Kill Rock Stars
2003
Monokini
About This Album
By the time of 1997's Monokini -- which was reissued by Kill Rock Stars in 2003 with bonus tracks -- Stereo Total had refined its sound, tightening up from the fuzzy, sprawling beginnings heard on Oh Ah! Indeed, it would have been difficult for them to get any looser without falling apart altogether, but fortunately they didn't sacrifice much spontaneity for smoothness. Songs like the Serge Gainsbourg-meets-Pulp pop of "Supergirl" and the stomping rock of "Lunatique" are as vibrant as anything off of the group's debut, but the more complex songwriting and cleaner sound reflect the progress Stereo Total made since that album. And while the album has its share of fizz-bomb punk like "Aua," "Tu M'As Voulue," and "LA, CA, USA," Monokini's focus on electronics, pop, and ballads makes it a very different beast than Oh Ah! The album's opening track, "Ach Ach Liebling," reveals this trend quickly: its spare production, fuzzy synths, and linear melody make it quite a departure from the noisy bounce of the previous album. "Schön Von Hinten" is another landmark track, boasting a cut-n-paste production that recalls a European version of Pizzicato Five's Shibuya-kei sound (indeed, the song also appears in Japanese, as "Ushilo Sugata Ga Kilei," toward the end of the album).
Track List (try tracks 1,5,6,9 and 17)

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