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Has a playful, at times otherworldly style which brings to mind children's fairy tales.
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An optimistic-feeling, playful record that recalls the jazzy-edged sunshine and beat pop of the '60s.
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An ingratiating return to form that benefits from Sean O'Hagan's eclectic, elastic arrangements.
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Laetitia Sadier's vocal melodies soar, so that even when you get two hints of classical minimalist Steve Reich in the first two tracks, there are still tunes to hum.
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The album is held back by their insistence on simple songs and simple vocals that keep the record earthbound and solely the province of the already converted.
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Q MagazineTheir best yet. [Sep 2001, p.120]
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MojoTim Gane and Laetitia Sadier's prettiest songs since '95's Music For The Amorphous Body Study Center. [Oct 2001, p.116]
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ResonanceShifts moods so radically that a single song rockets through a half-century of recorded music. [#32, p.59]
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Is a welcoming entrance for new fans as much as it is another fine chapter for the diehards.
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A major rebirth, relegating the chirpy melodies to expedients, relying less on Sadier's monotone singing, and reaching for new formats within the group's formidable compositional skills.
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Alternative PressA refreshing journey back to the plugged-in analog sound of early 'Lab albums. [Oct 2001, p.100]
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The WireThere's everything to like about this release, but nothing to grip or to enage the senses... Stereolab have now defined and refined themselves to a point where they are almost invisible. [#211, p.53]
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Sound-Dust achieves a new peak in lush, lounge-friendliness for Stereolab.
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It all sounds nice, but little sticks.
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Continuing an audio development from Dots and Loops, Sound-Dust is littered with a giddy array of hand percussion instruments — marimba, vibraphone and glockenspiel stir up a polyrhythmic stew, its busyness and complexity sounding like the product of painstaking studio assemblage.
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Although Sound-Dust's revisionist zeal is mostly exhausted by the thirty minute mark, its spirit is alive and well in the album's streamlined production aesthetic. Rarely, if ever, are these songs muddied by an obvious surplus of musical ideas.
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Entertainment WeeklyA disappointment compared with their action-packed output of the late '90s. [Fall 2001, p.136]
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SpinThese airy confections of analog-synth purrs and Chicago brass and Laetitia Sadier's obliquely humanist lyrics are distinguishable from one another by tone palette more than by hooks or style. [Oct 2001, p.126]
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UrbListeners hoping for a radical departure from previous outings may be disappointed to find that the disc doesn't necessarily break new ground... [Sep 2001, p.152]
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Offers the sound of Stereolab doing what they do best. Love it or hate it, it won't alter the world, it just is.
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BlenderThis collection seems less pointlessly abstract than 1999's similarly staffed Cobra and Phases. [Aug/Sep 2001, p.130]
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Much of the music's electronic undertow has receded, leaving Laetitia Sadier and Mary Hansen's airy melodies and counter-melodies stranded in gassy lounge-pop compositions that sound merely retro instead of retro-futuristic.
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MagnetI don't know which Stereolab album is more nauseating: Sound-Dust or the last one. [#51, p.118]
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 14 out of 19
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Mixed: 0 out of 19
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Negative: 5 out of 19
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JonathanGFeb 20, 2006
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LeonardoFOct 25, 2005we'll miss you, mary.
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MattVMar 13, 2004my favourite album of all time...absolutely beautiful...