Monade
Monstre Cosmic
(Too Pure)
Ever wonder what happened to Stereolab? In the '90s, the band pioneered a synthy retro-futuristic pop, with the winning French lilt of singer Laetitia Sadier, who sounds a bit like a cross between Serge Gainsbourg and Aimee Mann. It was part bachelor-pad hi-fi fantasy, part Moog madness, part Euro cool. Her new band, Monade, is Stereolab for the 21st century—wispy keyboards, sparse vocals, trebly guitar and unsettled rhythms. The future that Sadier's earlier band charted may have arrived.
—John Adamian
Hot Chip
Made in the Dark
(Astralwerks)
The third effort from these British electro-soul wunderkinds opens with a stunning trifecta—the propulsive dance floor rocker "Out at the Pictures"; the innovative robo-groove of "Shake A Fist"; and the tender, shimmering ballad "Ready for the Floor." There's not much Hot Chip can't do. Strangely, that actually becomes a liability over the course of the entire album. The band gleefully segues between jokey tunes and genuinely affecting sentiments, euphoric techno stompers and simmering Motown slow jams. But over 50 minutes, the collision of so many pop pastiches starts to induce whiplash. Made in the Dark suffers from a surfeit of sensibility, but the solution lies in the enjoying the album like a box of rich caramels, a few savory tunes at a time.
—Jeff Jackson
Caroline Herring
Lantana
(Signature)
Herring's latest is billed as songs from the "Gothic South," and with big, open guitar and an equally big vibrato-laden alto, Herring sings for grown-ups who know that an honest take on life isn't always pretty. Instead of saccharine images of carefree days on daddy's knee, Herring sings of "A childhood worth forgetting/ her twenties damn depressing," and journeys in which "china dolls and worlds collide." Like the late Dave Carter, she finds grace in the plebeian, hypocrisy in the make-nice. "Paper Gown," her retelling of the Susan Smith case, is more tragic than sordid—all in keeping with her no-easy-answers worldview. Toss in memorable melodic hooks and some long overdue Country feminism, and Lantana is a head-turning effort. Herring plays the Iron Horse April 4.
—Rob Weir
Fuck Buttons
Street Horrrsing
(ATPR)
If you enjoy the oft-abused quiet-loud-quiet indie rock dynamic, you'll be able to relate to Britain's Fuck Buttons. These caustic tracks aren't really songs, but they employ that soothe-you-then-bruise-you-then-let-you-down-easy approach, only it's closer to ambient industrial, soft noise or uneasy listening. In spots it sounds like ritual music for Moog-wielding cannibals. Like Throbbing Gristle, this is abrasive, even painful, yet clean. It's good, but it's also a little like lighting yourself on fire.
—John Adamian
