Stereolab Member Dead

Stereolab keyboardist and vocalist Mary Hansen, 36, was killed when her bicycle was struck by a car in London on December 9th. "It is with great regret and deep sadness that I must announce the death of Mary," a terse statement on the band's site reads. "We will all miss her dearly. Stereolab."

Stereolab formed in the early Nineties in London and quickly emerged as one of the most innovative alternative bands of the era, matching lo-fi aesthetics and Marxist politics to the sounds of Sixties pop, lounge, jazz and dance with lyrics sometimes sung in French.

Hansen made her debut with the group on the band's second full-length release and major-label debut, 1993's Transient Random-Noise Bursts With Announcements. Stereolab's most recent release was a compilation of BBC recordings, ABC Music: The Radio 1 Sessions, released in the U.K. The band had been working on its next record and planned to convene in the studio in January.

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Song Stories

“The A Team”

Ed Sheeran | 2011

This debut track from the then-20-year-old British singer-songwriter has a dark story behind it. Sheeran says he culls songwriting inspiration from "viewing other people's situations," which, for the heroine in "The A Team," involves drug addiction and prostitution that began as a teen. Sheeran paints the woman's trials with haunting imagery such as "But lately her face seems/Slowly sinking, wasting/Crumbling like pastries." "I did a gig at a homeless shelter, [and the song] is about one of the women there. It's her story," he said.

More Song Stories entries »

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