My Own Biggest Fan

I hadn’t heard that Stereolab had essentially called it quits this spring. I also haven’t listened to Chemical Chords yet, which may end up being Stereolab’s final proper album.

Not Music, or as it looks on the sleeve, (while assuming Stereolab’s normal cheeky sense of humour) Snot Music is apparently off-cuts from Chemical Chords. Making this their Amnesiac.

Not Music is packaged as if it’s two 12″ singles. A few songs on side A of each, with remixes of Chemical Chords songs on B, each of the two records in their own no-frills sleeve.

So — when I started listening to this, I wasn’t aware of the album’s place in the Stereolab’s oeuvre. (I’m allowed to use pretentious words like “oeuvre” in this because they’re French. Don’t mess with me.) I had a high hopes that there would be some real stand out tracks for me to get excited about because while I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve ever heard by them, Stereolab hasn’t made anything that I’ve been rabid about since Dots and Loops. As I did the cursory research I do — so I can sound somewhat informed when I write these things — and I understood the album on it’s own terms, my expectations didn’t exactly drop, but they smoothed out a little. By then I just wanted some good, new catchy Lab to listen to, I didn’t care if it blew my mind or not.

When a band announces it’s going on hiatus, especially when they are still putting out a quality product, it’s bittersweet. Is the fact that we are not able to look forward to new songs by a favourite artist a small price to pay for them not shitting on their legacy by putting out album after album of just going through the motions? When Pulp announced their retirement after We Love Life (an album I absolutely love) I was sad, but not so sad as I was the day I realized I hadn’t listened to Think Tank all the way through more than twice.

Anyway, there is also a Laetitia Sadier solo album for me to seek out and enjoy yet. The same way there are still Jarvis Cocker albums that I adore. I guess life goes on even if Stereolab doesn’t.

Download Sun Demon

I don’t usually read Pitchfork reviews, because they often give poor ratings to albums I like, and high ratings to albums I don’t, (I should probably read them more often to get differing opinions, but I don’t) but for some reason I did read this one. I really liked the last paragraph:

The Stereolab story for the last five years has been, “Yep, they still sound like Stereolab.” And if we’re disappointed that the band’s ever-experimental drive feels stifled by the brevity of this newer material, perhaps this hiatus is well-timed. While we learn to finally miss the quirky, stylish synth-pop that we’ve begun to take for granted, we’ll have to content ourselves with Not Music as the band’s final hurrah– at least for now. I suspect it won’t be long before we realize that the leftovers of a band like Stereolab are still better than main dishes offered up by many of their peers. And maybe by then, they’ll be back to recording.