Receivers

Receivers

If Brian Eno had ever really rocked out, he might have sounded like Receivers, the fourth full album from Brooklyn’s Parts & Labor, where there's an otherworldliness and a layer of atmospherics and Dan Friel’s echo-drenched voice has the same warm tones as those fueling Eno’s Here Come the Warm Jets. Hardcore fans might complain the band has lost its unpredictable and thrillingly bombastic edge here, but that’s arguable; yaysayers will claim it’s as if the band (now with guitarist Sarah Lipstate and new drummer Joe Wong) ran all its components through a machine capable of computing a perfect formula for them to follow (equal parts guitar, electronics, tension, noise, melody, soaring vocals, momentum, and brute power, to one-half part pop sensibility). (Okay, we need to add in one part sheer rock ‘n’ roll: “Wedding In a Wasteland” rivals the drama and “bigness” of any arena rock band, with synths howling and drums exploding at the end, and Friel’s oddly beautiful vocals presiding like a spiritual guide.) If the exquisite “Nowheres Nigh” is a little too lightweight for you, dig into the aforementioned tracks or the seven-minute machine that is “Satellites,” the majestic “The Ceasing Now,” or the propulsive “Solemn Show World.”

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