Customer Reviews

Dots & Loops

5 star:		(51)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

As with all Stereolab Albums that drastically change their sound from previous albums, I really didn't like this album at first. I was embarrased to listen to it becuase of its happy spacious melodies and horn arrangements were reminiscent of the 1960's and go-go music.

This album could best be described as an "Impressionist-Electro-Brazilian-Lounge-Pop"

This album just gets better every time I hear it. Stereolab is a very subtle group, and the amount of complexity and work that went into making this album simply isn't apparent the first or even tenth listen. But the use of odd metric groupings, the horn voicings, the use of vocal harmonies, and all of the interlocking melodies are simply genious. I'm still discovering new layers of complexity in this beautiful music.

The horns remind me of Gil Evans, and the lush harmonies harken to Ravel or Debussy.

This album is simply genious.

I stole my first Stereolab tune off the Internet, Refractions in the Plastic Pulse, what a place to start. Within thirty minutes, I likewise on the net, bought Dots and Loops(I'm fascinated by the reviewers who purchase by cover art; that's backwards to me). Balance, consistency, restraint, maturity, constant attention to symmetry where mugging for the listener/audience/camera through butt jiggling and/or overly decorative lyrics are supposed to be, oh brave new music industry, that there are such wondrous creatures making a living in it. I can't get over the seriousness of their enterprise. A pop band, which does not relinquish their pursuit of making good music to a petite melody designed to grab the average listener at an instant; then there are the hypno-melodies that will enwrap the casual listen as it does the choir. Dots and Loops is not a music release. It is a disc of spells.

Mere words cannot adequately describe how I treasure this record: wherein every song is a densely and intricately constructed whole unto itself and still the whole far transcends the sum of its coruscating parts. Best to describe my relationship with this record as a collection of associations and fragments: falling in love and a coffee buzz: Diagonals: angular grooves; driving at night: Contronatura: dark, effervescent pulses; holidaying in mountains at Easter: Brakhage and Parsec: shambolic cadences; above all, the company of loved friends.

When I was a college DJ in Florida, I stumbled upon Sterolab's Mars Audiac Quintet on the rack, and threw it onto my playlist because of ebullient tracks like "Wow and Flutter." I somehow missed Emperor Tomato Ketchup until later, but I was assured by friends in the know that it was their finest work to date. However, I'm glad I grabbed Dots and Loops when it hit the shelves, because it far surpasses that release, in my opinion. Dots and Loops has a cohesiveness of rhythm and production that is not present in most of their other (also brilliant) work. Here, in songs like "The Flower Called Nowhere," there seems to be a constant effort to fill every level of the audio spectrum, from grooving basslines and staccato guitar chunks to cascading marimbas, squawking horns and blooping analog synths. The end result is like an imaginary score to some late-60's travelogue TV show. Or better yet, the soundtrack to that dream you had, where you lived in a Stanley Kubrick movie. This album is a great retro-futuristic treat without being overly kitschy. It never totally copycats some old existing freeform jazz/pop style, but ventures out on its own...way out, as a matter of fact, as in the epic "Refractions in the Plastic Pulse." Here, shifted tempos and new directions for a song are buffered by moments of quiet technology, clicking and blipping while it dials into its next destination. If you can't get a handle on Stereolab from what you've heard of their other, more angular work, grab this album and skip to the single, "Miss Modular." The Stereolab ladies' (Laetitita Sadier and Mary Hansen) voices may convince you you're listening to an alt pop CD, until you realize you're hearing French. You're not where you thought you were. The horns and Moogs on other releases might keep you at a distance from "the Groop." Here, they suck you into a world you've never visited before, where Stereolab will make you feel right at home. I'm never without this disc in my CD wallet or my stereo.

I resist the urge to write a lengthy pursuasive review of this title. I ask that you rely on the fact that no less than FOUR of my friends have gotten their own copy after listening to mine!

I'd first heard of Stereolab two years ago when they did a cover of 'One Note Samba' for the Red Hot + Rio collection. I loved their sound, so when some magazine (Spin?) proclaimed Dots & Loops to be one of the top albums of the year, I had to buy it. For the first 5 or 6 months that I had it, it never left my stereo -- I only put it away when I had to move out of my dorm after graduation! It is one of the most wonderfully different CDs that I own, and a refreshing change from American pop music as it stands today. 'Rainbo Conversation' is my absolute favorite song. What I like best about this CD, aside from the remade bossa nova sound, is that it still sounds new to me, maybe because the lyrics are so hard to figure out. This is not formulaic at all. Its distinctive sound may be why I was personally disappointed when I picked up 'Emperor Tomato Ketchup', since other fans, and Amazon.com, swore up and down that it is the group's best work. Those of you who are new to the group, I assure you that it is possible to be a fan even if you don't like ETK. I also have 'Cobra and Phases', which I don't think sounds like either CD but appeals to me just the same. It's to Stereolab's credit that they can sound different from CD to CD and still be original.

The first time I heard Stereolab's "Mars Audiac Quintet" back in 1994, I hated it. I think I was expecting something else. At the time I was really into beat-heavy electronic music, and Sterolab was the opposite of this. The album sounded repetitive and boring to me. I wrote them off completely, that is, until 1999, when I heard "Dots and Loops" for the first time. I heard Brakhage on the radio during a low point in my life and the song was so uplifting I felt an intense euphoria engulf me. I ran out and bought the album and played it over and over, never once getting sick of it. This album became the soundtrack of one of the best summers of my life. Even now, 5 years later, I still love this album, especially the song Brakhage. I am so glad I was able to see past my narrow-mindedness of the past and welcome this band into my life. Stereolab is definitely on my top 5 list of all-time favorite bands. You will love "Dots and Loops" and it just might change your life too.

I was introduced to Stereolab when I saw the eye-popping video for Miss Modular on M2. I thought the song was really catchy, and I liked it. A lot. Simutaneously, the hype about techno being the "new music" was flying around, and I passed them off as another techno group. BIG MISTAKE.

The video would stick in my head for a year and a half. I finally got off my duff, and I went out and bought D&L. I know you die-hard fans say I should have bought Emperor Tomato Ketchup first, but this is a very good album in its own right. I admit that it gets windy toward the end, and that's my reason for knocking off a star.

Stereolab's music reminds me of music that accompanies those '60s marriage-romp movies they play on American Movie Classics. "Sex and the Single Girl", and other Natalie Wood vehicles are the first movies that come to mind when I hear this music. And that's not a bad thing.

I have since gotten their new release, "Cobra and Phrases", and I hope I'll be able to get "ETK" for Christmas. Sure, this may not be Stereolab's best work, but it's 1,000 times better than the filth that pollutes the mainstream right now. Even at their worst, Stereolab is still distinctive. By and large, Stereolab have given me some of the most pleasant listening experiences of my short life.

I cannot say enough good things about this album. There is not a bad song on it, which is always a good start. Every single time I listen to this I smile when the two-note motif of "Brakhage" fades in. I have always been at a loss to describe Stereolab, and the best I can come up with is "music of the future", that is as the future may have been pictured in the late 60's. As such, it is both ahead of its time, and, strangley, behind. Behind in the sense that I often wonder why, exactly, no one has done anything quite like this before.

The musicianship, like all Stereolab recordings, is almost deceptively great, as many of their songs tend to hit the listeener first as ear candy. The melodies are briliant, but the female vocalists use both harmonies and interplay to create one of the best tandems ever (RIP Mary Hansen :'( you will be missed).

Many different instruments were used to texture the songs, notably horns. The lyrics, when understood, are quite clever, but to me it has always been the lyrics that are NOT understood that stand out ("Miss Modular", "Tickertape of the Unconscious"). Unable to decipher words, you realize how perfectly placed everything is, but none of it ever sounds forced.

This is one of the few albums I would give 5 stars to. Some highlights: "Brakhage", "Miss Modular", "Parsec" (used in a Volkswagon commercial), "The Flower Called Nowhere", and "Tickertape of the Unconscious". The rest of the album is also great, but these 5 songs in particular make it a must-own.

Stereolab's fifth album is widely considered to be their best, along with Emperor Tomato Ketchup. Coming in after ETK, this is a major step up. ETK, to me, was an awkward stage between their early rock and their later jam-band work. But this shows that ETK WAS indeed a directional album, and Dots and Loops takes the direction of ETK a few million steps out of Earth's atmosphere.
Dots and Loops is not Stereolab's best album in my opinion, simply because the songs on their own are not as compelling as ANY of their albums' songs are. If you want to rate this album track-by-track, drop my rating down to a 3. It doesn't sink in right away, either. But play it two or three times all the way through and you'll find yourself humming to yourself in French and you'll have no idea what you're saying or how to stop it--but you'll love it nonetheless.
No, this album gets a 5 because of how it is as an ALBUM. It opens brilliantly with Brakhage (gotta love Mary's backing vocals on this one), has a clear focal point (Refractions in the Plastic Pulse), and ends leaving you wanting more with Contronatura. Though no song is INCREDIBLE as a standalone, picking apart this album would be like picking out scenes to watch from a movie. It doesn't work as well. The only tracks I'll play individually are Brakhage and Parsec, my personal favorite from this album.
If you like Stereolab's later work, this is the one to get to know. If you want something you can listen to for catchy pop songs, don't go here. This is kind of like Stereolab's Kid A (for all you Radiohead fans). But if you're into space-age cinematic albums, this one's for you. Click, click, bleep! is the sound you'll be getting, but all the clicks and beeps really add up to something in the end.