Not an album, not
Stereolab's debut, and not even particularly stunning, the
Stunning Debut Album is nevertheless quite good, if not necessarily great. The bubbly, bubbling "Doubt" does manage to neatly summarize the
Stereolab aesthetic in embryo, marrying a simple yet hypnotic melody with space-age sound effects -- and
Laetitia Sadier's icily chic vocals are undeniably commanding. The B-side, "Changer," though lacking gravitas, does hint at the virtually limitless potential of the band's multi-dimensional approach, building gradually from slashing guitars and plodding rhythms to achieve a gloriously noisy transcendence.