Customer Reviews

Fab Four Suture

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It's funny how fickle people have been about this album (which is actually a compilation of 7 inch singles). It's almost a shame Emperor Tomato Ketchup and Dot & Loops were so great because people just can't seem to move beyond them. Fab Four Suture is an utterly flawless evolution of the groop's sound. The new songs and impressive tour have proven that Stereolab hasn't missed a beat, despite hardships they've known in recent years. Personal highlights of the album: Plastic Mile, Whisper Pitch, and Interlock. Don't hesitate about picking this one up.

Only Stereolab could do this. They've been together for well over a decade and still manage to produce truly wonderful music. This collection grows over a couple of listens then suddenly blooms in the most excellent way. Lean and sophisticated, this album get it's hooks right in and doesn't let go. Not since 'Peng!' have they been so hypnotically beautiful. This really should be the soundtrack to the summer.

CD
After "Margerine Eclipse", Stereolab's 2006 "Fab Four Suture" shuffles the deck a lot more and offers something completely new. This is a compilation of singles and EP's that the groop had released in the previous year with the intention of putting out as an album, which kind of ticks me off in a few ways. I saw them in Detroit the same week this album came out (great show) and bought several of the singles (vinyl), having no idea that they all (except one) appeared on this disc. Had I bought the album before the show it all could have been prevented. The disc was for fans who may not have had access to the 45's. Not many people still buy vinyl.

Though this is technically a compilation, it flows like a regular album and if you didn't know, would be none the wiser. They seem to have taken their songwriting prowess and stripped down the instrumentation to more of a raw, live feel. All the percussion sounds like it was recorded on a 5 piece kit (except "Excursions Into 'oh, a-oh'"), the bass is high-pitched and funky and the guitar and keyboards are catchy as hell. Laetitia Sadier's vocals are lovely as always. They also add some well-placed french horn on quite a few tracks. I think maybe they had been listening to Alan Parson's Project's "Turn of a Friendly Card".

All in all this is an enjoyable album from start to finish. Although, ironically, it begins and ends with my least favorite song, the instrumental "Kyberneticka Babicka" pts 1 & 2, everything in between is a joy. So pull the meat off of the bread and chow down.

2006

I'm a newcomer to Stereolab, only joining them with the recent "Margerine Eclipse" album, which is one of my most favorite albums to listen to in my whole collection.

Yesterday, a box arrived containing both the new "Fab Four Suture" and 1996's "Emperor Tomato Ketchup," one of their best-reviewed albums.

Long-time Stereolab fans seem to not like these last two newest albums as well as stuff from earlier in the career, but I like them better. They are much more melodic and fun to listen to--frankly, they're just more MUSICAL than some of the earlier stuff.

Maybe not as much of a challenge as some of the more groundbreaking stuff, but if you just want to make your brain release pleasure endorphins from listening to fantastic, complex music, this new one and "Margerine Eclipse" are your best bet.

When I bought this cd, I practically ripped it open and shoved it in my cd player, because I couldn't wait any longer. I had heard "Eye of the Volcano" prior to this cd's release, and it left me very excited to hear the rest.

The album begins with "Kybernetická Babièka Pt. 1". When I first heard this, it frightened yet exhilarated me, I loved it at first listen. It reminds me of a siren and I think it is a good use of voice sampling, but as interesting as I find this track, it really does start to wear on your nerves after awhile. It's now a track I tend to skip.

Track 2-"Interlock: When this song begins, the beat reminds me of James Brown, and makes you want to get down and funky. Then (as Stereolab often does) the song changes in the middle, with lyrics like "We can learn to respect each other". This is my favorite part of the song.

Track 3- "Eye of the Volcano": I think this is a great song, it almost sounds suspenseful, like a 60's mystery movie.

Track 4- "Plastic Mile": One of my favorites, although I love most of the songs equally. It's almost creepy, but beautiful.

Track 5- "Get a shot of the Refrigerator": This has a great beat to it. Another favorite.

Track 6- "Visionary Road Maps": Sounds like an 80's dance hit, a good club song. The switch at the end is absolutely awesome.

Track 7- "Vodiak": Cute song, but not really a favorite.

Track 8- "Whisper Pitch": A hauntingly stunning song!!

Track 9- "Excursions Into "Oh-a-oh": Another danceable track. Listen-able.

Track 10- "I was a sunny rain phase": Sounds like a sampled super Mario game. My least favorite on this album, but still not a bad song.

Track 11- "Widow Weirdo": Great song. A good way to wind down an album.

Track 12- "Kybernetická Babièka Pt. 2": Thus brings us to the end of the album. All it is Track 1 with a fade in at the beginning, and if you listen closely, you will notice that the order of loops are slightly varied from Track 1, but hardly noticeable. Interesting, but quite unnecessary. If your going to end an album with the first song, it should be shorter.

I hope this helped. It is very difficult to describe Stereolab's music, because while it does have an distinct sound, they always use a eclectic selection of instruments and sounds. I'm sorry to hear that some people did not find this album impressive, because I think it's the most amazing thing I've heard in a long time. It seems to me that they experimented a lot more with reverberation and mixing, it is very well produced. There is not one track on here I disliked, although I have my favorites. It's just too bad that it's not very long. All I hope is that Stereolab is not nearing the end, because this sounds like a beginning to me.

Fab Four Suture is a "DEEP-Beautiful", poetic and diverse album, collecting a series of six 7" singles (very limited editions hard to find) from 2005 and 2006, is an AMAZING RECORD.
"Robust" is a perfect descriptive word for the album, which presents a full, confident-sounding Stereolab. On Fab Four Suture Stereolab's genre obsessions and instruments are woven together tightly, their sound dense and full. Horns make a notable impression, and along with a certain style of guitar lick, they help to evoke `70s funk on tracks like "Eye of the Volcano". Synthesizers are often in abundance, and on songs like "Visionary Road Maps" and "Vodiak", they are used in a way that's evocative of `80s new wave pop, not just the usually referenced Krautrock of the `70s. Those two songs also share a storybook-like aura of fantasy, one which is evoked through textures and touches during much of the album.
Fab Four Suture opens and closes with a theatrical concept "Kyberneticka Babicka" which frames the album as a warped carnival dream. One of the best tracks in this album is 'GET A SHOT OF THE REFRIGERATOR' so freaky... so nice... so intelligent (about intention) and so cool.
The concept of this album is more deep a harder than others Stereolab Albums. It's so beautiful and hard than freak melodies, the perfect Stereolab way. The lyrics are full the actuality world situation and the music takes greats and nice references from psychedelic sounds and specially Philip Glass discography influences. Be part of STEREO-LAB series tales.

So, I bought this CD when it came out; however, I didn't really listen to it for two reasons:

1. Stereolab released about half of this album on singles before hand, and I had already heard those songs.
2. I moved a few times shortly after I bought the album, and it ended up lost in the moves.

I was going through boxes in the garage, trying to organize (with my wife), when I ran across this CD. So, I decided to listen to it, and low and behold Stereolab music that I wasn't familiar with, and I love it. So, at the moment I can say that I am really digging this disc. I tend to think that if I like something, then everyone should like it. Therefore, I think it Fab Four Suture is definitely worth your money.

I have been a fan of Stereolab since the mid 90's and I like everything they have released, but my favorits are probably this and Margarine Eclipse... at the moment. Fab Four Suture definitely has an electronic feel of late-era Stereolab, so don't expect the drone of the earlier stuff, but the layers and melodies are unstoppable.

It's always sad when one of your favorite bands begins to show signs of slowing down. It's worse when the band is well past that point and the inevitable "end" seems just a few months away. Stereolab, I feel, is approaching the "end."

Critics have taken shots at "the Groop" for years claiming that they've been creating the same album over and over again. I never agreed with them 'til I picked up "Fab Four Suture."

Maybe it's because the full effect of Mary's untimely death has taken its toll on the band or that creativity has dwindled down to near-nothing, but Stereolab's latest is a deja-vu-esque jaunt through turn-of-the-century 'Lab albums. I hear so much of "Sound-Dust" and "Cobra..." within "Fab Four Suture" that I sometimes wonder if the entire album is a collection of "lost" B-sides that didn't make it onto their April compilation release, "Oscillons..." To make things worse, the album's opening and closing tracks are nearly identical in the sense that they're terribly annoying and probably a couple minutes too long.

I generally prefer Stereolab to stay within their roots, only straying to explore safe new grounds, but with "Fab Four...," I think it's time for Sadier and Gane to sit down and seriously discuss the future.

I'd love for them to be "Fab for the Future" because "Fab Four Suture" is WAY too connected to the past.

In my opinion, this is the best CD Stereolab has released recently. "Sound-Dust" had a few good tracks, and "Margarine..." was remarkably unremarkable.

With "Fab Four..." the groop has distilled their earlier sounds from such exceptional works as "Mars Audiac...," "Emperor Tomato...," and "Random Transient..." and their cool horn grooves from "Cobra..." into a refreshing new CD.

If you haven't seen them in concert, check their current tour dates. They are amazing.

I've always found that the 'Lab's singles collections and EP's (Aluminum Tunes and First of the Microbe Hunters, for example) are usually somewhat inferior to the material they put on their LP's. It might just be an issue of cohesiveness, that their albums flow together better than their compilations.

That said, Fab Four Suture, seems to suffer in that regard. There are some truly great songs here, ranking with some of their best work, but there are also songs that feel like there's something missing or that they've done it before. "Interlock", "Get a Shot of the Refrigerator", "Visionary Road Maps", and "Whisper Pitch" are the highlights for me, but for the most part, the album is enjoyable to me as a stereolab fan.

I wouldn't recommend starting with this album if you have never heard stereolab before. Emperor Tomato Ketchup or Dots and Loops would probably be a better place for that, but stereolab fans will most likely enjoy this.