Vivid (1988)

Vivid is the debut studio album by American rock band Living Colour, released on May 2, 1988, by Epic Records. It was one of the most popular albums of 1988, peaking at number six on the US Billboard 200 chart and being certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

Musical style

Musically, Vivid has been described as a hard rock, heavy metal, funk metal, alternative metal, and funk rock album, with elements of soul, jazz, pop, rap, arena rock, punk, and avant-garde jazz.

Critical reception

In The Philadelphia Inquirer, Ken Tucker commented that Living Colour "defies musical stereotypes by evincing influences that include Lynyrd Skynyrd, Jimi Hendrix, Roxy Music and Sly Stone to yield a fierce, funny album." Mark Sinker of NME likewise highlighted the band's diversity of influences, including their embrace of older musical styles "that even metal heads haven't taken seriously" and concluded that Vivid "lives up, simultaneously, to the pinhead directness of Zeppelin and the total Texas-New Yorker strangeness of Ornette Coleman's Prime Time." "In its own way," wrote Rolling Stone critic David Fricke, "Vivid is an open letter to rock & roll itself, a demand for equal time and respect from a music that is Living Colour's birthright." He added that the album "will not change the world single-handedly, but it's a timely reminder of why it's always worth trying." Robert Christgau was less enthusiastic in The Village Voice, finding that "while it's momentarily exhilarating to hear this all-black band come power-chording out of the box, after a while the fancy arrangements and strained soul remind me of, I don't know, Megadeth." The album came in at #15 on the 1988 top-25 'albums of the year list' in Kerrang!

Among retrospective appraisals, AllMusic reviewer Greg Prato deemed Vivid "one of the finest hard rock albums of the '80s – and for that matter, all time." In Blender, Michael Azerrad recalled that the notion of "four black musicians playing heavy metal" made Vivid "newsworthy" while adding that as "the black-rock trend never panned out," years after the album's release Living Colour's chief legacy lies in its music, noting Vivid's "landmark" fusion of "hardcore, funk and avant-jazz." J. D. Considine, writing for the 2004 edition of The Rolling Stone Album Guide, was most impressed by how Living Colour "backs its musical vision with insight, offering pointed, perceptive social commentary through songs such as 'Funny Vibe' and 'Open Letter (To a Landlord).'" Calling Vivid "a crucial document in Black rock music," Pitchfork's Stuart Berman opined that the album's legacy endures through later artists who have "flowed through the cracks in the industry barriers that Vivid breached, and, in their own unique ways, have each inherited the mission of reclaiming Black creators' frontline position at rock's vanguard, both under- and above-ground." Vivid is featured in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

Awards and accolades

Grammy Awards

Personnel

• Living Colour
• Corey Glover – vocals
• Vernon Reid – guitars
• Muzz Skillings – bass
• Will Calhoun – drums
• Additional personnel
• Mick Jagger – harmonica on track 8, backing vocals on track 9
• Chuck D – rapping on track 6
• Flavor Flav – social commentary on track 6
• The Fowler Family – additional backing vocals on tracks 2 and 5
• Dennis Diamond – carnival barker on track 8
• Production
• Ed Stasium – producer and engineer on tracks 1–8 and 10, mixing on tracks 9 and 11
• Mick Jagger – producer on tracks 9 and 11
• Ron St. Germain – engineer on tracks 9 and 11
• Paul Hamingson – engineer on tracks 1–8 and 10, mixing

Danny Mormando, Debi Cornish, Stephen Immerwahr, Mike McMackin, Tom Durack, U.E. Natasi – assistant engineers

Greg Calbi – mastering