Cobra and Phases Group Play Voltage in the Milky Night

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...

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.

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.