Product Details

* Audio CD (April 9, 1996)
* Original Release Date: April 9, 1996
* Number of Discs: 1
* Label: Elektra / Wea
* Catalog Number: 61840
* ASIN: B000002HK2
* Other Editions: LP Record
* Average Customer Review: based on 30 reviews. (Write a review.)
* Amazon.com Sales Rank: #18,328 in Music (See Top Sellers in Music)
Yesterday: #22,388 in Music

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1. Metronomic Underground Listen Listen
2. Cybele's Reverie Listen Listen
3. Percolator Listen Listen
4. Les Yper-Sound Listen Listen
5. Spark Plug Listen Listen
6. OLV 26 Listen Listen
7. The Noise Of Carpet Listen Listen
8. Tomorrow Is Already Here Listen Listen
9. Emperor Tomato Ketchup Listen Listen
10. Monstre Sacre Listen Listen
11. Motoroller Scalatron Listen Listen
12. Slow Fast Hazel Listen Listen
13. Anonymous Collective Listen Listen
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com essential recording
You want retro? Get a load of their equipment, from the vintage Farfisa and Vox organs to the ever-lovable Moog synthesizers. You want futurist? It's the sound of not-so-well-oiled machinery, churning and sputtering into space age bachelor pad heaven and postindustrial hell. You want pure pop? Dig how they mine mod sounds of the '60s, from Burt Bacharach to Françoise Hardy, and pull melodies straight out of a bubblegum wrapper. You want avant garde? Check the blatant liftings from '70s krautrockers Neu! and Can, plus their appropriations of Philip Glass's disjointed wordplay and Ornette Coleman's jagged alto sax.

You want meaning? These are songs loaded with optimism, progressivism, humanism, and dashes of Marxism. You want nonsense? There's plenty of "la-la-la's" to lead us into oblivion, and head vocalist Laetitia Sadier sings half the time in French.

You want a groove band? Tracks like "Metronomic Underground" and "Les Yper-Sound" cast a funk trance heavier than voodoo and at least as danceable as any neo-hippie tripe. You want a band that rocks? Try "The Noise of Carpet" for its rug-burning guitar and acceleration drum whacks. Yesterday, tomorrow, now: Stereolab's the one. --Roni Sarig
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17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
Odd-Timed Rhythms + Enigmatic Blend of Retro and Futurist, August 10, 2003
Reviewer: Samhot (Star Land) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)
My oh my - how does one even begin to describe music like this? Complex yet accessible. Impenetrable yet engrossing. Avant-garde yet melodic and engaging. Stereolab are known for taking elements of the past and transmutating them into something fresh, futuristic and utterly indescribable. For starters, imagine hearing the Avant-funk of Can, the eerie keyboard textures of The Doors (and/or other 60s psychedelic bands), the baffling odd-timed rhythms of Gabriel-era Genesis, angelic and precious vocal harmonies that can smack of The Beach Boys, and while we're at it, how about we add in sprinkles of Chamber music, Dream pop, 20th Century classical, Jazz, Alternative rock, Baroque pop and primal amounts of synthesizer ambience floating around. And last but not least - a good dosage of catchy pop music. Throw all of these in one gigantic blender, and the result would come out to about only a teaspoonful of the enigmatic sonic beverage/shake known as Stereolab.

Just take a glance at some of the other reviews below, and you'll find countless other artists that this band seems to remind listeners of; it's a mysterious cornucopia that sounds so familiar, yet so fresh and new at the same time. The description in the above paragraph doesn't even seem to reach the half of it. This is music so vast and aurally intangible, sonically speaking, it'll probably take centuries for anyone to come up with a label in exactitude. What'll also get your head spinning is how accessible, infectious and engaging this music is, despite including musical elements that are clearly for the acquired, not to mention that you can find some ethereal, sensual female voices singing lyrics in French and English. It's a strange, enigmatic form of pop music that somehow works. Futuristic pop? Maybe.

This music is probably best listened to on headphones, or on a good stereo system, as there are layers and layers of sonic and textural complexity, which may be missed otherwise. "Metronomic Underground" and "Cybele's Reverie" are perfect examples of this. The former featuring a steady, repetitive (or more appropriate - ambient) groove reminiscent of Can (and you could swear you hear what sounds akin to Damo Suzuki's voice in the background on the chorus), while multiple synthesizer textures continually build and overlap one another until reaching an intense climax, while the latter features some understated synthesized vocal-bleeps fronted by tasty, sugar-coated female vocals sung in French. Hard to resist those sweet bilingual vocals created by Laetitia Sadier and Mary Hansen. "Percolater" grooves in what seems like a 5/8 rhythm, but you'll be wondering how it could be so funky, tasty and catchy, and "Les Yper-Sound" is so embarrassingly addicting (in a good way), you may just find yourself singing along to what seem like cheesy, child-like lyrics, simply because the voice(s) uttering these words are so sensual and seductive.

Elsewhere, "The Noise of Carpet" would nearly have you convinced that you were listening to Sonic Youth with those edgy guitars, while "Tomorrow Is Already Here" features an apparent 5/4 rhythm, which is catchy and infectious, and those vocals are oh-so sweet and innocent -- so much so that it hurts to listen to them at times. The lyrics are somewhat political in nature. The title track is just downright sexy, as it features the differing, but inexplicably harmonious union of Mary and Laetitia's vocals fronting a highly addictive and danceable groove. Skipping along, "Monstre Sacre" changes up the pace as a slow, Floydesque track, featuring atmospheric, sensual orchestrated sweeps, and closing out the album is "Anonymous Collective," a track that seems appropriate to play around Christmas time.

Sounds of the past, present and future indeed. Stereolab's music is just as confusing as it is accessible, and vice versa. Want to challenge your preconceptions of what pop music is? Do you have a taste for the unusual? Have a taste for painfully infectious, addicting ear candy? Start exploring the music of Stereolab. ( )