''Schubert Dip'' is the debut

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

by British

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band EMF, released on

Parlophone Records Parlophone Records Limited (also known as Parlophone Records and Parlophone) is a German–British record label founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company as Parlophon. The British branch of the label was founded on 8 August 19 ...

on 7 May 1991. It features the worldwide hit single " Unbelievable" which reached number one on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100. The name of the album is a

pun A pun, also known as paronomasia, is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use of homophoni ...

on the name of the popular sweet sherbet dip and the 19th-century composer

Franz Schubert Franz Peter Schubert (; 31 January 179719 November 1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. Despite his short lifetime, Schubert left behind a vast ''oeuvre'', including more than 600 secular vocal wor ...

Critical reception

Alex Henderson of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

gave the album three stars out of five, feeling that overall it was not as good as the standout single "Unbelievable": "The only song that comes close to packing the punch of 'Unbelievable' is the intoxicating 'Long Summer Days'. For the most part, ''Schubert Dip'' is a prime example of an album that is simply decent when it should have been excellent."

Track listing

All songs written and composed by James Atkin, Derry Brownson, Mark Decloedt,

Ian Dench Ian Alec Harvey Dench (born 7 August 1964) is an English songwriter and musician. He was the guitarist and principal songwriter for EMF, who scored a major international hit reaching number 1 in the United States with " Unbelievable" in 1991. ...

& Zac Foley, except where noted. # "Children" – 5:15 # "Long Summer Days" – 4:00 # "When You're Mine" (Dench) – 3:22 # "Travelling Not Running" (Dench) – 4:20 # " I Believe" – 3:43 # " Unbelievable" – 3:29 # "Girl of an Age" – 3:56 # "Admit It" (Dench) – 3:28 # "Lies" (Dench) – 4:27 (4:19 on reissue) # "Longtime" – 4:25 (original length was 8:10, as it included "EMF" as a hidden track) # "EMF" (Live at the Bilson) – 3:54 (hidden track on the original, later listed separately on reissue) Note *The track "Lies" on the first pressings of ''Schubert Dip'' originally began with a sample of the voice of

John Lennon John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer, songwriter, musician and peace activist who achieved worldwide fame as founder, co-songwriter, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of ...

's assassin,

Mark David Chapman Mark David Chapman (born May 10, 1955) is an American man who murdered former Beatles member John Lennon in New York City on December 8, 1980. As Lennon walked into the archway of his apartment building at The Dakota, Chapman shot Lennon from a ...

, reciting the first two lines of the lyrics to Lennon's " Watching the Wheels". Lennon's widow,

Yoko Ono Yoko Ono ( ; ja, 小野洋子, Ono Yōko, usually spelled in katakana ; born February 18, 1933) is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer, songwriter, and peace activist. Her work also encompasses performance art and filmmaking. Ono grew up i ...

, objected to this sample and as a result all subsequent pressings of the album have omitted the sample of Chapman's voice. *The Hungarian speech at the beginning of the track "Travelling Not Running": "" ("It is impossible to harm the oppositionist, the final result will decide it".) The person was János Berecz, a Hungarian Communist Party ("Hungarian Socialist Labour Party") politician at the end of the Iron Curtain era. Sample credits *"Unbelievable" includes samples of US comedian

Andrew Dice Clay Andrew Dice Clay (born Andrew Clay Silverstein; September 29, 1957) is an American stand-up comedian and actor. He rose to prominence in the late 1980s with a brash, deliberately offensive persona known as "The Diceman". In 1990, he became the fi ...

throughout the track. *The song "Girl of an Age" contains a sample of the character Ernie from ''

Sesame Street ''Sesame Street'' is an American educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Workshop until June 2000) a ...

'' speaking to his friend Bert. *The song "Longtime" contains a sample of a reading of ''

The Hollow Men "The Hollow Men" (1925) is a poem by the modernist writer T. S. Eliot. Like much of his work, its themes are overlapping and fragmentary, concerned with post–World War I Europe under the Treaty of Versailles (which Eliot despised: compare "Ge ...

'' by T. S. Eliot.

Personnel

EMF *James Atkin – vocals, guitars *Derry Brownson – keyboards, samples *Mark Decloedt – drums *

– keyboards and guitars *Zac Foley – bass Additional personnel *DJ Milf – turntables, scratching *

Claudia Fontaine Claudia Fontaine (26 August 1960 – 13 March 2018) was an backing vocalist from Peckham, London. Career During the 1980s, Fontaine and fellow backing vocalist Caron Wheeler (and later, third member Naomi Thompson) were known as Afrodiziak. S ...

– backing vocals on "Children", "I Believe", "Girl of an Age" & "Lies" *Sindy Finn & Laurane McIntosh – backing vocals on "Travelling Not Running" *Mastering by

George Marino George Marino (April 15, 1947 – June 4, 2012) was an American mastering engineer known for working on albums by rock bands starting in the late 1960s. Biography Marino was born on April 15, 1947, in the New York City borough The Bronx. He at ...

at Sterling Sound, NYC

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

{{Authority control EMF (band) albums 1991 debut albums Capitol Records albums Parlophone albums