• Audio auteurs create creamy smooth pop.

There’s something to be said for those things that never change. Reliable. Dependable. Comfortable. Stereolab is one of those things, but somehow it’s never exactly bad. It’s a bit like looking forward to spring to brighten things up — watching the trees turn green and the flowers bud doesn’t ever get old. While Stereolab’s amassed a lengthy discography of similar-sounding space pop, there’s still no one quite capable of pulling off the same tricks.

And so comes Chemical Chords, another batch of creamy smooth pop that makes no new waves in the formula, yet stands up as a worthy addition to the canon. The regal tumble of “Vortical Phonotheque” would suit the closing credits of the next dark-hearted hipster comedy, while “Nous Vous Demandons Pardon” calls back to Stereolab’s earliest work — slightly less rich than what we’ve become used to, a little more punctured and beat-driven. It’s far too late to complain that Stereolab isn’t going anywhere — by now that’s obviously part of the point. If they were filmmakers, we’d call them auteurs.