LAETITIA SADIER - Something Shines LP

Sadier seems to have taken a new direction with Something Shines, finding a nice middle ground between her last two albums, yet somehow erring a little too far on the side of safety. Sonically, the album is consistent and an enjoyable journey through an aesthetic, which is largely the way her work has always been structured. Aural themes run throughout, creating a strong current for the listener that simultaneously establishes their sense of home within the album while alienating them from their experience and expectations. A vast and textured sonic landscape could give way to a Casio-era drum machine and hard-hitting piano riff without notice. These moves do well to remind us of how smart a composer Sadier is – it was always too easy to attribute the skew of Stereolab to Tim Gane.