Shooting Spires is the solo debut by BJ Warsaw of art-rock trio Parts & Labor—and, predictably, it sounds like a Parts And Labor album minus the other two guys. But zooming in on Warsaw's naked compositions is illuminating: A consummate bedroom production, the record fizzes and shivers with atmospheric pop that theorizes a lo-fi, catastrophically stoned TV On The Radio. "Alive And Well" is the disc's zenith, a song that's suspended so precisely between Brian Eno, Robert Pollard, and Jeff Mangum that it rises to the level of all three. Warsaw's monotone yelp and hammering static eventually erode some of Shooting Spires' magnificence, but not before it settles indelibly into the gray matter.
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