Complete List Of Stereolab Albums And Songs

Feature Photo: Raph_PH, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Stereolab was formed in 1990 in London, England. Founded by Tim Gane and Lætitia Sadier, the band quickly became recognized for its fusion of lounge pop, krautrock, electronic music, indie rock, and experimental pop, often underscored by politically themed lyrics. Over the years, Stereolab’s sound evolved, incorporating a diverse range of musical styles and instruments, which earned them a dedicated following and extensive critical acclaim.

The band has released eleven studio albums, beginning with Peng! in 1992 and continuing through Instant Holograms on Metal Film in 2025. Their discography also includes numerous compilations, EPs, archival releases, and the long-running Switched On series, including Refried Ectoplasm (Switched On Volume 2), Aluminum Tunes (Switched On Volume 3), Electrically Possessed (Switched On Volume 4), and Pulse of the Early Brain (Switched On Volume 5). While not typically chart-toppers, Stereolab’s albums have received substantial critical success, and tracks like “French Disko” have become enduring favorites. Despite never achieving massive commercial success, their work has been consistently praised for its originality and complexity.

Throughout its active years, the band’s lineup saw several changes, with Gane and Sadier remaining the core members. Other important contributors included Mary Hansen, whose backing vocals and instrumental contributions were integral until her death in 2002. Stereolab announced a hiatus in 2009 and later returned to touring in 2019. After fifteen years without a new studio album, the band released Instant Holograms on Metal Film in 2025 and has remained active with subsequent single releases and performances.

STEREOLAB STUDIO ALBUMS

Peng! (1992)

Released: May 26, 1992

Stereolab’s debut studio album, Peng!, was released in 1992 and marked the beginning of their influential career in the alternative music scene. The album features a blend of indie pop, experimental rock, electronic textures, and avant-pop sounds, setting the tone for the band’s evolving musical style. Recorded in April 1992, the album was produced and mixed by Stereolab with Robbs, with engineering contributions from Roger Askew.

CD Track Listings:

“Super Falling Star” – 3:16
“Orgiastic” – 4:44
“Peng! 33” – 3:03
“K-Stars” – 4:04
“Perversion” – 5:01
“You Little Shits” – 3:25
“The Seeming and the Meaning” – 3:48
“Mellotron” – 2:47
“Enivrez-Vous” – 3:51
“Stomach Worm” – 6:35
“Surrealchemist” – 7:13

Transient Random-Noise Bursts with Announcements (1993)

Released: August 10, 1993

Following their debut, Stereolab released Transient Random-Noise Bursts with Announcements in 1993. The album continued their exploration of complex soundscapes combining pop sensibilities with noisy, experimental layers, distorted guitars, feedback, and organ-driven drones. Recorded at Blackwing Studios in London, it was the first full Stereolab studio album to feature long-serving members Mary Hansen and Andy Ramsay.

CD Track Listings:

“Tone Burst” – 5:34
“Our Trinitone Blast” – 3:47
“Pack Yr Romantic Mind” – 5:06
“I’m Going Out of My Way” – 3:25
“Golden Ball” – 6:52
“Pause” – 5:22
“Jenny Ondioline” – 18:07
“Analogue Rock” – 4:13
“Crest” – 6:04
“Lock-Groove Lullaby” – 3:38

Mars Audiac Quintet (1994)

Released: August 9, 1994

Mars Audiac Quintet, released in 1994, saw Stereolab further refining their sound, blending lounge-pop elements, vintage keyboards, motorik rhythms, and their characteristic experimental style. The album offered increasingly accessible melodies and structured compositions while retaining the band’s political and avant-garde edge.

CD Track Listings:

“Three-Dee Melodie” – 5:02
“Wow and Flutter” – 3:08
“Transona Five” – 5:32
“Des Etoiles Electroniques” – 3:19
“Ping Pong” – 3:02
“Anamorphose” – 7:33
“Three Longers Later” – 3:28
“Nihilist Assault Group” – 6:54
“International Colouring Contest” – 3:47
“The Stars Our Destination” – 2:58
“Transporté Sans Bouger” – 4:20
“L’Enfer Des Formes” – 3:53
“Outer Accelerator” – 5:21
“New Orthophony” – 4:34
“Fiery Yellow” – 4:04

Emperor Tomato Ketchup (1996)

Released: March 18, 1996

Emperor Tomato Ketchup is one of Stereolab’s most acclaimed albums. Released in 1996, the record saw the band incorporating a broader range of electronic, orchestral, jazz, and pop elements into their music, resulting in a more polished and expansive sound. Production and engineering work across the album included Stereolab, Paul Tipler, and John McEntire, while Sean O’Hagan contributed arrangements and instrumentation.

CD Track Listings:

“Metronomic Underground” – 7:54
“Cybele’s Reverie” – 4:40
“Percolator” – 3:47
“Les Yper-Sound” – 4:05
“Spark Plug” – 2:29
“OLV 26” – 5:42
“The Noise of Carpet” – 3:05
“Tomorrow Is Already Here” – 4:56
“Emperor Tomato Ketchup” – 4:37
“Monstre Sacre” – 3:44
“Motoroller Scalatron” – 3:48
“Slow Fast Hazel” – 3:53
“Anonymous Collective” – 4:32

Dots and Loops (1997)

Released: September 22, 1997

Dots and Loops followed in 1997, continuing Stereolab’s experimental innovation while pushing further into jazz, lounge music, electronics, and complex rhythmic arrangements. Recording took place in Chicago and Düsseldorf, with John McEntire and Andi Toma working with the band on production, engineering, and mixing. The album became one of Stereolab’s defining releases.

CD Track Listings:

“Brakhage” – 5:30
“Miss Modular” – 4:29
“The Flower Called Nowhere” – 4:55
“Diagonals” – 5:15
“Prisoner of Mars” – 4:03
“Rainbo Conversation” – 4:46
“Refractions in the Plastic Pulse” – 17:32
“Parsec” – 5:34
“Ticker-tape of the Unconscious” – 4:45
“Contronatura” – 9:03

Cobra and Phases Group Play Voltage in the Milky Night (1999)

Cobra And Phases Group Play Voltage In The Milky Night [Expanded Edition]

Released: September 21, 1999

Cobra and Phases Group Play Voltage in the Milky Night was released in 1999. The album is characterized by its avant-garde style, blending lounge, jazz, electronic music, and experimental pop. It was recorded during 1998 and 1999, principally at studios in London, with production and engineering contributions from Stereolab, John McEntire, Jim O’Rourke, and Fulton Dingley.

CD Track Listings:

“Fuses” – 3:40
“People Do It All the Time” – 3:42
“The Free Design” – 3:47
“Blips, Drips and Strips” – 4:28
“Italian Shoes Continuum” – 4:36
“Infinity Girl” – 3:56
“The Spiracles” – 3:40
“Op Hop Detonation” – 3:32
“Puncture in the Radax Permutation” – 5:48
“Velvet Water” – 4:24
“Blue Milk” – 11:29
“Caleidoscopic Gaze” – 8:09
“Strobo Acceleration” – 3:55
“The Emergency Kisses” – 5:53
“Come and Play in the Milky Night” – 4:38

Sound-Dust (2001)

Released: August 28, 2001

Sound-Dust is Stereolab’s seventh studio album. Released in 2001, the album further evolved the band’s signature sound by incorporating intricate orchestration, jazz, pop, electronic music, and avant-garde influences. It was produced by John McEntire and Jim O’Rourke and recorded largely at Soma Electronic Music Studios in Chicago. Sound-Dust was the final Stereolab studio album to feature Mary Hansen before her death in 2002.

CD Track Listings:

“Black Ants in Sound-Dust” – 1:56
“Spacemoth” – 7:33
“Captain Easychord” – 5:25
“Baby Lulu” – 5:13
“The Black Arts” – 5:11
“Hallucinex” – 3:48
“Double Rocker” – 5:32
“Gus the Mynah Bird” – 6:08
“Naught More Terrific Than Man” – 4:02
“Nothing to Do with Me” – 3:36
“Suggestion Diabolique” – 7:52
“Les Bon Bons Des Raisons” – 6:43

Margerine Eclipse (2004)

Released: January 27, 2004

Margerine Eclipse, Stereolab’s eighth studio album, continued the group’s unique blend of pop and experimental sounds. Recorded at Instant Zero in France, the album features melodic hooks, rhythmic syncopation, layered electronics, and the band’s distinctive arrangements. It was the first Stereolab studio album recorded after the death of Mary Hansen and carries a strong emotional undercurrent connected to her loss.

CD Track Listings:

“Vonal Declosion” – 3:32
“Need to Be” – 4:49
“Sudden Stars” – 4:40
“Cosmic Country Noir” – 4:47
“La Demeure” – 4:36
“Margerine Rock” – 2:55
“The Man with 100 Cells” – 3:47
“Margerine Melodie” – 6:18
“Hillbilly Motobike” – 2:21
“Feel and Triple” – 4:53
“Bop Scotch” – 3:59
“Dear Marge” – 6:54

Chemical Chords (2008)

Released: August 18, 2008

Chemical Chords, Stereolab’s ninth studio album, was released in 2008. The album shifted toward shorter, more tightly structured pop songs while maintaining the band’s layered production and experimental character. Recorded during sessions at Instant Zero in France, the album condensed many of Stereolab’s familiar influences into concise arrangements built around rhythm, keyboards, brass, and vocal harmonies.

CD Track Listings:

“Neon Beanbag” – 3:49
“Three Women” – 3:46
“One Finger Symphony” – 2:06
“Chemical Chords” – 5:13
“The Ecstatic Static” – 4:44
“Valley Hi!” – 2:15
“Silver Sands” – 3:08
“Pop Molecule (Molecular Pop 1)” – 2:15
“Self Portrait with “Electric Brain”” – 3:17
“Nous Vous Demandons Pardon” – 4:52
“Cellulose Sunshine” – 2:36
“Fractal Dream of a Thing” – 3:37
“Daisy Click Clack” – 3:29
“Vortical Phonotheque” – 3:09

Not Music (2010)

Released: November 16, 2010

Not Music is the tenth studio album by Stereolab. Released in 2010 after the band had announced its hiatus, the album drew primarily from material recorded during the same sessions that produced Chemical Chords. The record retains that album’s compact pop approach while incorporating remixes and more experimental material. It became Stereolab’s final studio album for fifteen years.

CD Track Listings:

“Everybody’s Weird Except Me” – 3:34
“Supah Jaianto” – 5:07
“So Is Cardboard Clouds” – 3:49
“Equivalences” – 2:23
“Leleklato Sugar” – 3:04
“Silver Sands” (Emperor Machine Mix) – 10:20
“Two Finger Symphony” – 3:47
“Delugeoisie” – 3:41
“Laserblast” – 3:25
“Sun Demon” – 3:18
“Aelita” – 3:49
“Pop Molecules (Molecular Pop 2)” – 2:03
“Neon Beanbag” (Atlas Sound Mix) – 7:57

Instant Holograms on Metal Film (2025)

Released: May 23, 2025

Instant Holograms on Metal Film is Stereolab’s eleventh studio album and their first new studio record in fifteen years. Released through Duophonic UHF Disks under exclusive license to Warp Records, the album was recorded at Press Play in London and engineered by Cooper Crain, who also mixed the album with the band. The record returned to Stereolab’s familiar combination of analog synthesizers, motorik rhythms, jazz-influenced arrangements, layered vocals, and politically charged songwriting while introducing a new generation of collaborators.

The album reached number twenty-nine on the UK Albums Chart and number four on the Scottish Albums Chart, giving Stereolab a notable commercial return alongside the critical attention surrounding their comeback.