LIKE a white mac worn in a Parisian spring shower, there's something effortlessly appealing about a new Stereolab album.

Maybe it's in the way their songs seduce your ears with chanson dynamics, pretty Motown beats and delicate brass stabs.

Maybe it's Sean O'Hagan's finely-honed baroque-pop string and brass arrangement; or is it simply that this is one flavour Danger Mouse has not yet cast his own spell on?

Whatever, it got me by the first chorus on opening track Neon Beanbag and continues throughout the album, peaking on delightfully flimsy moments of pop beauty like The Ecstatic Static, the superb title track and Silver Sands. There's a rougher techno edge on Pop Molecule, but the whimsy returns on Daisy Click Clack. Ooh la la!