Talk:Dots and Loops

Dots and Loops has been listed as one of the Music good articles under the good article criteria. If you can improve it further, please do so. If it no longer meets these criteria, you can reassess it.
Review: July 20, 2025. (Reviewed version).

Reference ideas for Dots and Loops

The following references may be useful when improving this article in the future:

GA?

Pinging Holiday56, since they prominently contributed to the article. There's a chance I might nominate Dots and Loops as a good article at some point, but I wanted to know if you had any other plans with it or if there's other areas for improvement before I do so.웃O O 23:09, 23 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Hi! Firstly... great work on the new additions to the article! Hmm, if there's any one area I could still see being further expanded it'd be the section on recording – perhaps with interviews and commentary from the band members and producers, if those might be available? (As for me, I wouldn't say I have any major plans for expanding or revamping the article, at least for the near future.) But again, a great job overall. Holiday56 (talk) 06:11, 24 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

GA review

This review is transcluded from Talk:Dots and Loops/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Nominator: 100cellsman (talk · contribs) 06:46, 4 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Reviewer: FunkMonk (talk · contribs) 14:54, 7 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Nice to see some Stereolab here, I think for the first time? Will have a closer look soon, preliminary comments below. FunkMonk (talk) 14:54, 7 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you for reviewing. I'm slower on Wikipedia these days so I may or may not resolve all of these issues immediately. Pulse of the Early Brain is actually the first GA Stereolab album. 웃O O 19:47, 8 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Still editing slowly and steadily. How is the article looking so far? 웃O O 05:36, 16 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Cool, could you add a "done" sign off to the points below to make it easier to follow the progress? FunkMonk (talk) 12:29, 16 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The fixes look very good so far. FunkMonk (talk) 02:55, 17 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

There's a good deal of WP:duplinks which can be highlighted with this script:[1]

Done

"The album's title references Norman McLaren's 1940 animated short films Dots and Loops." Single sentence paragraphs are discouraged, but not sure where else you can merge this into.

Done

Any photos of the band from around this time to show?

Done

The two last sections have pretty dense, wall of text-like paragraphs, could each maybe be split in two?

Done

"The Dots and Loops sessions marked the first time Stereolab recorded straight to Digital Audio Tape, a process the band found enjoyable." State for context what their previous procedure was.

Done Redid this entirely. 웃O O 21:46, 16 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Link Andi Toma and Stereolab itself at first mention outside the intro (all terms should be linked both in the intro and article body at first mention in either).

Done

"said Tim Gane" present band-members (role in band) at first mention, not every reader knows them by name.

Done

I wonder if there is more from the liner notes of the expanded edition that could be added? Especially since the text about the music itself is very dominated by reviewer opinions.

Done I feel like I've got a pretty good amount of info from it now. 웃O O 23:03, 18 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Given this is a mainly British band, I'd expect UK WP:Engvar, such as analogue instead of analog, etc.

Partly done Analog may have been the only one. I'm not from the UK, I don't know every spelling variation. 웃O O 21:46, 16 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

No word on the cover art and packaging?

Done

"The album's title references Norman McLaren's 1940 animated short films Dots and Loops." Do we know why?

Done

The Musical style section consists of a lot of quotes from reviewers, but isn't there more to write based on what the band-members themselves have said?

Done Tim Gane is basically the brains behind the album. A lot of what is covered from the expanded edition is from his words attributed or not. 웃O O 23:03, 18 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

"with the album seeing the band's chief lyricist Lætitia Sadier" add vocalist for context.

Done

While you generally do a good job of giving in-text attribution to various quotes and opinions, there are still some flowery ones that come out of nowhere, like "sputter[s] to life like it's being tuned in from outer space on a vintage receiver", and is afterwards anchored by a two-chord keyboard line and "skittering drum and vibraphone loops". I think everything like this should have in-text attribution. Likewise: "an Astrud Gilberto-style dreamy drift of a ditty which sporadically yanks up its swooshing skirt of sumptuous melody to reveal ultra-spartan techno-rhumba undercarriage."

Partly done Gonna see if I can condense any more. 웃O O 21:55, 16 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

"and finds Tim Gane using" Don't think you need to give full name after first mention in article body.

Done

Any views on the extra materials in more recent reviews to add under reception?

Done

Perhaps a given for fans, but any word on the interplay between English and French lyrics on this album? Especially conspicuous in the song sample used here.

Done I wouldn't say it's any different, though Sadier said she probably would have done the entire album in english. 웃O O 21:46, 16 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

This certainly looks good enough for GA now, so I'll promote it. FunkMonk (talk) 02:28, 20 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Did you know nomination

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. You can locate your hook here.No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: rejected, closed by Launchballer talk 12:45, 20 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]

(

Comment or view
Article history

)

... that the album Dots and Loops by Stereolab is thought to be one of the first albums to use a digital audio workstation?

Source: ^[1] "The digital audio workstation was just then establishing itself as a studio necessity, and Pro Tools was quickly becoming the default option."

Reviewed:

Improved to Good Article status by 100cellsman (talk). Number of QPQs required: 0. Nominator has fewer than 5 past nominations.

웃O O 03:25, 20 July 2025 (UTC).[reply]

General eligibility:
New enough:
Long enough:

Policy: Article is sourced, neutral, and free of copyright problems
Adequate sourcing: Neutral: Free of copyright violations, plagiarism, and close paraphrasing:

Hook: Hook has been verified by provided inline citation
Cited: Interesting:

QPQ:
Overall: Converted to GA status by user. QPQ is not required as this is the first nomination of the user. Hook is cited in the intro and in the main body of the article. Good to go. Toadboy123 (talk) 15:11, 21 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

When evaluating for prep, I see the hook doesn't check out. The source says nothing about this or any other album being one of the first to use a DAW, and it doesn't say who might have thought this. I think this nomination needs a new hook (or a new source if indeed the hook is accurate.) @100cellsman and Toadboy123: please review/comment, thanks! Dclemens1971 (talk) 02:37, 5 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I'm currently unable to search for sources using ProQuest with the Wikipedia Library card due to my lack of recent edits, and regular search engines aren't reliable these days. But even so, I think the hook checks out now. When I was doing research I don't recall seeing the album being the very first to use a DAW, but more of the band exploring a DAW. And I failed to see that ProTools was released just years before the album came out. Thank you for the review. 웃O O 03:57, 5 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The source doesn't even say anything about it being "one of the first", it just says it was Gane and McEntire’s first experience with Pro Tools, that DAWs were relatively new and that Pro Tools was at that moment becoming the primary platform -- but it doesn't say anything about anyone thinking this album was one of the first to be made using a DAW. Dclemens1971 (talk) 12:40, 5 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@user0 In this case, try generating a alternate hook that is accurately sourced and cited. - Toadboy123 (talk) 15:13, 7 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The album's serene sound contrasting with its dark lyrics are mentioned by one critic and might be interesting enough for a hook. 웃O O 05:48, 11 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]

It isn't.--Laun chba ller 12:46, 18 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The nomination turned two months old today and it is also the oldest nomination at DYKN. Given that the hook issues remain unresolved, this is now marked for closure per WP:DYKTIMEOUT. Narutolovehinata5 (talk · contributions) 10:41, 20 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]

References

^ Harvey, Eric (23 July 2017). "Stereolab: Dots and Loops". Pitchfork. Archived from the original on 12 January 2021. Retrieved 25 July 2017.

[pitchfork-1] Harvey, Eric (23 July 2017). "Stereolab: Dots and Loops". Pitchfork. Archived from the original on 12 January 2021. Retrieved 25 July 2017.

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