Pop: In the eerie lounge of Lætitia Sadier

Euphony and class struggle: In the 1990s, the British band Stereolab took up the then virulent easy listening hype and fused it with left-wing radical song lines. “I’ve been told it’s a fact of life / Men have to kill one another / Well I say there are still things worth fighting for,” said the band’s biggest hit, “La Resistance.”

Fusions on other levels too – connections and mixtures. Stereolab liked to include everything in their universe that exuded euphony, stylishness and hipster expertise: Kraut, Kraftwerk and Neu! Electronica, lounge, trip hop, La Monte Young’s Theater of Eternal Music, minimalist rock without ornaments, minimalism in general and basically everything that bubbles, obscure and not-so-obscure chanson traditions, but also British experimental music; One of the most beautiful Stereolab albums was created together with the Industrial Dada project Nurse with Wound.

You can take this as a lead-in to Stereolab singer Lætitia Sadier’s new solo record, simply because Sadier rigorously continues what she calls the aesthetic approach of her former band on what is now her fifth album. To put it less convolutedly: the music that Sadier produces single-handedly sounds pretty much like Stereolab’s, even in its diversity and the relaxedness that runs through everything. With this music you float, so to speak, stoned and without any spark social anxiety about a cocktail party where only lovely, interesting, politically clever and funny people are guests.

On “Rooting for Love” the contrast mentioned at the beginning between euphony and song lyrics that are not at all loungey is also very present again. You can also ignore them, at least as a non-British person who can simply integrate the singing as another timbre. Then “Rooting for Love” sounds above all simply beautiful and entertaining in its kaleidoscopic diversity. But if you listen closer, it gets dark. Stereolab’s lyrics were macro-politically oriented and pop-Marxist informed. On »Rooting for Love« it repeatedly goes into the close range and unfolds oppressive potential from there.

»Don’t Forget You’re Mine« tells the story of the husband of a more successful woman and the jealousy attack of a fragile ego that feels neglected as part of a plucking easy-listening chanson: »Not just a famous linguist’s wife / Just don’t “forget you’re mine.” She comes home late, he imagines she’s having an affair and then things escalate. “Don’t Forget You’re Mine” becomes an easy-listening song that reports on a femicide: “A good slap is what you need / A good slap is what you want / Take that, take that / Get up , and get up, and get up, and get up, and«.

Some of these irritating combinations of euphony and horror can be found on “Rooting for Love”. Lounge, but as an aesthetic of the uncanny.

Lætitia Sadier: »Rooting for Love« (Duophonic Super 45/Cargo)