Stereolab
'Margerine Eclipse'
On Elektra Records
Grade:B+Once upon a time, the independent sector was hung up on the spurious notion of "selling out." The idea was that bands could build up a following over years, only to see their entire fan base wiped out overnight by the merest dalliance with a Rolling Stone cover shoot or a Top 40 hit. The likes of Radiohead and Sigur R?s have managed to combine commerciality with barely damaged credibility, but the chart books are littered with musicians-such as Bjork-whose enormous hardcore followings never forgave her for making mainstream music.

These hipster rules no longer apply, but nobody told the U.K.-based group Stereolab. Stereolab, founded in 1991 by singer Laetitia Sadier and musical mastermind Tim Gane, who have just finished their 12th album release with the stunning Margerine Eclipse. The album has proven that these Brits can once again write songs which are not only quirky and brilliant, but also steely and beautiful. Their influential LP Instant O In The Universe served as an outstanding precursor (as well as a blueprint) for what is to be found on Margerine Eclipse: no heavy-handed production trickery which marred the second album, Sound-Dust, but a return to basics a la its great forbearer Emperor Tomato Ketchup, and the results are nothing short of excellent. For 10 years, Stereolab has built up one of the largest alternative followings in pop without a whiff of mainstream action. Press is rationed at best, and they maintain the image of a band that operates like a good old-fashioned independent.

However, what could be a dignified manifesto can equally look like a bloodless obsession with being cool, and an inability or fear of stepping beyond what has become a large but self-imposed ghetto. As pop ideas go, fusing together Radiohead, French pop and the Beach Boys is a very good one, but some of the earlier albums were becoming less and less revolutionary because of this paradigm. Sadier also often sounds like a run-of-the-mill French vocalist, and her English lyrics are generally uninspiring. Fans would argue that passion is not the point of Stereolab, but in its place is a painstakingly constructed pretense, covering everything from their hip but unflattering beats to their artificial vocalizations.

This would be more tolerable on less-than-great album Sound-Dust if their music wasn't put together so theoretically and analytically, entirely without emotion. With their borrowings from early, obscure French New wave and hip obtuse sources, Stereolab can sometimes sound like a band of rock critics rather then musicians.

But in the case of Margerine Eclipse, it's difficult not to be swept along by the metronomic rhythms and chugging guitars, especially when drummer Andy Ramsay breathes some life into the group and gives the listener songs like the first track "Vonal Declosion" which sets a great tone for the whole album. With Laetitia singing in French and a hypnotic wash of sound which is undeniably a trademark of the Stereolab, you know that you're in for a magnificent experience worth remembering. But there are some other highlights worth bringing up: "Cosmic Country Noir," with its old school drum machines, organs, and electronics working as a unified team; "The Man With 100 Cells," a trip through different time signatures (once again the group is on top of its creative game); "Feel & Triple," "Bop Scotch" and "Dear Marge," which closes out the album with a booty-shaking disco groove pulled straight from "Mass Riff" from Instant O.

Margerine Eclipse does move even further, with some of the finer pieces of the album like the third track, entitled "...sudden stars..." in which Laetitia's dreamy lyrics help to carry the song's moving beat into a fruition of sound. Nothing can top Stereolab's elegance on this album, and the movement from sound snob band to mainstream idolatry is most likely not that far away.