Cobra and Phases Group Play Voltage in the Milky Night - Stereolab

The reissue version seems to have better separation between the instruments. I think this is one of the most striking qualities on these, they sound much more like a band playing individual parts rather than a wall of sound.

I am a little disappointed that the liner notes suggest that the title should be "Italian Shoes/Continuum" rather than "Italian Shoes Continuum".

Italian Shoes Continuum is almost too much as a title - like something a Stereolab Title Generator would come up with

it's a perfect title for a perfect song

had no idea the full length Blue Milk had extra shit in the beginning. Completely blown away

How can you hate on tasteful horn arrangements and ridiculously proficient bass playing?

― afriendlypioneer, Friday, March 24, 2017 10:49 AM (two years ago)

haha yeah is anyone ever like man this band is great just listen to that shitty bass playing

Nirvana was very popular

But seriously, I was listening to this the other day, and it occurred to me how odd it is that this album was a bit of a disappointment, but if an unknown band came out of the blue with Cobra and Phases, they'd be hailed as insane geniuses.

say what??! novoselic was a great bassist

Lol, agree to disagree. I suppose he did an ok Kim Deal impersonation.

Time has indeed been kind to Cobra and Phases. it was the first Lab album that I picked up on release, having consumed their prior output, starting with Refried Ectoplasm & working forward & back, but hung up on Dots & Loops as everyone was at the time, to my recollection. When Cobra came out it seemed to me a pretty pale retread of Dots, but I feel glad to be very much mistaken. Over the years it revealed itself, as most of their albums have tended to, as its own thing.

But seriously, I was listening to this the other day, and it occurred to me how odd it is that this album was a bit of a disappointment, but if an unknown band came out of the blue with Cobra and Phases, they'd be hailed as insane geniuses.

― Mario Meatwagon (Moodles)

THANK YOU!

THEY would be, not YOU

this is by far their worst album.

Their worst? They put out a whole lot of stuff. I don't think anything album after Mary passed really quite measures up.

subjective obv, but I don't think the over-reliance on the influence/input of Sean O'Hagen & John McEntyre was the best thing for their sound. I just find this album really washy and lacking in definition.

if that seems overly harsh, Stereolab are basically the closest thing I have to a 'favorite band,' so it is really a measure of levels of love.

It's not particularly focused, and probably too long, but it has so many excellent songs and ideas going on, it's hard for me to dislike it. Later records like Margerine Eclipse and Chemical Chords have more coherent concepts, but also too many tracks that are just ok and don't do much.

I should probably revisit it. Sound-dust, Margerine Eclipse, Chemical Chords & Not Music have many terrific high points among them, though I agree that their consistency/quality control is not up to the standards of their 90s output. It's sad to think that at least some of that probably had to do with Mary Hansen's absence.

Peng! - Dots & Loops is such phenomenal run of albums, it's easy to see how anything short of those high water marks could be taken as a let-down by comparison.

The Oscillations from the Anti-Sun comp is what I return to most w/r/t Stereolab's post-Dots & Loops material. It is every bit on par with the other two Switched On comps imo.

Oscillations also doesn't have any material post Sound-Dust.

I definitely think losing Mary had a huge impact on the quality of their recordings during the 2000s. I'd also say an under discussed change was losing Morgane Lhote on keyboards. Her playing was in a sweet spot where she was skillful enough to manage more complex songs without being overly technical and noodly, and she often added a funky syncopation to the mix.

On some days I feel like Sound-Dust and Margerine are their two finest records. Relentlessly beautiful in very different ways

Margarine Eclipse is one of their best, and the new remaster is the most essential of the recent reissues, by quite a margin.

Margerine Eclipse is their best 2000s lp imo. 'Vonal Declosion' is a top-10 Stereolab track for me.

xxp - otm re: Morgane Lhote. I always wondered how much of a contribution Andy Ramsay made to the composition and arrangements as well - was she another undersung part of The Groop?

I've tried to love this.

Do you not have love in your cold heart

*looks for Jake*

'Vonal Declosion' is a top-10 Stereolab track for me.

otm

^^^

Margerine Eclipse has a handful of tracks I really love, and a bunch more that bore me

I have always thought this one and Sound-Dust are really underrated; not least of all for the very David Axelrod-reminiscent string arrangements throughout. The first section of 'Emergency Kisses' springs to mind immediately as a very much perfect musical moment in that regard.

i think the keyboards, or the keyboard+production combo, are pretty important on cobra phases. i've been thinking for a couple days about how to describe it and it's not right but it occurred to me that dylan's 'wild, thin mercury sound' gets in the right ballpark

In the liner notes, Tim makes special mention of the Farfisa electric harpsichord, which they began using a lot starting with this album.

Cobra is far from their worst. Basically post Margerine Eclipse they ran out of gas. Chemical Chords sounds like demos, and Not Music is an absolutely unceremonious last album.

Chemical Chords has a beguiling sweetness, girl group bounce, post-'60s on the shoreline sunsets, love heightening just as its potential recedes, triumphal sadness. Such gushing probably points to ultimately personal associations; and as we've discussed elsewhere, Sadier hated making it... but I love it dearly. In retrospect, with the brevity of its songs, it seems to be accelerating toward a conclusion. (This makes Not Music rather anticlimactic, I'd agree, though there are some dandy bits on it too). 2008 was no longer Stereolab's moment, and so their backward gazes seem more bittersweet.

Cobra was also my first "new" 'Lab album and holds a special place for me as the sole album I ever bought at a midnight release-day sale. I hope I still have the little promo poster I got with the groop lying down in a circle. The album seems a clear candidate for their most ambitious, somewhere between its ornamentation and its length; it's not quite as endlessly relistenable as Dots & Loops but it's pretty neat.

I am a little disappointed that the liner notes suggest that the title should be "Italian Shoes/Continuum" rather than "Italian Shoes Continuum".

― with hidden noise, Thursday, September 19, 2019 10:06 PM (five months ago) bookmarkflaglink

Italian Shoes Continuum is almost too much as a title - like something a Stereolab Title Generator would come up with

― Zelda Zonk, Thursday, September 19, 2019 11:29 PM (five months ago) bookmarkflaglink

actually this really helps me bc italian shoes is the first downer for me on the album and to know that i should hear this as one fused song rather than two (since i usually don't pay attention to the track breaks) gives me some motivation to try to see the value in italian shoes

with the slash it's more like, a strange occurrence that must be explained, how the shoes lead to the far more abstract and compelling phenomenon of a continuum

the spiracles also pretty draggy