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Written by Janelle Greenwood Thursday, 27 April 2006 08:22

This isn’t a case of Neil Young experimenting with a host of different genres; they have simply grown. And who can blame them? After all, it has been 15 years, with all their struggles and paramount successes.

After 15 years, Stereolab is still in service. Throughout its career, the band has been hailed as one of the most influential bands to hit the music scene in the past few decades. While Fab Four Suture doesn’t necessarily fit into the growing mold that Stereolab has created for itself, it doesn’t make it a bad decision to grow into a new sound.

It’s not like they have completely abandoned everything that got them to this point. This isn’t a case of Neil Young experimenting with a host of different genres; they have simply grown. And who can blame them? After all, it has been 15 years, with all their struggles and paramount successes.

Gaining fame after numerous accolades and a brief mention in the film High Fidelity, music junkies and critics alike have hailed Stereolab as a unique band that risks bordering on a Technicolor fancy dream world in new musical landscape. But now, in their tenth release, they seemed to have somewhat slowed down in their escapade.

Fab Four Suture opens and closes with parts one and two of “”Kyberneticka Babicka,” which almost have a Partridge Family quality to their sound. It delves into a cyber kinetic world of ’70s synthesizers and harmonies coming from Laetitia Sadier’s voice.

Lyrically, yes, it tends to ask the “What does it all mean and who are we?” type of questions that make up bad poetry. But maybe that just means that they have come full circle. After the terrible loss of keyboardist and vocalist Mary Hansen, that could very well be where Stereolab is at in their music.

With that said, where is the Stereolab that once made our ears vibrate with its cool-sounding songs? It’s not that this is a bad effort by any means; rather, the band seems to have been on hiatus, now trying to reconnect and recreate something magical. The middle of them album ranges from mellow, easy-listening tunes that would easily fit into a Sophia Coppola soundtrack to a more upbeat rhythm with “Vodiak.” Although “Vodiak” spins a semi-lucid dream with lyrics like, “When I’m alone at night, in the forest at night/I’m not scared of bandits,” it’s the background music that really matters here. Other highlights include “Eye of the Volcano” and “Whisper Pitch,” which is more emotional toward the end then in most of Stereolab’s past endeavors.

Overall, Fab Four Suture isn’t the band’s best effort, but it shows that they are marching on and trying to explore different avenues along the way.

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