Customer Reviews

Cobra And Phases Group Play Voltage In The Milky Night

5 star:		(47)
4 star:		(28)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I cannot understand the negative reviews this masterpiece received from the press when it came out. I love this album from start to finish. The music itself sometimes defies explanation. When I try to tell someone what it sounds like, I usually say: sometimes electronic (but not quite), jazzy (sort of) or I give up and say just listen!

It bolts off to a frenzied start in "Fuses" with drums everywhere and the usual female harmonies that I love them for. Some songs take a while to figure out how the beats and melodies fit together, such as "Blue Milk" which clocks in at 11:29 (I happen to love long songs). I first couldn't stand its repetitive beats and chimes until I "heard" the shifting patterns, and layered sounds which seemed to shift places with each other several times, then finishes off conventionally, yet with the same beautiful repetitive pattern. "Caleidoscopic Gaze" almost reminds me of Yes with the sung harmonies during the "fast" part. It finishes with "Come and play in the milky night" a gliding, almost toe-tapping slow-burning finish.

Where "Dots and Loops" gave this sound electronically, "Cobra", it sounds to me, has just about all the sounds made "live". What I mean is, all instruments, including electronic, do not have that "programmed" feel to them like "Dots" sometimes did. It sounds like a live person created every note on a guitar string, drum head, or keyboard key.

It has every element of the best music that I love: complexity (in spades), melody, female vocals, intelligence, cool bass (I play bass), and just plain a sense of confidence that says "yea we're playing music that we want to make and not what the radio says to make".

I cannot think of any other bands that sound like this except Stereolab. All of the influences they had must have melted into a sonic picture that started something new.

I would vote this as Stereolab's best record. I know that Emperor Tomato Ketchup usually gets this honor, but I must put it 4th behind Cobra, then Dots and Loops then Mars Audiac Quintet. It has everything I love about them.

Don't let the negative reviews fool you. Please.

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.

This album pretty much follows the formula.... The fusion of jazz and electronics is there; as is the complex layering of sounds in (most) songs. Oh, and the trademark "ba-ba-ba-di-da-da-da" vocals from Laetitia. That the album wallows in the latter makes it a little disappointing. With the exception of "The Free Design" and "Blue Milk" in particular, this album is just a little too kitschy. So, it's questionable as to whether "Cobra & Phases" will attract new fans. However, it IS another Sterelolab release, and many (including myself) will buy it for this reason.

If you're unsure about which Stereolab album to get, then I'd recommend "Emperor Tomato Ketchup" and "Dots & Loops" before buying "Cobra and Phases". If you're just unsure...then try The High Llamas ("Snowbug"), Solex ("Pickup"), Alpha ("Come From Heaven"), or even The Now Sound of Ursula 1000 (self-titled, for something more beaty), too. Cheers! Ps: I gave it 3.5 stars...

I don't know why some critics are giving this album a bad review. In my opinion, the latest by sterolab is the most amazing, subtle, and beautiful. The last section of "Puncture in the Radar Permutation," when the violin and xylophone music suddenly switches from lo-fi to hi-fi recording gives me shivers every time I listen to it! If you ever wanted a definiton of "hip" music, stereolab and "Cobra and Phases..." is on the top of the list.

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.

This is the first Stereolab album that I bought...I had only heard bits and pieces and wanted more. This is SUCH a good album! A great mix of slow and fast songs, infectious melodies (I ve been walking around humming since I bought it). There's so much going on in the songs that I haven't tired of listening to Cobra. There's no need to touch the remote...all the songs are great...a very cohesive album. I hope to find that their other albums are this great. I am definetly going to buy whatever I can get my hands on.

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!

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.

CD
Stereolab's full-length follow-up to "Dots and Loops" continues to update old sounds with new techniques and increasingly strong song writing. There are some magnificent tunes on here. This is not as "start-to-finish" excellent as some of their other material but if you like the groop you shan't regret this purchase. It contains two of my favorite songs of theirs in "Infinity Girl" and "Blips Drips & Strips". "Strobo Acceleration" has beauty and atmosphere to spare and "Op-Hop Detonation" is a groovy little ditty to get your toes a-tappin'.

There are one or two tracks I could do without, but that's about it. I think those songs would be good if I heard them apart from the others. I have found many Stereolab songs on other albums that suffer only by comparison to unbelievably fantastic ones. That's it. You have your recommendation. Purchase, listen, and enjoy.

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.