No Espeaky Frances? No Problemo
There are more good things that come from Europe, other than food and wine. This section of the world also produces experimental and tasty bands like Air, Stereo Total and Stereolab.Stereolab’s new album “Margerine Eclipse” is a successful marriage of experiment and enjoyment. After seven previous albums, they seem to have their recipe for accomplished music close to perfected. It’s a steaming stewpot of 70’s funk/porno riffs, phat hip-hop beats, noisy grunge rock guitar solos, simple organ melodies and deliciously smooth female vocals. The vocals are a creamy blend of Trish Keenan [of Broadcast]’s sweet soprano and Stuart Murdoch [of Belle & Sebastian]’s smooth alto, stirring to create a definitive tone, while all of the other ingredients are juxtaposed in quite a palatable and colorful way.
Sometimes tasty music is not enough. With many other foreign bands, such as Stereo Total, the full appreciation of the music is not quite reached, as it gets lost in aspects like the cartoon-ish and cute, high-pitched voice of singer Francoise Cactus. Knowing what she is singing about becomes rather important, but gets lost in the language barrier. Stereolab seems to be able to transcend that problem. The music is so smooth and well-produced, balanced and clean, and lead singer Laetitia Sadier‘s harmonies are in such accordance with the rest of the instruments that the words become irrelevant and the music takes its hold. It calms and sends the listener to a mental state where foreign words don’t matter and relaxing to the mellow sounds of “Margerine Eclipse” is what seems to be significant.
Leave a Comment