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May 23, 2025Capturing the inspiring spark in bygone visions of what the future could be is one of Stereolab's greatest strengths, and the brilliant ways they do this on Instant Holograms on Metal Film don't just live up to their legacy -- they push it forward.
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May 22, 2025In an era when so much politically aware music feels either performative or joyless, Stereolab have made something far more valuable: a record of moral seriousness and emotional openness, a reminder that the world we want is already stirring in us.
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May 22, 2025The overwhelming impression is of a band looking forward, seizing opportunities and further boosting their reputation. The second half of the album feels like it has even more to dig into, even greater depth to explore.
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May 19, 2025Instant Holograms... offers a kind of manual on how to resist the negativity and reconnect with society. Alternatively, it's another super-fun Stereolab album full of obscure synth blurps, nifty lounge-pop tunes and gnarly motorik wig-outs. Either way, you won't be disappointed. [Jun 2025, p.24]
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May 27, 2025Instant Holograms On Metal Film is an hour of prime-grade Stereolab.
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May 27, 2025As direct as it is complex, Instant Holograms is an album of pure sonic pleasure.
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May 27, 2025Instant Holograms on Metal Film doesn’t attempt to reinvent Stereolab, and it doesn’t need to. More than three decades on from their debut, they’re still masters at making music that’s both tightly constructed and quietly profound. It clicks, it moves, and it sticks with you.
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May 22, 2025The band’s indefinite hiatus has not been in vain, as they have clearly been spending this time carefully piecing together what feels like their strongest album in years. Instant Holograms on Metal Film also feels particularly emotionally resonant.
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May 22, 2025Instant Holograms on Metal Film offers a very strong example of Stereolab doing what they do.
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May 22, 2025For a group so often criticised for the coldness and the metronomic aloofness of their catalogue, this is a record that sounds warm, tactile, and is evidently the outcome of five musicians spending six years on the road together.
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May 19, 2025This is a record that more frequently speaks and embodies the language of connection, of entwining and union, the clash between hard-edged politics and the beautiful fractals of their music less stringently juxtaposed than in earlier work. [Jul 2025, p.76]
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May 21, 2025These are angry, sad, hopeful songs that offer catharsis and solidarity. This mixture—of pulsating brains and jangling nerves, beating hearts and open minds—may be the closest we get to the essence of Stereolab; and in this, Instant Holograms on Metal Film is a laudable comeback.
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Jun 2, 2025The songs on Instant Holograms are not so much a departure from the band’s previous albums but a deepening, made all the richer by the way that it rewards multiple, sustained listenings.
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The WireMay 19, 2025Sonically, there is not much new ground to be found on Holograms On Metal Film as Stereolab are essentially revisiting the sonic pathways they carved out in the past. Yet the messaging in these songs is as timely as ever. [Jun 2025, p.49]
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Record CollectorMay 19, 2025While the lyrics are typically sharp, reflecting righteously on "Systemic Extortion", the parlous state of truth and more, the music unspools along almost cosily familiar tracks. [Jun 2025, p.105]
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