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Fans of old-school shoegazer music will find cause for celebration in "Wicked Branches", the second album from Dayton's Ohio's Lab Partners. The band clearly has worn out the grooves on their Ride records, and it shows in the epic, yet sharply focused, sound they've cultivated since forming back in 1998 (and in their decision to name the eighth track "Ride"). Their musical influences from the late 80's and early 90's are perfectly meshed together with more modern sounds of bands like The Dandy Warhols (Lab Partners use keyboards to play bass parts) and BRMC (see "It's How You Feel" for more evidence) to create a sound that is at once familiar, and still very enticing. What impresses me most is that, even with most of their songs checking in over the five-minute mark, Lab Partners never lose themselves in any musical wankery, even though they probably could pull it off well if they wanted to judging by their instrumental ability to empathetically bounce off each other. Come for the swirling guitars, and stay for "Now" - a song that could be a #1 single in an alternate universe where things are much cooler.
DAVID ADAIR
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