Today's Sounds: Laetitia Sadier

Record:

Laetitia Sadier Silencio (Drag City)

Only Laetitia Sadier could sound this cool and collected singing about fascism, the G20 and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. This is her second solo album since Stereolab broke up in 2009, and since the dissolution of her side-project, Monade. And while her sound remains locked in time — her voice, her melodies, her lounge-pop shuffle, her retro-futurist arrangements — her themes are totally 2012.

Silencio is a full-on protest record. Sadier has a long history of penning lyrics about politics, having hyped socialism as far back as 1993. But the bulk of songs here refer to the current economic crisis and the corrupt governments and selfish ideologies that paved the way for it. Her label’s write-up about this record doesn’t mention her 20-year musical history or the making of the album. It simply says: “It’s 2012 — do you know where your government is tonight? Occupy yourselves — and let’s get busy with the music in our minds.”

The music that emerged from her mind and made its way onto this record is easy on the ears, but it’s the good easy listening, not the synthetic new-agey stuff. Her fondness for French pop and quasi-exotica of the ’60s and ambient and electronic experiments of the ’70s are at the fore, as sci-fi backdrops and noisy segues give way to uptempo organ and piano riffs, and light and jangly guitars and percussion. For every languid soundscape to stare at the sky to, there’s a burst of sunny pop or a groovy breakdown to cut a rug to.

Check out one of the new songs here, and get psyched for Sadier’s appearance at this fall’s Pop Montreal.