EMF - Stigma FLAC

After the huge success of Unbelievable, EMF were pigeonholed in the music press as a teen/tame version of Jesus Jones or Carter USM, while the public wanted more of the first album's formula. Instead sticking to that, EMF recorded Stigma, which was a nice F-Off to the commercial world and a musically rich album. But it had nothing to do with the previous hits. In fact, Stigma had no chart hits, but it's a well-crafted 45-minute sonic nightmare, shaped into "pop" songs. The usual vocal samples, acidic synths, that down-and-dirty bass, the drums, the vocals are all overdriven -not noisy, just simply balancing on the edge. Clearly it was a new territory. But the almost metallic wall of sound, the alienated lyrics were lightyears away from anything on Schubert Dip. I still think it's the band's strongest album. Or, as the opening sample says: "Beautiful exists, simply for its own sake."