Dots and Loops by Stereolab

Dots and Loops, Stereolab's fifth studio album, came out on 22 September 1997 through Duophonic and Elektra, and it's the sound of the London drone merchants loosening their collars. Tim Gane and Lætitia Sadier's band co-produced it with John McEntire in Chicago and Andi Toma in Düsseldorf, and cut it on Pro Tools, their first album made inside a computer.

The krautrock chug takes a back seat. In its place come jazz and electronic textures, a bossa nova sway and a crush on 1960s pop, with Sadier and Mary Hansen's voices twining through songs about consumerism, materialism, the spectacle and how people connect, or fail to. Andy Ramsay keeps the drums supple rather than relentless. "Miss Modular" went out as a single and an EP, the album reached 19 in the UK, and plenty of critics rank it among the band's finest.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.