It's been a decade since Stereolab's retro-future pop visions first gave us a glimpse into the alternate universe of a Utopia-come-true. The idyllic, Marx-inspired, proto-hippie Tomorrowland never came, but that didn't stop band leaders Tim Gaine and Laetitia Sadier from writing music for it, and with Sound-Dust the group continues to build its impressionistic oeuvre dedicated to such a place. The album was recorded largely in Chicago with post-rock super producers John McEntire and Jim O'Rourke behind the master control, and honorary 'Lab Sean O'Hagan (High Llamas) puts the trill in the keyboards. (Note: Morgane Lhote, who formed part of the group since 1996, left the band before these recordings began.) Skip ahead to the harps, horns and harmonies on the momentum-building "Baby Lulu" lullaby, or the blips, slips, ooh-ahh, pah-pah-pah percolated sing-along "Hallucinex" for the quick on this album's celestial pop, which harkens back to the band's Emperor Tomato Ketchup days. And never letting up with the headiness of its song titles or lyrics (a reflection of a time when more of the brain is used?), Stereolab lets la-la-las be mistaken for "love, love, love"- the thing that makes sound, or dust such as us, come alive.

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