Like the album title, this record might be too far out for its own good. “People Do It All The Time” sounds like the Partridge Family caught in a cosmic time warp. The vision is beautiful, as is “The Free Design”, but almost too much so. I didn’t even realize that track two had ended and track three had begun. This is characteristic of much of the album.
It all seems much too cohesive. Stereolab’s music feels either too intelligent for its own good or so over the top that it has no rhyme or reason. I’m going with the latter. I’ve listened and listened, and I’ve realized that as much as I loved the beautiful mood it put me in I couldn’t make heads or tails of it. Then comes “The Spiracles”, a tapestry of sound as lovely as they come. After admiring one song, you often get a dish that’s hard to swallow, like “Puncture In the Radah Permutation”. The song itself is perfectly dreamy, but there has to be a point where dreams end and reality begins. “Velvet Water” is too much sonic ear play for me to listen to more than once. It’s annoying as hell and that is never good. “Caleidoscopic Gaze” produces a haunting theramin among a mellow scene that would relax even the most tormented individual.
Stereolab is skilled. This I know. But will America ever learn to enjoy their scenic soundscapes? Probably not. There’s not enough English and they spend too much time trying to be artsy. Artsy is often seen as snobby; though this album is beautiful it’ll never be enough. Beauty only gets you so far.
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