Chemical Chords

Stereolab's first pop record ever

The British collective Stereolab, whose was one of the first to be defined as post rock lost one of its members, Mary Hansen, in 2002 as she died in an accident. The only singer left is Lætitia Sadier accompanied by other long-time collective members, guitarist and keyboardist Tim Gane and drummer Andy Ramsay. When the older songs are performed at concerts the lack of the second singer is felt especially but on the whole the band's works are no less impressive than before. One can be sure of that listening to Stereolab's new album Chemical Chords that has become the first pop record in the collective's discography. If before the band mostly mixed funk, rock and lounge music this time simplistic and catchy pop tunes play the leading part that are framed in interesting and light arrangements. Certainly Chemical Chords will be appreciated by both the band's long-term fans and those who are not yet acquainted with it for this work presents a collection of wonderfully unpretentious music which will never make one feel bored and serve a great addition to any music collection.

Chemical Chords reminds of an old movie soundtrack

Practically each track on Chemical Chords sounds like a soundtrack to an old romantic comedy with the elements of a spy movie and the only thing that reminds of this being a XXI century album are the electronic noises and contemporary beats on some of the songs. The record opens with a funny song Neon Beanbag with no words that prepares us at once for something joyful, exciting and optimistic. A rhythmic composition Three Women pleases with wind instruments in the accompaniment and the vocal part sounding like a greeting from the 70's and One Finger Symphony is remarkable for an interesting electronic beat, stylish keyboards and a tune just perfect for a spy movie. The title composition is the longest on the album lasting over 5 minutes but it is far from a limit for Stereolab for one can find songs that are 7 or even 15 minutes long among the band's creations. A great orchestra composition Ecstatic Static pleases with a complicated tune and a beautiful Valley Hi! is refined with lyrics in French. A tangible mood change appears on Pop Molecule (Molecular Pop 1) – this heavy composition is obviously placed here so that the listeners do not relax too much and remember that they are dealing with a rock band here but this is the only tough moment on Chemical Chords, and as strange as it may seem it sounds quite appropriate here. All the rest of the tracks please again with merry melodies, colorful instrumental background and unobtrusive vocal parts.

A wonderfully positive record

Stereolab's lyrics always written by the same Lætitia often surprises of deep philosophic ideas in which many critics trace various movements from Marxism to Surrealism. Yet the band members themselves would like the least to put labels on their creative work preferring to avoid too much analyzing. This strive for just doing what they like is especially notable at the live performances when Stereolab just plays its music practically paying no attention to the viewers. Most probably the new record that has proved to be the least complicated and experimental to date will attract new fans to the band and we can even suppose that after Chemical Chords Stereolab will decide to continue working in this direction. Yet the band's reputation of one that is never interested in anything concrete prompts that once trying its hand at the pop genre it will probably want to move forward and thus today's album is absolutely unique from the stylistic point of view. Yet if we follow the same logic we can finally conclude that it is in fact useless trying to guess anything about Stereolab. We have a wonderfully positive record Chemical Chords and it is the only thing we can be sure of.