Stereolab: Classic or Dud

ya totally

'gave up on' isn't terribly accurate but still.. i still remember how much D&L disappointed me at the time

xpost

i listened to cobra and phases for the first time in a long time recently and damn if it's not my least favourite lab album by a long margin

burn it

with the use of fire, not duplicate

PLEASE not duplicate

i've always loved cobra... i think there was more character on that record than some of their other more recent records.

i agree with the sentiment that throwing together some kind of best of/singles compilation would precipitate a masterpiece. they could be nearly life altering for like two tracks and then just pretty good for the rest of a record. it's a shame because they're a wonderful band, but because i think they lack that "HOLY SHIT!" record, you can feel the obscurity as only a matter of time. (probably true of 99.9% of all groups. just about everybody trends to dud.)

m.

Cobra would have been a much better album if it were engineered properly. It's all midrange and no bass. That alone kills it for me.

That's not to say that many of the numbers are not really very good and beautiful in their own right.

You and I are the trust fund kids of ilx.

Lol, I suppose this is a reference to the sheer amount of material Stereolab has put out? I actually just own the studio albums and Aluminum Tunes and an EP or two.

Cobra & Phases is my least favorite Stereolab album by a long shot, but I dearly love "Infinity Girl" and "The Free Design." The rest is Jim O'Rourke disappearing up his own asshole, unfortunately.

Most underrated: Margarine Eclipse

Lol, I suppose this is a reference to the sheer amount of material Stereolab has put out?

More the fact that we both defy popular odds in (a) liking everything Stereolab has ever done and (b) liking anything Stereolab has ever done.

Dots and Loops is fantastic music to listen to while working. Especially via headphones on a plane. I mean this as highest praise. ETK is not as good, too fast and insistent. But I love ETK nonetheless.

I'll never forget what we have, A.A.

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Post-TNRB Stereolab inspires creativity. I thought it was just me, but recently I've read accounts from people for whom it dislodges writer's block etc.

It is very visual music, in a trippy retro-futuristic sense.

most of my stereolab listening was to self-burned compilations, taking maybe 5 or 6 songs from each burst of album / ep releases, until 'margarine eclipse' came out which is the only one I've listened to all the way through more than four times

I hated them at first because they were so blatant about what they were ripping off, then I grew to love them because they were _so_ blatant about what they were ripping off

I hated them at first because they were so blatant about what they were ripping off, then I grew to love them because they were _so_ blatant about what they were ripping off

Sterolab introduced me to the music they were ripping off.

Me too, and I didn't like it. One of the Neu albums had me hooked for about 12 minutes though.

And for cred points I'm going to attempt to spell this: KRZYSZTOF KOMEDA

I, too, bailed after _Dots And Loops_ (which I probably haven't listened to since it came out) but the post D&L singles on the _Oscillons From The Sun_ box are good and don't seem out of place in the non-chronological sequence of the box.

"Cobra" is truly the most underrated Stereolab album. I really loved it when it came out 8 years ago, warm and easily loveable songs. 'People Do It All The Time' is perhaps my favourite Stereolab song.

Cobra's still by far my favorite but i don't really use the word 'underrated' and certainly wouldn't in this case; most haters just like their stereolab rawkier and more 'muscular', which is fair enough really, different strokes (although i don't understand the 'bad engineering' argument, thankfully).

Adding to the Cobra love -- fine, fine album, and unjustly overlooked.

The issue with Cobra was not that people wanted Stereolab "rawkier and more muscular" -- the people who preferred them sounding like a live band got their disappointment moment with D&L,* which was sleek and spacious and full of pin-point programming. The issue with Cobra was that after years of making pop that felt kind of otherworldly -- there are some very strange songs on ETK, and the old moony, outer-space feel on D&L -- they picked an inopportune moment to make a record that really, really didn't; it was the first time they felt earthbound, like they really might just be an ordinary band playing light funk.

* = or even earlier; the noise and heavy drone were gone by the end of Mars Audiac Quintet, and plenty of people went lukewarm on them when they switched from that to pop swing

And I don't say that to argue about whether Cobra was good or not, just to explain why (it seems to me) some people were disappointed with it. It probably didn't help that each of the previous few albums had added some big new dimension to their sound, and then Cobra seemed to retrench and bland out around exactly the stuff some people saw as kind of a given from them.

ok then the haters is just about some bullshit lol. wow though re: otherworldly i get the exact opposite reaction of what you just said, being totally honest here. cobra and d&l are all cooing, liquid, 8 dimensional futurebeings and sound dust is dem beings touching down/falling from grace, everything before or after is er, unusually inventive indie rock.

I should clarify that I don't hate Cobra at all, but in the Stereolab catalogue it's a bit duff. Those who have heard no other album really should.

I maintain, however, that its bassless, midrange-heavy production works fiercely against it.

and 'Italian Shoes Continuum' and 'Puncture in the Radax Permutation' are amongst the most atmospherically astounding numbers the band has ever recorded.

Nabisco: I think Mars Audiac Quintet has never received such a hostile reception as Cobra did. Perhaps it is because of the NME review (which was a 0/10), but I always felt that Cobra is not a popular album among the Lab fans.

so did anyone buy one of the 100 copies of "Eaten Horizons Or The Electrocution Of Rock"?

2 days 2 late 2 get 1.

maybe someones put it up on Oin.... oh.

It's time for another Switched On. Oscillons doesn't count.

Umm Zeus that is basically what I just said, isn't it?

Also: no one has much reason to rag on MAQ, but there were plenty of early Lab fans who just liked them to drone -- whose line, as the band got popular, tended to go along the lines of "I haven't really paid much attention to them since Transient..."

Perhaps it is because of the NME review (which was a 0/10), but I always felt that Cobra is not a popular album among the Lab fans.

I also got that impression from the Pitchfork review (3.4 from Brent D.). I think it's underrated, too.

Cobra came out when (a) the drone junkies dropped away (as nabisco said) and (b) there was a perception that Stereolab wasn't changing its sound significantly enough. I think (b) is now addressed by the fact that most people accept Stereolab will always sound like that. Nobody ever criticised the Ramones for using guitars all the time.

kind of gay question, but i heard this marginally different mix of 'wow and flutter' that isn't on the lp. it's better: just these extra drones and shit overlaid. does the mix on the single answer to this description?

that question had zero homosexual content. very disappointing.

does the mix on the single answer to this description?

ans: yes

I've got the Stereolab discog 92-98 on shuffle tonight. Goddam these guys had a stellar run, no? The consistent motorik pace is especially suitable for working-while-listening.

stellar run lasted til 2001 imo

I'll pretty much rep for everything except Cobra & Phases, actually, tho tonight I am excluding the latter-day stuff in the interest of consistency.

99-00s non-LP releases are a bit patchy tbh.

Does anyone have any opinions on the Electric Imitation Piano records? I like the few tracks that I've heard & have been meaning to seek out more for the longest time, but haven't gotten around to it.

er.. imitation electric piano

Most ridiculous C or D I've seen yet.

i only have the IEP cd on duophonic, nice enough but not amazing..

I've also been meaning to check out some of the old McCarthy stuff. The only SL side-project I've indulged was Snowpony. I don't know how much Katherine Gifford contributed creatively in her time w/ SL, but I recall the first two SP EPs being quite good. I probably haven't listened to them in ten years or more, tho.

i always thought snowpony started really really well (love 'easy way down' and the other two 45s from shortly after) but got less interesting fairly quickly..

ya, album w/ seafaring oil painting on the cover was pretty dud, as I recall. I stopped paying attention after that.

lol ES yr display name headed for the hall o fame (if it isn't there already).

haha cheers