(Elektra)
For most bands, the loss of a member-especially a lead singer-usually has dire consequences. For Great Britain's Stereolab, however, usually does not necessarily apply.
After Mary Hansen, lead singer for the Lab since 1992, died in a bicycle accident in 2002, Stereolab's future was in question.??Although the band's Web site turned into a Hansen memorial page shortly after her death and the remaining members turned semi-reclusive, it did not take long before Stereolab was creating music once again.
, the Lab's 12th album, paradoxically, may be almost too usual. For more than a decade, Stereolab has been creating a mix of krautrock and lounge, fittingly influenced by early electronic artists such as John Cage and Andre Popp.
Their newest release in no way departs from what the band has been doing all along: creating indie-pop using sometimes-French female vocals and '50s-era synthesizers. The album is no worse off because of it-this is exactly what one would expect.
But it feels bittersweet.??While they have lived up to any expectations, evidence of their musical growth is waning.?? \...sudden stars"" perhaps attempts to recollect Hansen's death: ""After such / A long drought / Here a place / For flowers / To flourish."" The verses are interspersed with ""la las,"" maybe to make it sound more French or something.
Laetitia Sadier, one of the founding members, returns to solo vocals.??While Hansen is surely missed, it is clear that Sadier holds her own-her range extends beyond previous Stereolab compilations.
Tim Gane, though, plays familiar-sounding guitar drones. The CD starts with a one-measure drum fill before adding the trademark keyboard layers, and though Stereolab has done it before, it is no less enjoyable.
""Cosmic Country Noir"" integrates the tempo changes that the group fully developed on 2001's .??The glaring difference between and really comes down to the production.??John McEntire, producer and multi-instrumentalist for Tortoise, produced , and though he succeeded in making Stereolab sound like Tortoise, he also managed to make the album smooth from start to finish.
Although may not be as much a masterpiece as previous albums, it is fresher-gone are the celebrity guest musicians and outside production. The band makes as good a recovery as possible after losing a member. may not be an entirely new musical endeavor for the band, but it at least hints at being the first step in that direction.
