Dots and Loops

The ninth album from prolific Londoners Stereolab, Dots and Loops, finds them at the top of their game, successfully brokering the seeming shotgun marriage of easy listening and acute intellect. Cynics may dismiss the band's mix of smoothed-out sambas, limpid lullabies, and dreamy drones as highbrow Muzak, but you don't need a degree in musicology or semiotics to fall under the spell of these seductive melodies. A