Stereolab return with “Aerial Troubles“ sounding brisk, assured, and very much alive. The song’s steady groove meets Laurent Askienazy’s AI-assisted, slow-motion video, which gives the release a faintly warped edge rather than polite nostalgia.
What lands first is the confidence in how the song and image are matched. “Aerial Troubles“ has that unmistakable Stereolab pull: poised and just strange enough to keep the ear awake. The video does not try to outdo that. It meets it. Rather than piling on narrative or obvious symbolism, it keeps the frame light and lets the song stay in front.
The video’s strength is its restraint. It has the sweep of something cinematic, but it never settles into the self-important gloss that usually comes with that word. The images are arranged with care, then nudged into motion through slow motion and repetition, so the picture keeps drifting a fraction out of line. Askienazy’s AI-assisted treatment gives the visuals a clean but unsettled surface, more shimmer than spectacle.
That balance suits “Aerial Troubles“ itself, which moves with the certainty of a band that knows how to make precision sound effortless. The arrangement is built around a groove rather than blunt force, and the melodic writing has the kind of composure that sounds simple only because it has been so carefully built. Laetitia Sadier’s vocal sits at the centre with its usual calm command, giving the track its human shape while the rest of the band threads its neat textures around her.
The line that keeps sticking, “the numbing is not working anymore,” adds a dry edge under the glide. It gives the song a little bite, which the video answers by keeping the picture just slightly unsettled rather than prettified.
It also points towards ‘Instant Holograms On Metal Film‘. The song and video meet on exactly the right wavelength.
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