Stereolab records tend to take a few listens to get into, often being quite off-putting at first. Their newie Sound-Dust is no exception to this rule, at first sounding a bit underwhelming compared to the head trip that was 1999's Cobra And Phases Group Play Voltage In The Milky Night, though clearly a progression from there, and perhaps a bit fey and directionless in parts compared to last year's double EP The First Of The Microbe Hunters. One thing to remark about this album compared to their previous work, aside from the mercifully short title, is that it seems a lot looser and laidback - "The Black Arts" being a highlight in the regard - getting quite close to the bachelor pad music ideal in parts, before the mood might suddenly twist into something more straight ahead, a pattern that recurs on a few songs.

After the brief stab at minimalism that kicks off the album, things moving "Space Moth" which starts off with a flighty theme for a bad Italian horror movie with flutes and, yep, lots of vibes, before it kicks into a neat latter-day 'Lab groove that segues nicely into a more rockular coda with sprightly horns and all. The game picks up with the lead single "Captain Harpsichord", which is your typical Stereolab single, with a vague country feel helped along by the pedal steel guitar in places. "Gus The Mynah Bird" is one of those John McEntire produced trainwrecks that unexpectedly leads into the spookiest three minutes in the whole Stereolab canon. And "Nothing To Do With Me", with Sadier and Mary Hansen bouncing back and forth words taken from something by a Chris Morris ("you're not a doctor, you're a wanker"?), provides some levity before the befuddling "Suggestion Diabolique", which again follows the meandering-wanky-bit-then-rockular-groovy-bit routine.

Lyric-wise, there's the usual nice balance between light, dark and incomprehensible, with Lætitia Sadier mixing up the requisite situationist rants with the more personal (as in the closer "Les Bons Bons Des Raison"), tho' curiously that goofy enunciation of hers, a la "time to exam mine, uncritical times..." is not quite so prevalent.

So, it will disappoint some of those wanting another Transient Random-Noise Bursts With Announcements, but, jeez, get over it and just play that if that's what you want to hear, people. It still gets there in the end as an album Stereolab nuts will dig and about which everyone else will make jokes a la Tanya Headon's classic "bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah socialism bah bah bah bah bah ..." jibe. I think it's alright, your milage may vary.