Is it enough to show how the nightmare works so the people wake up? A poll of my favorite 25 Stereolab songs

interesting list, went with "Mountain" - my 25 would be very different!

great poll. thank you for agreeing with me that "vonal declosion" is one of the very best lab songs

🤟🏽🤟🏽

A no-prize to whoever first figures out what song the lyric in this poll name comes from.

Here’s a hint: I don’t love early Stereolab as much as most people do

ha, I can see that!

Hey fun poll!

I actually just purchased the Oscilations box and was totally blown away by the first disc, I had thought I had heard pretty much everything 90s wise between the albums and the switched on sets!

I’ve been cherry-picking from the discography a lot of late and damn, you guys, Fab Four Suture is the business

Brimstead, I need to get that box still

Thanks, sleeve!

Oscilations is great, plus you get cool stickers

Would you consider creating a playlist because although I love Stereolab and have probably heard some of these songs dozens of times, the names of their tracks are so obtuse that I would be hard-pressed to put a melody to any of them

It's fascinating (but apt) when you encounter someone's top 20 of an artist with zero crossover with your own.

This was my ranked ballot for the artist poll:
1 Anamophose
2 Jenny Ondioline
3 Motoroller Scalatron
4 I'm Going Out Of My Way
5 Tomorrow Is Already Here
6 Changer
7 Eloge D'Eros
8 Peng! 33
9 Crest
10 transona five
11 Golden Ball
12 the groop play chord x
13 transport sans bouger
14 The Light That Will Cease To Fail
15 Au Grand Jour (the 3:41 fast version)
16 Lo Boob Oscillator
17 Nihilist Assault Group
18 Perversion
19 You Little Shits
20 OLV 26

It seems I prefer the Gina, Joe, MARY & Sean eras.

(Eloge D'Eros is such a banger... carry on, lol)

Etherwave, I got you

https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/rays-stereolab-favorites/pl.u-EdAVRpqTaAVPjv0

TYVM!

Steve Shasta, your #16 came very close to making my list

no Revox no credibility ;)

lol

Bumping this so people vote

I went through this major Stereolab binge when I first started downloading around 2005--I think I ended up with almost everything they did within 1-2 years. I kind of OD'd before long, so I haven't listened to them in a number of years. I would make CD-80s with all my favourites, too, and I don't think your list has a lot of overlap with the songs I used to put on there. One I recognize for sure: "John Cage Bubblegum."

"Flourescences" leaps out, at a glance. Possibly the grooviest major single of the original, er, mature phase. ('Major' in that it had promo video on TV and everything lol.)

Though a good third the options could have been on my painstakingly-assembled long-form ballot from a decade or so ago. (I believe my #1 was "Harmonium" then, possibly somewhat strategically.)

Tough call between Cybele’s Reverie, Fluorescences and Vonal Declosion.

That is a great top 25.

I meant to listen to the playlist, but is there a free verson of Apple Music?

Here’s a hint: I don’t love early Stereolab as much as most people do

Oh yeah, it's from "Doubt" innit. It was always my pick from the first few singles too.

this is a pretty similar list to the one I would make.

mixed feelings about cybele's reverie, it's the first thing I heard from them and as a standalone it's still lovely, but those strings just sound jarring amongst the squelchy sounds of emperor tomato ketchup.

the fluorescences / miss modular EPs are peak stereolab for me

Well I made my own version of the playlist and I started listening to it and taking notes on each song so I could remember which one was which and what was good about it.

I was going to do a track by track but got distracted by some work tasks.

But that's actually a good way of deciding on the best tracks? the ones that cut through the distraction and snap you out of work focus. A lot of Stereolab passes in a pleasant easy listening haze. (Not a criticism at all!) But then something like Ping Pong or Simple Headphone Mind will completely snap me out whatever I'm doing. So I'm leaning towards those tracks.

made this into a Tidal playlist - https://tidal.com/playlist/fc86c7dd-f551-496c-b0f9-39bdfb621b4b

Vonal

That's funny. I'm getting into Stereolab right now and was reflecting on how Captain Easychord is one of the best songs I've heard recently. Will probably vote for that but I heard Margerine Eclipse for the first time today and fucking hell, what an album! All the songs off that one will have to be considered. Also, Melodie Is A Wound really is that good

argh y'all are slowly selling me on the 2003-2010 albums

I have a few of the singles but that's it

sleeve, revisiting those records just recently totally sold me on how strong they are (beyond the songs I already loved)

I voted for “Doubt” just because I don’t think anyone else will

Captain Easychord is their catchiest song, but Plastic Pulse is their finest. And longest, and you know what that means. More ‘lab for the dollar.

Captain Easychord is their catchiest song, but Plastic Pulse is their finest. And longest, and you know what that means. More ‘lab for the dollar.

Captain Easychord is their catchiest song, but Plastic Pulse is their finest. And longest, and you know what that means. More ‘lab for the dollar.

Captain Easychord is their catchiest song, but Plastic Pulse is their finest. And longest, and you know what that means. More ‘lab for the dollar.

sorry times three

please also apologize for this:

"Plastic Pulse is their finest. And longest"

Refractions in the Plastic Pulse is 17m33s
Jenny Ondioline is 18m08s

“The Black Arts” is my underrated pick.

YES

Margerine Eclipse is THE slept on Stereolab record. I’m amazed anew each time I throw it on.

Margerine Eclipse is THE slept on Stereolab record. I’m amazed anew each time I throw it on.

― Davey D

Yeah, I agree with this. It's in my top three with Emperor Tomato Ketchup and Dots & Loops. I really enjoyed the Stereolab poll we did on here in 2016, but I was disappointed not a single song from Margerine Eclipse made the list.

I just got the expanded version on Bandcamp and yeah it does sound great, at the time it was too soon for me

me to my wife just now, listening to "Mass Riff"

"listen to that peppy weird bounce, this is just what I want from this band"

xxp longest of the poll choices, is what I meant

I feel like everyone wasn't allowed to think ME was their best album for very understandable reasons but for me, who wasn't there at the time, it feels like it very well might be

It's almost like the album deliberately drops the ball with the closing outro too, as if to attempt self-sabotage

Okay scratch that, I like that too now

Voted Cybele's Reverie from these options. My 25 might have 1 or 2 of these but would be pretty different, as well as different from my ballot from the Stereolab poll in 2016.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

I am still trying to decide between Ping Pong and Simple Headphone Mind.

Ping Pong, I think, is one of their most quintessential songs (or at least, most demonstrative of their early era) and if I had to go for 'best' out of this list. Or 'most clear demonstration of what Stereolab were about during the phase I loved them most'.

But I also just irrationally love Simple Headphone Mind. (And think that probably no one else will vote for it.) So if we are picking 'favourite' from this list rather than 'best' I'd lean towards it.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Huh

Actually, that result makes perfect sense, in a positive way

And a lot of people voted!!!

I didn't vote but that song rules. I once made a janky mashup of "Cybele's Reverie" and Jay-Z's "Change Clothes."

I didn’t vote but I probably would have gone for “John Cage Bubblegum” or “Les Yper-Sound” or “Mountain” or “Sudden Stars” or “Refractions in the Plastic Pulse”.

I remember thinking “Les Yper-Sound” was one of the weakest tracks on that album when I first got it in the late nineties, but that opinion seems crazy to me now, what a banger