Reviews (page 7 of 7)
Background music, maybe... Not something I'll buy. 2/5
I can see what they're trying to accomplish, but it all sounds quite messy and the repetitiveness is really annoying.
Way too loungey
Hmmm. This was a unique album but I didn't really like it. Glad I listened to it, but not interested in listening again.
Bof
One of the bands I'd heard around the trap, but hadn't heard any of. English/French rock band playing around with loops. Pretty chill vibes. Nice enough, but nothing really grabbing me with this.
Eine Platte, die auch schon zu ihrer Zeit völlig ohne Belang, Bedeutung und außerdem nichts besonderes war.
I don't particularly like the style of this music
Cool name, don’t really know what this is for
I am not sure what this wanted to be. Was it supposed to be trying to be electronic dance music but it failed? Even if it had succeeded it would have been bad. No need to listen or revisit. It was not good. Not really 2 but I will begrudgingly round up.
It's fine. Pretty cool.
There were a couple of tracks that I dug.
Meh
It sort of swings, but i don´t like it. Too much fussing with sounds/samples. "The noise of carpet" being the best song for me.
The first song is still ok, then it descends into a pretty much unlistenable cacophony.
Ce laboratoire stereo a totalement raté son expérience et l'a malencontreusement publiée sous forme d'album. Une énorme gaffe, en somme.
Je viens de démasquer Robert: ce dernier est en effet un agent infiltré sous couverture. Sa mission: décrédibiliser la France et sa musique, en nous proposant des albums tous plus saugrenus les uns que les autres comprennant des paroles en français, afin de faire croire à l'auditeur moyen que ces albums représentent ce qui s'écoute dans l'Héxagone. Vous pourrez retrouver les détails de mon enquête dans le prochain numéro du New York Times.
The abundance of french doesn't make this too approachable alone, but it is really pretty experimental and the vocal are very frequently sounding out of tune/awkward, making it harder to approach. Noise of Carpet was particularly rough. Ultimately, there's not much here to enjoy other than as an intellectual experiment.
So I was driving on the freeway past Ballarat to Melbourne, a mostly boring drive where pretty much any music will improve the driver’s experience. As it turns out, not all albums are suited to that purpose. 1.5 stars, rounded up with the benefit of the doubt as to whether the lyrics add anything when translated.
I went back n forth with this album. Some times I felt it was boring, repetitive techno stuff and then other times I felt it was OK background music while working. I thought there were a few decent songs, but others were slow and boring. Listened 2 X, I really did, but feel like I had the same response and reaction. Won't download anything off this, but I did like The Noise of the Carpet, Motoroller Scalatron and Anonymous Collective. Maybe would have been better if they were just an English rock band, instead of French-English rock band. I could go on a little tirade about the French, but I'll leave it at, Phuck France I'll give a 2. I saw potential in this album. Just never got there for me. 2
I was really enjoying this one until about halfway through, which made me feel kind of sleepy. I don't think this is anything I'd put on because I'm in the mood for it. I was doing stuff when it started and it had a nice, motivating pace but then it seemed to devolve in to drone-y tones and good enough singing. 2.5
2 Holy cow the beat on Metronomic Underground is so infectious I couldn’t stop thinking about it long after I moved on to other songs. But, as is tradition for the French, they quickly laid down and surrendered with a series of blah techno-rock stuff as mediocre as their food. Things picked up a bit around The Noise of Carpet when they shifted to a more guitar-oriented sound before quickly losing me again. The production is incredibly repetitive, and when it works, it’s fun and catchy, and when it doesn’t, it’s annoying as all hell. While I don’t outright have a problem with the style of music production and song composition they went with, I think it gets old quickly, and ends up making the full hour-length release feel tiring. It feels a bit like putting all your eggs in one basket - if the one beat isn’t absolutely stellar, then there’s not much else to save the song, considering the accompanying lyrics are just as minimalist and seemingly intended to be catchy instead of clever or deep. Not that there’s anything wrong with writing lyrics that way and that they should always have some deeper meaning, but in this album’s case it kind of re-emphasizes the one-note nature. Would listen to Metronomic again in a heartbeat and maybe Carpet, but most everything else is probably going to be a skip from me.
Weirdly good I take it back This sucks so much 2
tykkään siitä että vaihtuu kieli kesken albumin pitäisi LISÄÄ OLLA... eikä PASKOILLA KIELILLä... vaikka PUOLA ja TAGALOG vaihtelu.... noh siitä annetaan pojo muuten e oikeen säväyttänyt.. vähän meni ohi kokonaan tämä homma...ollaan jo ysärillä kuitenkin tässä mitään saatanan eksperimentaalista enää ole... ihan perus jammutusta siihen aikaan les yper-sound
Holy background music batman, Emperor Tomato Ketchup passed me by without any real recognition it was there. That's a 2/5 all day long.
Didn't enjoy this, despite the excellent track names. Felt very lightweight, fine for background music but didn't engage me much at all. Quite janky and repetitive in places. 2/5.
Long repetitive songs. Kind of cool but overall I didn’t make it through. Also not in English
I tried to listen to this, but it just disappeared into the background. Deliberately quirky, or feels like it - no bangers and no beauty, won't listen again
Couldn't get into this at all
Interesting
stereo's emperor tomato ketchup is unusual; for its 1996 release, it sounds like it could have been released in 2022. they use electronic to create light pop music, but they leave you with a psychedelia aftertaste. as i've mentioned in other reviews, i don't care too much for repetitiveness within songs. unfortunately, stereolab in their usage of looped sounds didn't exactly create music that was pleasing to my ears. sometimes there was enough happening in the song that it didn't bother me at least. this album title is one of the weirdest i have ever heard of. i get that they used the name of a film from 1971 but i still have questions for *somebody*.
I kind of liked this? Maybe? It was pretty easy to listen to, and I enjoyed many of the indie and experimental pop sounds on this album. However, I will say in some places it seemed a little repetitive and boring. While the music could get repetitive, I felt like there were a lot of musically intriguing things to hear throughout the album. Ultimately this album wasn't a huge winner with me, but I can appreciate that Stereolab was experimenting with this kind of music back in 1996, at least a decade before this sound really took off in the USA.
No just no thank you
So much potential with that name, such a shame
It was ok.
Se deja escuchar y está en la línea de Stereolab así que puede gustarte o no, y como le pasa a mucha gente directamente aburrirte.
Meh niet mijn stijl
Whimsy on steroids. In other (and fairer) words, not for me.
Better than I thought it would be from the first two songs. Still not great.
Very uninteresting.
Like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly, but then quickly back into a caterpillar and dying.
Started promising but got much too repetitive and annoying. For example in the title track.
Had a few good moments here and there, but nothing to make me want to revisit this album again.
A bit repetitive to start out. Luckily that seems to change as the album progresses. Some nice music, but nothing that stands out as "I must listen to this before I die."
Un style pop électro intéressant, mais une voix souvent fausse qui rend l'écoute désagréable par moment. Malgré tout, a sûrement influencé plein d'autres groupes par la suite.
Never totally hit for me, the music is interesting but the singer's voice isn't a great fit
Enough decent grooves to get my head bopping along on a sunny day and enough individuality/invention to justify its place on the list, but probably not enough of either to compel me to come back to this. Pleasant background music: 2.5
Maybe I'm mixing up this list with a classic albums list. This might be 1 to listen to once. Cover art 1/5
Bit odd but not terrible. It would make for OK background music in parts but its probably a bit eccentric for my liking...
I like the idea of Stereolab, I like the sound of Stereolab. But 60 mins of Stereolab is just a bit too much. Better in shorter sharper doses.
Yea, not really my thing.
All right to begin with, but then gets increasingly annoying
Interesting but drawn-out and forgettable.
Interesting bass. The drummer seems bored. Was not ready for whimsical French vocals
Okay, so some of the tracks were the kind of quirky French electronics and I dig, but then other tracks were downright annoying. 2.5 stars. Rounding down because I accidentally saw Paul’s rating lol.
Was interesting for a while but then just got repetitive.
I get that it is supposed to be spacey and ethereal but it just kinda sounds like nothing
Another album well past its expiration date. I guess it was fine at the time, but mostly I just find it boring.
Very odd
I'm not sure what the hell that was, but it certainly was not static, or boring. Noise of Carpet- I enjoyed this one a lot. Freestyle Dumpling was a trip. If I ever had dropped acid, I would have loved this album.
Computer music. Funky but quite boring.
Cute, light, good for passive listening. Didn't blow my mind.
There are aspects of this album I can really get behind, but there are a lot of songs that are just really annoying. Some of them feel really basic. Just not really a fan.
Meh. I have no opinion. Didn't love it. Didn't hate it. Kind of monotonous and repetitive.
I really liked the first track (“Metronomic Underground”) but lost steam on this pretty quickly. Unintelligible lyrics, tracks became kind of monotonous.
Cria uma boa perspectiva de ter um ambiente legal, mas não se sustenta.
Slog, good midsection tho
I don't know, some of this is fun, but it tends to just go into the background for me. And background music, it is pretty good though, so one extra star!
false
Very repetitive within tracks. Some decent variety over the album, sadly it was all completely forgettable.
pretty chill, didn't really like the vocals
Het bleef een beetje teveel hangen op hetzelfde, er was weinig variatie en ik vond haar stem (ondanks dat het in het frans was) niet prettig.
Thought I’d hate this after the first track but it was fine. Sounds of bands like St Etienne and Belle & Sebastian, both of which I’m not a mega fan of. Not sure I’d revisit this album.
Okay
life's too short
Meh
More old somewhat synth stuff. Not engaging enough.
Ihan chilliä musaa vaikkakin ei herättänyt kummempia reaktioita
Ei jäänyt kyllä yhtään mieleen. Ok?
Eh, oddball electro stuff. Way too repetitive and artsy for me. Really started to get old about halfway through. 2/5.
I don’t know this band and this album isn’t to my taste. One star...
Malo
Noisy and French. Terrible
Album art is unfortunate because it reminds me of Emergency & I by Dismemberment Plan, one of the most earachey albums of all time (it will dismember your ears. Even google will tell you that ‘help is available’ if you were to search for Emergency & I.) Album name is unfortunate because it reminds me of Tormato, one of the crappest Yes albums. Another unfortunate fact is that the year is 2026 and Boards Of Canada have released a new modern classic called Inferno that you should definitely check out over this. This is just really higgedly flotsam and ramshackle 90s indie with a French singer that should be sexy but is super stilted and robotic like a Frankenstein Francophone Hatsune Miku. The movie that the album title references seems like a wrong un and the inclusion of this album on the list seems wrong as well.
If this was jam, it would not be mine that’s for sure
Could not get into this. 1.7
Eu esperava muito mais de algo chamado "emperor tomato ketchup". Desapontado.
What am I listening to?? Ist wirklich schwer zu sagen, jedes Lied komplett unterschiedlich und ich Bingo den meisten nicht wirklich begeistert
This sucked. 3 songs in and I turned it off. I’ve come to the conclusion that this project really should be 500 albums to listen to before you die.
The sound of a French primary school teacher warbling over someone blowing a kazoo into a biscuit tin.
Man come on
Tinnitus rock.
Really not my style, so I don't have much to say. It was just meh.
No thank you.
A revelation, but in a bad way. This is electro-pop that very much branches off of the Kraftwerk tree, and as already established, I'm not a huge fan of their oeuvre. The music just chugs along relentlessly in a way with variations that stack like square blocks, every piece fitting so rigidly it feels like this music was punched out by a machine tool. It's like listening to the electro-pop version of a piano roll. Even the singing follows this aspect, flat and unemotional, just sticking the notes where they belong. The affect on me was one of mounting irritation as each song went on, but more than that, some of these songs actually had a physiological impact on me, and it felt like I was getting a sinus headache listening to it. I knew of Stereolab, but hadn't heard anything of them prior to this. I didn't go in expecting to hate this album. I rarely give out one-star ratings, but Emperor Tomato Ketchup definitely earned it.
99. waited for it to be over
This album is a complete waste of time. 1 star or F-.
2026.02.14
Seriously?
didn’t enjoy it
Went very quickly from 'hmm this is ok' to bleep blop water torture.
Don't know why Don't know why Don't know why Don't know why Don't know why Don't know why Don't know why Don't know why Don't know why Don't know why Don't know why Don't know why Don't know why Don't know why Don't know why Don't know why Don't know why Don't know why I kept listening to this repetitive dribble. Don't know why Don't know why Don't know why Don't know why Don't know why Don't know why Don't know why Don't know why Don't know why Don't know why Don't know why Don't know why Don't know why
Not much
Oh boy... another new low... Like tomato ketchup, half full of sugar and not good for you.
Emperor Tomato Ketchup entstand überwiegend im Idful Music Corporation Studio in Chicago, mit zusätzlicher Nachbearbeitung in London. Die britisch-französische Band Stereolab verbindet hier Elemente aus Post-Rock, Indie-Pop und Krautrock zu einem klar strukturierten, oft repetitiven Klangbild. Charakteristisch sind analoge Keyboards, motorische Rhythmen und der distanzierte, zweisprachige Gesang von Lætitia Sadier. Stilprägende und besonders bekannte Stücke des Albums sind „Metronomic Underground“, „Cybele’s Reverie“ und „The Noise of Carpet“. Inhaltlich und musikalisch wirkt das Album bewusst kontrolliert, zugleich aber offen für Experimente, ohne sich in ihnen zu verlieren. Für mich ist es eines der geschlossensten Werke der Band, das ihre Ästhetik präzise zusammenfasst. Bewertung: ein konzentriertes, eigenständiges Album, das auch nach mehreren Durchläufen seine Wirkung behält.
Meh
i don't know if this is just terrible or i just don't like this style of music, but really did not enjoy it
Please give me a good album today because this was shit
Really bad - I cannot comprehend how many of these "1001 albums .. before you die" are not supposed to be on this list. Many are a waste of time.
Took me an embarrassingly long time to realize some of these lyrics were in French. I didn't hate this. Clearly, Stereolab were great at building soundscapes, and every single song starts with a fresh approach that's interesting and enticing. But then, they just sit there for 4 minutes, and do nothing. Every. Time. I'm not the biggest fan of electronica anyway, but especially when it sits in this odd middle ground where it's not supposed to fade into the background, but it's not supposed to be captivating all the way through. I also feel like these melodies are just relentlessly weak, and when you pair all of that with lackluster vocals, what are we even listening to? Fave tracks: - Cybele's Reverie - Spark Plug - The Noise Of Carpet
Some of this is only mildly annoying, average teenage garage band crap, some of it, like the title track is so bad you regret ever turning it in (a repetitive beat for over a minute is enough for me to turn any song off).
Weird ambient but not really ambient music. Do not like
Strange. Electronic/Alternative/ New age who knows!
I didn't listen to Emperor Tomato Ketchup, I endured it! It was so long and repetitive, didn't enjoy any of it. I give myself a 5 for surviving this, and 1 to the album!
Another one of those albums which I think has songs with more than a million plays simply because this 1001 albums list is directing people to it.
Boring, won’t be back to it Motoroller Scalatron was ok
I can appreciate the craftsmanship. The grooves are precise, the textures intricate... but the sing-song, high-pitched vocal style just grates on me. It’s absolutely a vibe… just not mine.
hate this bad I’m sorry
Not for me
Not for me
Yeuk. Merde!
It started off weird, but I was willing to give it a chance because it sounded different. It never improved.
Repetetive, boring, monotone voice with random french. but it seems to be a common theme in "Art" pop.
I struggled so much with this album that it took me days to complete. The number of times I started playing it makes Spotify now think I'm a big fan of it. I am not. Just boring and slightly pretentious.
Je comprends pas la vibe
Niet mijn album. Wordt er een tikkeltje agressief van.
Great voice, but not my style.
First listen
Complete pretentious crap
I was 5 minutes into the first track, reading an article about 1970s 'warm' hatchbacks, when I realised I had lost interest and wasn't listening any more. Track 2 is very '60s French Rock' and not in a good way. Same for 3... When was this recorded? 1996? Really? Track 4... now I am just irritated. Enough. 1/5.
The most annoying and repetitive album I've listened to This got right on my tits 1 ⭐️
This is terrible. Got half way through it. 1 star.
Monotones Gequietsche! Einfach nur furchtbar!
De la soupe. Mais pas le bon potage maison, non la vieille soupe Knorr nulle à chier.
I disliked that a lot..
It started off pretty bad and then they started singing in French ...
Dire. unimaginative electro-pop. Seriously, what is this drivel doing in this list?
really boring
Wasn't bad but not for me. 1/5
I didn’t like it. It was noise to me. But i admire their skill nonetheless
1. metronomic - 1 2. reverie - 1 3. percolator - 1 4. zound - 1 5. plug - 0 6. 26 - 1 7. carpet - 1 8. tomorrouu - 0 9. ketchup - 1 10. monztre - 1.5 11. zcalatron - 1 12. hazel - 1 13. anonymouz - 0
Not my cup of tea at all. Very 90's discoey trance.
Did not like lol. Kinda boring
This was boring and shit
Garbage.
Electronica, without distinction
I was listening to Dre, Pac, Bone and LL Cool J in 1996, not this crap.
Too weird
Not for me
Pass.
the beats are fye but i don’t understand the language
Eh not memorable not sure why it is in the 1000
Man blir ju bara irriterad, så dåligt är det. Lyssnade inte på allt. 1 / 5
This was annoying.
Silly
Maybe a slightly harsh rating but it bounced off me completely.
Not really sure what this was supposed to be but I do know it’s not for me. Pretty weird overall and I don’t speak French but that wouldn’t have made much of a difference. 1.4/10
Ég hlustaði á einhverja deluxe útgáfu og hún var ekki neitt voðalega deluxe. Í staðinn fyrir að tvöfalda lengdina hefði mátt stytta um helming. Alls ekki minn tebolli.
Oddly enough, it's good, but at the same time it sucks so much. Too fucking much french ugh. 1/5 for me, didn't feel anything of this repetitive avangardy/krautrock bullshit.
Just really not my thing. For techno geeks, maybe. It was just kind of boring and repetitive. I think that is what they were looking for but I just couldn’t enjoy listening to it. As an experimental, I can see its value. As an enjoyable listen, not so much
Not my thing. Way too much synth. Best song: Anonymous Collective Worst song: the rest
I really wanted to like the beats but every song was just so repetitive and annoying and I did not enjoy the vocals. I skipped the end of almost every song because it just kept going but nothing new or interesting happened at any point in the song. It was grating.
Just when I thought an album can’t get any worse than OK Computer…
Just couldn't get into a single song here; towards the back half you're just waiting for it to be over
Teils schrammeliges Vocals bei wenig interessantem Rock.
Boooooooo
bad. didn’t like it. maybe the first song was okay. but i will not be coming back to this
I didn't like this at all. Didn't like the vocals, music didn't have enough variation within the songs, each song just went on too long.
Experimental or pretentious? Curious mix of art-rock/pop/funk/jazz. Not really a fan.
Not my jam
I can go without listening to this again
Eclectic mix of sounds but doesn't really work for me
Did not enjoy
This is like Moby has abducted Claudine Longet, gave her acid, and made her sing over this loopy loops of synthetic music. Blimey ,enough already. NEXT!
This was like being kidnapped & tied to an early-80’s game machine, with no way out. I can’t believe I lasted over 40 minutes with this - I just kept expecting something to happen - BUT IT DIDN’T!!! This is where we really need a MINUS option. Horrible & needless.
Electronic stuff. Not my thing.
Absolutely pointless use of time to listen this!
Fr*nch 🤮🤮🤮
This is very french. I'm pretty over this stupid record by track 11. This is such a boring ass record.
This is horrible, immense challenge trying to listen to this
Bruh what is this
p775. 1996. 1.5 stars. Vaguely annoying, repetitious, soulless electro Europop with bland vocals and no tunes. Strays into synth wankage far too often. Well produced, but outstays its welcome big time. Not essential listening in any shape or form.
What even is this
Seguramente fue muy revolucionario y muchas bandas no podrían existir sin que este disco hubiera existido y demás razones para tenerlo aquí, pero di gracias cuando acabó. Seguramente no está cerca de ser malo pero la voz de la vocalista me molestó demasiado y los soniditos discordantes me sacaron de mis casillas. 1.5 estrellas que baja a 1 porque literalmente tiré un volado y perdió.
Awful
Everything about this is wrong. The title is stupid, the album artwork is hideously offensive to the eyes, and the music is absolute crap. I hate this beyond measure.
Ok so first of all.... this album is listed as "rock". I mean... I guess it's "rock" if your version of rock includes dance beats and 80% keyboards. Also: It's in French so again, as I've said before, it's a non-starter for me. I listened to the first song and then about 10 seconds of each additional song to make sure none were in English. Now I'm done. 1/5 stars for the purposes of the list. I'm sure some Frenchman can tell me how good it actually is but I don't care.
Not my thing.
The 4 stages of my listening experience: 1. Really actively dislike this. 2. Only on the third song, and ready to be done. 3. Music shouldn't be a chore to listen to. 4. Ugh!
Always found Stereolab rather sterile sounding and unsurprisingly, this album didn't move me particularly. I sort of like the sounds they use and the voices, but the repetitive krautrock-y bits get annoying. For me, this is background music at best.
Not my thing. Sound experiments and music are not the same thing to me.
Way too ambient for me. Maybe two songs I somewhat enjoyed
Wasn't a fan.
Whacky background music.
Quirky funky opening. First song is typical Stereolab. Groovy. Second song upbeat 60s lounge.
Think this album was released 20 years too late, can understand why they were released from their contract due to poor album sales. In a decade of some pretty outrageous tunes, these fail to get going. But if you’d have put them in the 70’s alongside the likes of pink floyd, we’d probably be wearing emperor tomato ketchup t-shirts and talking about how brave the albums were. Overall probably wouldn’t listen again as music that sounds like I’ve dropped acid in a boulangerie is not my go to 4-5/10
1.5
Nope.
Bull crap
"Cybele's Reverie" Released: 19 February 1996 "Metronomic Underground" Released: 2 December 1996
Too f. French
Not a fan
Nice smooth music