The Trip
Stereolab’s Laetitia Sadier was always the band’s most intriguing member. Her side project *Monade* was equally alluring. Her voice offers a distanced sensuality that can send a chill into a room. Her 2010 debut solo album is, on the surface, a very pleasant outing, filled with tunes that glide past with sleek, modern keyboards and harmony vocals that land in unexpected places. Richard Swift, Rebecca Gates and April March add their support in a number of crucial spots. A closer listen reveals just how sad and desperate things are underneath the music’s placid surface. The album is dedicated to Laetitia’s younger sister Noelle, whose suicide haunts it. “One Million Year Trip” pines, “I lost someone precious,” and from there Sadier begins her journey into emptiness and philosophical comforts. “Natural Child” has a wonderful flow. “Statues Can Bend” features a solid, unyielding keyboard pumping chords in necessary duty. A brief cover of “Summertime” feels perfect in capturing the feeling of time soon gone.
Stepping out from the 'Lab, Laetitia takes on The Trip of a lifetime, with all attendant highs and lows, and ending all too soon.
After two decades fronting Stereolab and her side project Monade, Laetitia Sadier makes a strong solo debut.
On her own, Laetitia Sadier tends to move away from the monolithic rhythmic chug and banks of fizzy analog synthesizers that define her band, Stereolab. Her work with Monade, or on her new solo bow, The Trip, isn’t unrecognizable: Sadier’s foggy croon and penchant for graceful harmony remain intact, as do the kind of…
It could be said of Laetitia Sadier that her career has been governed by journeys.