There’s something undeniably disconcerting when the breezy Les Baxterisms of a song like “Auscultation to the Nation” wash up on the rocks of lyrics like “Rating agencies, financial markets and the G20s were not elected by the people.” Longtime fans of Stereolab will recognize the incongruous mix of blissed-out lounge-pop and political sloganeering, and co-founder Laetitia Sadier keeps up that effort on her latest solo album, Silencio (Drag City). Full of lush lite-orchestra textures, breathy vocals à la Francais, Muzak bossa nova and cocktail-party exoticism, the album sounds like Françoise Hardy sporting a Che T-shirt at an Occupy beach party. The arrangements are never as richly layered or the melodies as transcendent as her previous outfit at their best, but Sadier is uniquely adept at this sun-dappled drifting between the weighty and the weightless.
Sun., Sept. 23, 8 p.m., $12, with Orca Team and Mikele Edwards, Johnny Brenda’s, 1201 N. Frankford Ave., 215-739-9684, johnnybrendas.com.
