Delighted with the new Monade album, purely because it reminds me just why I liked Stereolab in the first place. It could quite confidently take it's place as a new album by that very band if it was actually by them! However, this is Laetitia's baby & it's grown up into a dignified & handsome youth with flowing locks & polished brogues, a knowing smile & a gleaming knife hidden behind it's back. There's lounge-y touches alright but this is a glowing full band affair, full of catchy cinematic pop songs & sweeping downtempo tunes with a strong identity, lots of lovely strings, honeyed vocals, chiming guitars & occasionally very funky drums!! The production is great - warm & fluid, fleshing out the post John Barry-isms with gusto. Without doubt the best album I've heard on Too Pure for a while!!! CD only I'm afraid, with vinyl to follow soon...
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What their label says...
Monade, led by French chanteuse Laetitia Sadier, best-known as Stereolab’s singer and lyricist, release their third LP, ‘Monstre Cosmic’ on Too Pure. Laetitia Sadier explains how the record came into being: “The original idea behind the writing of the tracks was a river; to have one long track that would take its course and you would never hear the same part twice, just as one can never swim in the same river because of the elusive flow of the water. Songs like ’Invitation’ and ‘Lost Language’ testify to this original desire”. The lyrics centre on the idea of reality and fantasy and the ideal images of the self within this. “‘Étoile's lyrics describe a dream I experienced and is a tale of the degree of subtle truth I found in it. The lyrics deal with aspects of light and shade, connecting darkness and light like a starry night. In fact, as the record was in the making, I made significant connections with two movies I happened to see, David Lynch's ‘Inland Empire’ and ‘Forbidden Planet’". Reality was reinforced by recording sounds of the city near Sadier’s house in Bordeaux, its train station, streets and alleys and random encounters. Sadier says the new record is a collaboration with the three other members of Monade - bassist Marie Merlet, keyboard/guitar player Nicolas Etienne and drummer David Loquier, who together with Stereolab multi-instrumentalist Joe Watson, recorded half of the previous Monade LP, ‘A Few Steps More’. Gasc and Mario, who play together as Momotte, helped create one of the album’s most striking songs, ‘Étoile’. Finally, some of the songs include singing by Rachel Ortas, who was in 80s pop band Luna Parker, and also strings by musicians from The Bordeaux Conservatoire.
