Stereolab - Margerine Eclipse: Expanded Edition 3LP

Stereolab's first full-length recording without guitarist/vocalist Mary Hansen, who died in a tragic accident in December of 2002, Margerine Eclipse finds the band soldiering on in admirable fashion. Essentially picking up where they left off on 2001's Sound-Dust, the group continues to employ their trademark blend of vintage keyboards, airy French/English vocals, and frothy lounge-meets-electronica pop sensibilities. That's not to say that there absolutely no new developments; one can hear the occasional dash of hip-hop rhythm ("La Demeure"), Autechre-like laptop glitch-pop ("Vonal Declosion"), and even a bit of disco (at the end of album-closer "Dear Marge") amid the familiarly odd time signatures, quirky socio-political lyrical observations, and postmodern retro-futurism.