Stereolab share “Melodie Is A Wound”,

Today, Stereolab share “Melodie Is A Wound”, a follow-up single to the album’s announcement earlier in the month, accompanied by an edited version. Following the wordsearch and fill-in-the-blanks puzzles from the last release, “Melodie Is A Wound” arrives alongside a Stereolab-themed cryptic crossword puzzle. The crossword has been compiled by Alan Connor, who works as the crossword editor for The Guardian and sets the cryptic crossword for The Observer, has been question editor for TV shows House Of Games and Only Connect, and is the author of books including 188 Words For Rain.

Stereolab’s forthcoming album, Instant Holograms On Metal Film, will be available on 23rd May 2025, co-released by the band’s own label Duophonic UHF Disks, and Warp Records. Their first new record in fifteen years, it features thirteen songs written by Laetitia Sadier and Tim Gane; performed by Laetitia, Tim, Andy Ramsay, Joe Watson and Xavi Muñoz, who comprise the current touring line-up of the band.

The album also features guest contributions by Cooper Crain and Rob Frye (Bitchin Bajas), Ben LaMar Gay (International Anthem), Ric Elsworth, Holger Zapf (Cavern Of Anti-Matter), Marie Merlet and Molly Hansen Read.

Instant Holograms On Metal Film will be available on double vinyl LP in standard and colour variants, as well as compact disc and digital formats. Pre-order/save it here.

Alan is also a Stereolab fan, and comments:

“Writing this puzzle I felt an unfamiliar sensation, at first in my knees. A recovered memory of Stereolab in a venue which sent the groop's noise bursts - bass? sub-bass? whatever might be under that? - directly inside each of us in the crowd, reshaping us in wonderful ways. No one else has done that, but then no one else has done the alchemic things Stereolab has done. Happily for me, this is a band fond of titles which read just like fragments of cryptic clues. So long, that is, as your brain has been suitably warped by puzzles. Happily, mine has been warped this way - as well as my body by Stereolab. Thank you for the warping, thank you Warp and thank you Stereolab. By the way, I sincerely believe that anyone in public life would do public life better if they listened to Emperor Tomato Ketchup's “Tomorrow Is Already Here” a few times. What was then the future has borne out that one plenty.”

Previously, some fans of the band received a package stamped “unsolicited Stereolab material”. Inside was a 7” single containing “Aerial Troubles” on one side, an instrumental version on the flip, with a cryptic wordsearch insert. At the same time, posters with the band’s name appeared in a number of major cities with the same word grid printed on. Over the past few days, several attempts have been made to solve the wordsearch, with much online speculation about how the words go together, and whether the single did indeed contain new music, or something uncovered from the band’s archives. And in lieu of a description of the music, the band are inviting fans, detractors, and journalists alike to provide their own adjectives on a fill-in-the-blanks sheet.