''Disgraceful'' is the debut 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 was released in October 1995 on the

Food Food is any substance consumed by an organism for Nutrient, nutritional support. Food is usually of plant, animal, or Fungus, fungal origin and contains essential nutrients such as carbohydrates, fats, protein (nutrient), proteins, vitamins, ...

label, a division of

EMI EMI Group Limited (formerly EMI Group plc until 2007; originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At t ...

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, musician, author and political activist. His music blends elements of folk music, punk rock and protest songs, with lyrics that mostly span political or romantic th ...

on his 1984 album '' Brewing Up with Billy Bragg''. All four singles released from the album were top 40 hits on the UK Singles Chart.

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, and rulers. Pencil cases can be made from a variety of m ...

with a balloon inside, creating a somewhat

labia The labia are the major externally visible structures of the vulva. In humans and other primates, there are two pairs of labia: the ''labia majora'' (outer lips) are large and thick folds of skin that cover the vulva's other parts, while the ''la ...

-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 We ...

'' wrote, "Delicate, poignant pop from the Gateshead ictrio, 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. Career Blackwood was born in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England, attended a local school, ...

's voice soaring above synthesised melodies and strings."

Track listing

All tracks written by Steve Hillier except where noted. #"

Stars A star is a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by self-gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night; their immense distances from Earth make them appear as fixed points of ...

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

Audrey Riley Audrey Riley is an English cellist and string arranger. 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 Family Cat. Ril ...

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

Phil Spalding Philip Trevor Spalding (19 November 1957 – 5 February 2023) was an English bass player. He was best known as a session musician and player of Fender Precision Bass guitars. He played and appeared with performing artists such as Mike Oldfiel ...

– 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 ...

– accordion

References

External links

''Disgraceful''
at

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

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