Stereolab are one of those bands. Now on their 10th album, they have plowed their particular furrow for many years, constantly tweaking their particular mixture of dreamy french pop, soaring vocal lines, squelching moog synths and xylophone. Collaborations and members have come and gone, forming other bands along the way - many of them to be found on the bands own Duophonic label. With this label at their service to explore their more experimental meanderings, the band have delved back into their Gallic pop roots for their most recent long players 2004's acclaimed Margarine Eclipse and now on Chemical Chords it is seeing the light of day again.Augmented by former guitarist Sean O'Hagan, the band provide more of the tried and tested formula that has seen them not quite crossover to the bigger audience that perhaps, at one time, they deserved. Aided by O'Hagan's soaring brass and swooning strings, the simple melodic themes build into pleasant enough meanderings, taking in various instruments along the way: a harpsichord arpeggio here, a flute part there, a squelchy and insistent beat and melancholic guitars and vocal musings very much in evidence on opener ‘Neon beanbag'. O'Hagan's work is very much in evidence again on the title track, which is full of melancholy cinematic sweeps and the occasional Curtis Mayfield-esque string runs (perhaps it is the combination of the muted horn and the insistent ‘Shaft'-like tip-tap of the hi hat that makes the track feel like it could be lifted from the soundtrack of a French Blaxploitation version of ‘Lost in Translation').The problem, and the fanboys Stereolab tend to attract aren't going to like this, is that there is very little on this record that really stands out from either their own prodigious back catalogue or from the dozen's of imitators that they have spawned over the years. Disconcertingly, on ‘Silver Sands' and ‘Daisy Click Clack' the band sound more like ‘Storytelling' era Belle and Sebastian pretending to be Stereolab, all dials turned to ‘TWEE'. ‘Self Portrait with Electric Brain', meanwhile sees the band give their own take on Phil Spector/ Motown pop sheen, but falling short. Perhaps it is the detached aloof vocals, or the fact that so many have trod this path before and cornered the market: The Concretes being a prime example. It isn't that Chemical Chords is a disappointment, nor indeed is it a bad record. Rather it is too comfortable, and insubstantial. There is little here that will stick in the mind for much longer than an hour after listening, no insisting metronomic whirring or pure pop blasts of the likes of Peng 33 or French Disko. When they do step up a gear, sadly again it falls rather short of the mark, the glam stomp of the promisingly titled ‘Pop molecule (Molecular Pop 1)' starting well, before turning into a rather dissapointing fuzz that peters out completely by the end, as if the band have run out of ideas.The scientific title of 'Chemical Chords', and indeed the aforementioned ‘Pop Molecule (Molecular Pop 1)' perhaps give the best insight into the album: an experiment into the formulas that create pop music, untroubled by feelings which leaves the record feeling strangely sanitised. 64%Links Stereolab [myspace]