Sweet Trip - You will never know why 6.1

                When I listen to this, I’m reminded heavily of the sort of pysch lounge perfected by The High Llamas and Stereolab. That’s not a bad thing. If you’re going to pick a sound to mine, why not choose something everyone will enjoy. For the most part, this is an enjoyable if not entirely original album. 

                “You will never know why” revolves around ambient pop and shoegaze. “Acting” starts out smoothly before revving up and slowing down. Really the slower, mellower parts are the better pieces of their album. For me, their attempts at urgency fall flat. There are many bands who do fast music well, I figure they should probably stay within their comfort zone. When “Acting” quickens up, I sort of wish they’d get back to the spaced-out sounds offered in the beginning or the end. Oddly, they kill their own mood for no discernible reason.

                The rest of the album passes by pleasantly enough. After a while I grow a bit sick at the lack of sonic diversity. Sure, I’m a fan of minimalism but they use the same beats and patterns over and over again. I wish they had perhaps varied things up a little bit in terms of the sound and kept the tempos a bit lower. Together both of those minor tweaks might have made me a bit more receptive towards this album. 

                As a result, I’m a bit lukewarm to this collection of songs. Spending a whole hour with this San Francisco based band wasn’t horrible but merely uneventful. Had I seen more songs like “Acting” I could see myself enjoying it a lot more.

The High Llamas – Talahomi Way 7.2

                  Sean O’Hagan’s project is one of those things I always enjoy. There are a number of reasons for this, the clean execution, mellow vibe, or the extreme Anglophile nature of the project itself. When I hear them, I think of what Brian Wilson might have written about had he been British.

                “Talahomi Way” continues with the more acoustic nature they’ve started since “Beet Maize & Corn” and followed through on “Can Cladders”. Basically, this is the logical progression of both of those two albums. Songs on here are memorable while providing enough space to focus on some of the gorgeous melodies Sean so effortlessly creates.

                What makes Talahomi Way so enjoyable is how easy it feels. Each one of these songs is carefully crafted, the horns put in the right moment. Had Stereolab decided to follow up on an acoustic version of their sound it would probably sound like this album.

                From the opener “Berry Adams” it gives off the right mood of lounge and dreaminess. The vocals are positively sweet and the bass surprisingly playful. “Talahomi Way” goes over their favorite subject of travel. Most of their songs focus on the idea of going or being elsewhere and this album is no exception.

                Plenty of bands change their direction countless times, constantly redefining their focus. The High Llamas are not one of those bands. Instead, they constantly focus on honing out a very specific niche of sound. And they continuously do it well, this just happens to be one of their better albums.

Toro Y Moi – Underneath the Pine 8.8

            

                You know all that side chain compression he used for the last album “Causers of This”? Well, that’s gone. What you get now is pure organic, airy-sounding music. Each instrument is fully distinguishable. Few samples were used in the recording either. Instead, he’s moved away from the dictionary definition of chillwave. It is still chill music, but just clearer, more direct, and with a funkier sense of being. Even as rumors came out about this album, he released live takes of his pre-existing songs, showing off a talent lacked by many of his contemporaries from the South Carolina scene.

                If Chaz Bundick was responsible for chillwave’s increasing popularity and inspiration, I have a fairly good idea of what will happen upon this part of his career. Finally, the thing I thought would never happen has happened: Stereolab 60s French Pop worship will become an actual popular genre, just like I hoped. There’s a very distinguishable influence of theirs you can feel on some of these songs, particularly “Go With You” and “Got Blinded” which might have come from their latter-day material with sunny vocals and a driving rhythm. Another song would be one of my favorites “How I Know”. This one shows off his voice, which seems to have grown stronger since his last outing, helping me connect with it a little better. 60s vibes are found throughout the songs, whether it is from latter-day practitioners or true 60s innovators. The vocals give off the same warm feeling you get from the Beach Boys, complete with their same level of wonder.

                It is less compressed or slick. The recordings are surprisingly clear for a guy who used to embrace those murkier sounds like those found on his last outing. Plus, looking at the track lengths, he’s grown accustomed to working in larger formats. “Elisa” clocks in at 6 minutes, an amount of time where he usually could stuff in 2-3 songs, and ends the album in a grand fashion. Having the songs stretch out allows him to explore a few little flourishes of piano or vocal experiments that would be unwieldy in shorter songs, like the vocal panning in “How I Know” halfway in, or towards the end in “New Beat” with the playful keyboard.

                 Overall, this is a big improvement over his last outing. It is less electronic, so that might bother some people. Just keep in mind the album is a bit of a grower, so please give it the proper amount of listens before passing judgment. Summer came early this year I guess.    

The Liminanas – The Liminanas 6.7

For those who miss Stereolab’s take on 60s French pop, these guys have helped fill the gap. Unlike Stereolab, their sound tends to be a little rougher around the edges. They subscribe to a more retro sound than Stereolab’s ultra-polished pieces.

Sonically, the approach is similar to that of Royal Baths. Velvet Underground references in this sort of music are inevitable. Upon the first song “The Darkside” you immediately are introduced to the approach: short songs, sing/speaking in French, and a certain degree of smoky coolness. 

“Down Underground” does a pretty good job of mixing these two influences, sounding like an early Stereolab outtake. It doesn’t hurt that the vocalist bears more than a passing resemble to Laetita’s voice. 

Oddly enough, with all their darkness, I enjoy the lighter songs the most. Songs like “Chocolate in my Milk” and “Berc¸euse pour Clive” show off their own unique personality the best. Little flourishes like small melodies and relaxed guitars show another side of the band. A side that sounds more certain of itself. 

I sort of wish that they had explored that side of their art. It isn't particularly terrible by any means (they certainly listened to their influences closely) but it would have been nice to hear a bit more of originality.

Stereolab – Not Music 8.6

Coming from the same sessions as “Chemical Chords” but with better album artwork, this will be your last Stereolab fix for quite some time. Lætitia Sadier has “The Trip” out, so that might allow feeling like they have a prolific post-existence output. 

You can tell this is the same session as “Chemical Chords” due to the similar feel of the music. Like that release, it has a jaunty, upbeat vibe behind it. I know, it is ironic since this is their last official release for a while. “Everybody’s Weird except me” is pretty much what you’d want from a Stereolab opener: clear, repetitive, with those little 60s flourishes they do so well. “Super Jaianto” sort of surprises me, it could have easily made the cut onto Chemical Chords, and I’m a bit shocked it didn’t. All these interlocking pieces come together in such a clever way before it dissolves right in the middle of things.

There are a few bits on here which allude to a certain melancholy, like the center of “Leleklato Sugar” which touches on a humanity that they usually gel over. “Silver Sands Mix” is a bit strange; it is like a weird attempt at a dance song, which does a ‘meh’ job. There’s a bit more synthesizer-worship on this track than I’d like.  Since it is right in the middle of the album, it doesn’t exactly make the flow drag, but it feels a bit out of place. Don’t worry, the beautiful duo of “Laserblast” and “Sun Demon” make up for this failed experiment.

Brad Cox’s mix on here, “Neon Beanbag [Atlas Sound Mix]” sounds a bit denser than what surrounds it, but it is a nice final conclusion to the record (Pop Molecules has a snotty abrupt end to things). 

Overall, this feels like an appropriate way to say goodbye to the fans.

Stereolab: A Fond Farewell

Rare is the band that fits in so well with modern college life. Effortlessly mixing lounge pop, krautrock and a penchant for left-leaning lyrics, they really should have been bigger than they ended up being. I mean, dropped from Warner Bros records for not selling enough albums, shame on you college students. Turn off that flavor of the week (I’m guilty of it too) and put on some real stuff.

Sadly, the word “been” gives it all away: they are no longer together. “Not Music” which I’ll have a review up for later tonight, is their siren song made up of odds and ends from their “Chemical Chords” sessions. Apparently making music for almost two decades with a flagrant disregard for popular trends in music took their toll. Wait until retro 60s French pop makes a comeback; they’ll look so foolish then!

Part of what made Stereolab work was how it was a work of pure music nerds. I mean, how many bands can just off the cusp reference a Tod Dockstader piece like they did on “La Demeure”? Or how many bands articulately discuss the importance of vinyl and Jean-Claude Vannier while actually knowing exactly what they are talking about? The amount of attention they gave to each song, beginning, middle and end was phenomenal. Stereolab felt at times a band who constantly worshipped at the altar of good music, getting little to nothing in return. A band made up exclusively of music snobs who made music for people who got the joke. 

Even before it was cool, they indulged in bossa nova covers like “One Note Samba” which extended into 9 minutes for reasons only they could describe. And when their beloved band mate Mary Hansen passed away, they continued to release nearly unreasonable amounts of music. Calling them a band of rock critics rather than musicians shouldn’t even be considered an insult; a band this knowledgeable ought to take that as a compliment. The amount of bands that are painfully inarticulate about their music is massive: I remember Tortoise being interviewed on MTV 2 and shuttering as they stated their music was a “cross-pollenization” of different musical movements. When my spell check tells me that’s not a word that just confirms how useless they are as promoters. 

I’m a bit saddened that now they’ve called it quits. After “Fab Four Suture” their music seemed to recover from the slight directionless that they encountered earlier in the decade. “Chemical Chords” confirmed that for me: here was a band getting back into the swing of things only to let me down. Honestly, I can’t complain that they didn’t give it their all. And I also know that they have a great deal of influential fans to collaborate with (like Deerhunter’s Brad Cox) but I will miss them. Listening to the new album, I felt a certain wistfulness, nostalgia even, for when I could reliably expect at least an album (or more) a year from them.

Stereolab – Transient Random-Noise Bursts with Announcements 9.4

Oh dear, it is my favorite Stereolab. They did so much, spanning from Krautrock to French pop, all the while keeping up their obsession with heavily socialist lyrics. While it is a shame that they ultimately broke up in the good music starved year of 2008, they are still releasing new things under new names (like Laetita Sadier has under her own name).

But out of their extraordinarily prolific career, I’ve reserved a soft spot for this album. Part of it is due to their heavy involvement with Krautrock at this time. Later on, they’d become completely obsessed with 60s French pop, but their live shows usually displayed something of this nature. Loud guitars with the vocals mixed somewhat low. Yes, I realize that I just described Steve Albini’s approach to every band ever, but this is dramatically different than any of his projects.

For one, the sheer amount of happy energy would instantly repel him. “Tone Burst” ranks as one of my favorite openers to any album. It completely sets the mood for what you’re about to experience. Even glimpses of their future French pop selves appear on the excellent “Pack Yr Romantic Mind”. 

Oddly, there’s also a great deal of their experimental efforts on here, with the masterpiece “Jenny Ondioline” clocking in at over 18 glorious minutes. To see this piece performed live is truly a beautiful thing to behold. “Lock-Groove Lullaby” neatly closes the record.

Sadly, Stereolab are no more, on indefinite hiatus. That means most likely we’ll have to make do with the last bits of leftovers called “Not Music”, which is due out on November 10^th of this year. Or you could check out Laetitia Sadier’s self-named solo project, which should be more than enough to help you with your fix.