Stereolab - Cobra and Phases Group Play Voltage in the Milky Night (1999)

Related:

McCarthy - I Am a Wallet (1987) + Banking, Violence, and the Inner Life Today (1990)

Stereolab - Switched On (1992)
Monade - Socialisme Ou Barbarie (The Bedroom Recordings) (2003)

Lætitia Sadier - The Trip (2010)

There I am, watching a YouTube video about underrated albums, and of course, there's a lot in there that I disagree with. For instance, in what fantasy land is Darkness on the Edge of Town underrated? It's one of the most acclaimed albums by one of the most famous rock musicians of all time, and features at least 4-5 of Springsteen's signature songs. 

More relevant to this post, though, is the inclusion of Dots and Loops by Stereolab. EGREGIOUS. Everyone loves that record. If you're gonna talk about underrated Stereolab records, Cobra and Phases should be first on your list. It's maybe their most challenging, experimental record -- sonically layered to the point of impenetrability, full of awkwardly clipped grooves and angular melodies, and boasting an 11-minute drone-rock centerpiece that rides a single chord, in various forms, for its entire runtime. Essentially, Stereolab made their most Stereolab-y album, practically every critic took a big shit on it, and it's never really gotten a reassessment, even though it's a masterpiece imo.

Track listing:

1. Fuses

2. People Do It All the Time

3. The Free Design

4. Blips Drips and Strips

5. Italian Shoes Continuum

6. Infinity Girl

7. The Spiracles

8. Op Hop Detonation

9. Puncture in the Radak Permutation

10. Velvet Water

11. Blue Milk

12. Caleidoscopic Gaze

13. Strobo Acceleration

14. The Emergency Kisses

15. Come and Play in the Milky Night

There are a hundred ways to fall in step

Tonight I'm gonna make ornate indie rock like it's 1999:

The Apples in Stereo - Her Wallpaper Reverie (1999)

Beulah - When Your Heartstrings Break (1999)

Stereolab - Switched On (1992)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:
McCarthy - I Am a Wallet (1987) + Banking, Violence, and the Inner Life Today (1990)
Laetitia Sadier - The Trip (2010)

When I first heard Stereolab, they were about the hippest thing imaginable -- they were indie, they sounded French, they had vaguely pro-communist lyrics sung in a pretty, forceful, but oddly disconnected female voice, and their music was fuzzed-out, propulsive, yet droning, and laced with nods to retro-cool Space Age bachelor pad music. To this day, they're one of my favorites. Switched On compiles Stereolab's first three EPs, and though it's way less sonically busy than their later stuff -- it actually sounds like a 'rock band' -- it shows that they came out of the gate with their genius more or less fully formed. To anyone unfamiliar with this exceptional band: this is the perfect entry point.

Track listing:
1. Super-Electric
2. Doubt
3. Au Grand Jour
4. The Way Will Be Opened
5. Brittle
6. Contact
7. Au Grand Jour
8. High Expectations
9. The Light that Will Cease to Fail
10. Changer

Some see the flesh before they see the bones
Some see the bones before they see the flesh