitar, ''Brewing Up with Billy Bragg'' began t ...

''.

Artwork censorship

''Disgracefuls cover underwent a revision after some time on general release. The original cover—pictured here—contained a furry blue

pencil case A pencil case or pencil box is a container used to store pencils. A pencil case can also contain a variety of other stationery such as sharpeners, pens, glue sticks, erasers, scissors, rulers and calculators. Pencil cases can be made from a v ...

with a balloon inside, creating a somewhat

labia The labia are part of the female genitalia; they are the major externally visible portions of the vulva. In humans, there are two pairs of labia: the ''labia majora'' (or the outer labia) are larger and thicker, while the ''labia minora'' are fol ...

-like effect. This was later revised to the current, slightly less blatant bunny slipper design.

Critical reception

A reviewer from British magazine ''

Music Week ''Music Week'' is a trade publication for the UK record industry distributed via a website and a monthly print magazine. It is published by Future. History Founded in 1959 as '' Record Retailer'', it relaunched on 18 March 1972 as ''Music W ...

'' wrote, "Delicate, poignant pop from the Gateshead trio, with

Sarah Blackwood Sarah Blackwood (born 6 May 1971) is an English recording artist. She came to prominence as the lead singer of Dubstar, and as Client B in the band Client (band), Client. Career Blackwood was born in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England, attended a ...

's voice soaring above synthesised melodies and strings."

Track listing

All tracks written by

Steve Hillier Dubstar are an English indie-dance duo,Note: An American indie hip hop artist has released some tracks and video via the Internet under the name "Dubstar", but is not connected to the band in any way. performing songs with hints of Britpop, dre ...

except where noted. #"

Stars A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by its gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night, but their immense distances from Earth ma ...

" – 4:09 #"Anywhere" (Hillier, Chris Wilkie) – 3:39 #"Just a Girl She Said" (Sarah Blackwood, Hillier, Wilkie) – 4:39 #"Elevator Song" – 2:54 #"The Day I See You Again" – 4:20 #"Week in Week Out" (Blackwood, Hillier, Wilkie) – 4:28 #"Not So Manic Now" (Harling, Kirby, Mason, Robinson) – 4:29 #"Popdorian" – 2:53 #"Not Once, Not Ever" – 3:50 #"St. Swithin's Day" (Bragg) – 4:01 #"Disgraceful" – 3:50

Personnel

;Dubstar *

– vocals *

– songwriting & programming *Chris Wilkie – guitar ;Additional personnel *Jon Kirby – additional arrangements and keyboards *

Audrey Riley Audrey Riley is an English cellist and string arranger, based in the UK. Career Riley trained at the Guildhall School of Music with Leonard Stehn. She was a cellist for Virginia Astley from 1983 to 1986 and a one-time auxiliary member of The Fam ...

– cello *Andy Duncan – percussion *Graeme Robinson – drums *

Phil Spalding Philip Spalding (born 19 November 1957, London, England) is an English bass player. He is best known as a session musician and player of Fender Precision Bass guitars. He has played and appeared with performing artists such as Mick Jagger, Sea ...

– bass *

Stephen Hague Stephen Hague (born 1960) is an American record producer most active with various British acts since the 1980s. Early life Hague was born in Portland, Maine in 1960. Early career Hague started his musical career in the mid-1970s as a session k ...

– accordion

References

External links

''Disgraceful''
at

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(streamed copy where licensed) 1995 debut albums Dubstar albums Albums produced by Stephen Hague {{1990s-electronic-album-stub