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Stereolab
Amoeba Review
John Schacht 05/31/2010
Nearly a dozen full-lengths into their two-decade career, the alchemist co-op Stereolab felt the need to shake things up, though Chemical Chords’ core blend of lounge-pop, gentle 60s psychedelia and Krautrock rhythms couldn’t possibly be by any other band. But here Tim Gane and company adopt a different songwriting approach, one of conscious concision. Built on tiny drum loops and improvised piano/guitar chords, the formula-tweak gives their Marcel Duchamp-meets-Henry Mancini vibe a sonic nip-and-tuck. The vibe is most obvious in swift-moving pop numbers like “Silver Hands,” where driving guitars and marching percussion contrast with bubbly vibraphone lines and Laetitia Sadler’s airy vocals. You can say the same for summer-friendly bookends “Self-Portrait with ‘Electric Brain’,” all sunny horn sections and soul-rich string arrangements, and “Cellulose Sunshine,” where Sean O’Hagan’s strings and the harpsichord-like keys make for a modern take on down-the-rabbit-hole psychedelia. On “Daisy Click Clack,” Stereolab even break new ground, bar-room piano rolls highlighting an armada of keyboard lines in one of the band’s most straight-forward pop songs to date. This deep into a career defined by such an original sound, change is about nuance rather than shock – what’s surprising here is how fresh that nuance sounds.
Track Listing
Disc 1 Titles |
Artist |
Length |
|---|---|---|
|
1.
Neon Beanbag
|
Stereolab | 03:49 |
|
2.
Three Women
|
Stereolab | 03:46 |
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3.
One Finger Symphony
|
Stereolab | 02:06 |
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4.
Chemical Chords
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Stereolab | 05:13 |
|
5.
The Ecstatic Static
|
Stereolab | 04:44 |
|
6.
Valley Hi!
|
Stereolab | 02:15 |
|
7.
Silver Sands
|
Stereolab | 03:08 |
|
8.
Pop Molecule
|
Stereolab | 02:15 |
|
9.
Self Portrait With Electric Brain
|
Stereolab | 03:17 |
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10.
Nous Vous Demandons Pardon
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Stereolab | 04:52 |
|
11.
Cellulose Sunshine
|
Stereolab | 02:36 |
|
12.
Fractal Dream Of A Thing
|
Stereolab | 03:37 |
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13.
Daisy Click Clack
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Stereolab | 03:29 |
|
14.
Vortical Phonotheque
|
Stereolab | 03:07 |
