'Fab Four' bore

You have to give Stereolab credit for one thing: they stick to their guns. The "groop," as they're called, are famous for blending '50s and '60s pop with subtle shades of electronica and cleaner-than-clean sonic polish. In Fab Four Suture, Stereolab doesn't break any new ground, but for some people, that is more than enough.\nIf you like adding variety to your days-long shuffled playlist, there's no other band out there quite like Stereolab. As background music, Fab Four Suture (or any of the groop's records) can make any party a little bit groovier. But if you're looking for a record to slip into your car's stereo, this album will probably get boring.\nSome songs on Suture are hoppin' with retro-futurist goodness. It is a joy to hear "Excursions Into 'Oh, a-Oh,'" dive right into a quick, snappy rhythm, both on percussion and the groop's eclectic assortment instruments.\nBeyond that, picking out highlights becomes a challenge. Many of these tracks on their own are good -- this is Stereolab, after all -- but they aren't great. Also, because the groop tends to stay in one groovy vibe, their songs all blend together.\n"Eye of the Volcano" and "Plastic Mile" are classic Stereolab fare, for example, but so is a lot of material on several of the groop's other albums.\nSome tracks are good, but could have been better. "Interlock" would have fit right at home on the soundtrack to "Ocean's 12" if it didn't have that "cleaner-than-clean" sonic polish applied to it.\nLike other bands famous for pioneering their own sound, Stereolab faces a difficult dilemma: Do you stick with the same sound year after year, because nobody else does it quite like you? Or do you abandon that sound to avoid being repetitive?\nFor example, Massive Attack pioneered trip-hop. However, 1998's Mezzanine deviated from the sound established in their earlier work. Are they sellouts for dipping into an edgier, more techno-influenced sound? Or are they pioneers that constantly reinvent themselves?\nTo Stereolab's credit -- and discredit -- Fab Four Suture remains true to the sound that made them famous, even when tracks like "Interlock" would have been better if it sounded dirtier. This is particularly gutsy, considering the Warner Music label dropped the groop after Margerine Eclipse performed poorly at the cash register.\nIf you haven't heard Stereolab before, Fab Four Suture will probably sound as fresh to you as my first groop album did to me. If you have heard them before, it will sound like more of the same -- but that's probably what devoted groopees want.