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.”

Receivers is Parts & Labor's most ambitious record-- and it finds them growing to a four-piece with the addition of guitarist Sarah Lipstate-- but its still finds the Jagjaguwar band stubbornly reconstructing punk anthems from the same raw parts.

The first two tracks on Parts & Labor's latest should put to rest any worries about how the departure of drummer Christopher Weingarten might affect the band's collective intensity: There'll be no stronger opening salvo on any album this year than the one-two punch of "Satellites" and "Nowheres Nigh." Wisely, the band…

Parts & Labor may still be stuck with a "noise" tag for some time to come, but whatever the intent of the group, and having once again switched drummers (Joseph Wong does the honors this time out), the band hits an astonishing new high on Receivers.