The confusion between Stereolab and Laetitia Sadier doesn’t bother me. Part of the band’s identity revolves around her voice, and much of the French musician’s solo career is associated with the idea of continuing what existed in Stereolab. The part that doesn’t bother is that it’s music that makes you happy, there’s a feeling of not ageing when you listen to Sadier/Stereolab. A Holy Grail in music form, compressed pop. It takes you somewhere, whatever your age: it’s partly explained by the way they, and then she, have explored different musical genres over more than four decades. It’s music that touches a nerve – a good one – and communicates directly to the heart. It ages with us, but music doesn’t age. You can’t imagine the satisfaction of a kid who discovers Stereolab today and goes on to discover them.
That joy still exists in Sadier. “Rooting For Love”, released this year, reminds us of that. We hadn’t heard from her solo since 2017 – “Find Me Finding You” – partly because Stereolab revived in 2019 for concerts and to reissue an entire discography that brought us back to the hauntology before hauntology, when it seemed alive and changing. Sadier has maintained this desire for change, even if the change is reflected in leaving things the same: creating sweet songs that contradict each other in the lyrics, which are full of ideas and criticisms of the present. Through her voice we hear poisoned sweets, like a sorceress luring us into something forbidden; in the instrumentals we are led into an infinity of musical universes that will always sound fresh, radical and influential. It’s a good case of everything being the same for over thirty years, because that everything being the same also tells us that we can still enter through the doors that Sadier’s melodic voice opens. AS
