“The Free Design” by Stereolab

"The Free Design" comes off Cobra and Phases Group Play Voltage in the Milky Night, the sixth album by English-French band Stereolab, issued in 1999 through Duophonic and Elektra. Tim Gane and Lætitia Sadier wrote it, Sadier sings lead, and Jim O'Rourke co-produced, recorded and mixed it.

O'Rourke worked on the record alongside John McEntire, who had co-produced the band's two previous albums, Emperor Tomato Ketchup and Dots and Loops, and most of it was cut between November 1998 and February 1999 at Wolf Studios in London. That came down to family logistics: Gane and Sadier were raising their infant son, so instead of decamping to Chicago, where McEntire and O'Rourke usually worked, the band stayed put in London.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz.