Stereolab Album: “Cobra and Phases Group Play Voltage in the Milky Night”

I've got all their CD's and have been a fan for 6 years and I say this one is by far their best yet. The music is so well produced and thought out. Put this on the top of your shopping cart now! I'd also recommend "Emperor Tomato Ketchup", "Transient Random Noise Bursts..." and "Music for the amorphous body study center" as the best of the rest...and try to catch them live...the best live band I've seen.

Stereolab is probably my favorite band of the last few years. EMPEROR TOMATO KETCHUP is my favorite, and DOTS & LOOPS disappointed me somewhat because of its abstract electronica/jazz--a little too sterile, but it still impressed me with its musicianship. My initial reaction to COBRA is that it was a happy medium between the 2 previous albums. I immediately glommed onto Blips Drips and Strips and Infinity Girl as classic Stereolab moments. A month later, I discovered the last 2 cuts (it's a long CD, and I usually start at the beginning)--The Emergency Kisses is an amazing cut that's like 3 great songs in one, and Come and Play in the Milky Night is so good and melancholy and gorgeous--one of my all-time fave cuts, perfect to end the day with. I next went back and listened to all the old Sterelob CDs, and I was stunned by how much they've grown musically. I love the early stuff, but it sounds so technically and musically primitive by comparison. Be warned: this CD was underappreciated by the critics when it came out. It's truly excellent, one of the Groop's best!

Stereolab has changed so dramatically over the years, and so gradually at the same time that every album seems to sound the same at first. But if you put on this album and compare it with "Peng" or "Transient Random Noise..." you'll quickly realize that it's a different beast altogether. Having all but completely done away with their rock sensibilities, "Cobra" lunges deep into kitschy lounge tunes, chimey vibes melodies, and the obligatory "bah bah bah bah" backing vocal thing. There are some welcome left turns such as the free-jazz influenced "Fuses," the coursing "Free Design," and the very long "Blue Milk" which is easily the album's crowning 11-minute masterpiece. Very rarely does the album otherwise stray from the formula, but those into Stereolab will inevitably love this. Whether or not it will attract any news fans is debatable.

I like Stereolab quite a lot. They don't sound like anyone, their use of vintage gear is tops, and they're great to introduce to anyone who has never heard them.

The beginning of the disc of promising if not headrush exciting. Jazz is embraced fully in the first couple of tracks and the way seemingly disparate elements all come together in the first track would make me buy this CD on a heartbeat if I only heard track one.

Now here's the negative, which is pretty significant if your not a Stereolab fan who must have everything they do in his/her collection. The complaint has nothing to do with well I just did or didn't like that song. The complaint is that the Stereolab "formula" becomes so apparent by record end, that not only do all tracks become difficult to tell from one another, but you wonder if this band like other great ones is destined to become a cliche.

The forumla is tracks built up from repetitive staccato chords on the keys, something they do over and over on this CD. The chords also start sounding the same. The singing, the same. The female, kind of emotionless, ambiguous melodic vocals that I normally love about this band now, on the later tracks, is becoming boring because the foundations have became same sounding, and because there is nothing to them (the vocals). They sound like they could be thrown on top of almost any Stereolab track which is the main problem. You get the feeling this group can turn out vocals like these effortlessly with little thought, and for my money that's how it feels.

Welcome any responses to this review who strongly feel differently. Though newbies should note, it's easy to adore Stereolab, from lyrics to everything else that makes this group unique, but as a fan time to worry if they might be running out of gas. I wonder if all the 5 star reviews come from those who adore this band too much to say anything negative about them ...

Trying to leave on a positive note, the good, one more time is ... the progress as musicians is obvious on this LP. You can hear it in the more complicated tracks, the more blatant jazz instincts, and the somehow even better ability to squeeze cool sounds from the moogs and other vintage keys. But, save your cash if your a first-time Stereolabber. Get Emperor Tomato or some other old disc with better variety and cohesiveness.

Good luck.

Having been a Stereolab fan since the early 90s, I will admit this is a departure from the noisy droning sound of their early days. But it is a great record nonetheless.

I don't generally listen to groops that do the same thing over and over. Stereolab has veered this way and that, retaining their incredible melodies, harmonies and textures along the way. They are innovators, they always have been and that is their talent.

This album is a huge success in my opinion, as good in its own way as Mars Audiac Quintet, and better than Emperor Tomato Ketchup. There are a few clunkers here, but the songs that work, and that's most of them, work really, really, really well.

Forget the rock critics, they never get it right until 10 years later. In the fullness of time this will be considered one of Stereolab's best works. Get a copy. See the band if you get a chance, I have twice and the second time was especially a gas, they have loosened up their performance over the years it would seem and it was a great time.