Chilly computer-graphics cover art and half their songs sung in French can't disguise the fact that – tweeters in woofers' clothing – Stereolab come on ambient but emerge as pop. Nico-meets-Debbie Harry vocals (often achieving a breezy polyphony) and irresistible Kraftwerk-style keyboard blips propel "Three Dee Melodie" and "International Coloring Contest" into a twee ozone where Burt Bacharach sleeps with the virtuosos of Venus. This is strange and oddly elevating fun. (RS 698/699)

PAUL CORIO