Stereolab's "Cobra and Phases..." has been out for a few months now, and it continues to sound better with each and every listen. ETK has been acclaimed by the general public as their best album, I've always felt that the more hardcore set preferred their earlier material. Furthermore, the hardcore set has viewed their post "Mars Audiac Quintet" material as being a significant decline from their earlier Can-NEU!-Faustian tunes. Admittedly, I was of the same opinion, for the blatantly Can-inspired "Metronomic Underground" and the blatantly NEU!-inspired "Noise of Carpet" far outshone most of the experimental pop leanings of the remainder of ETK. I'm finally a believer in their new direction. Whereas "Dots and Loops" tended toward eclecticism to the point of navel-gazing, "Cobra and Phases" combines the anodyne melodies from "Music for the Amorphous Body Study Centre", with the funkiness and tranciness of classic Can and Faust which made us love them in the first place.