Lank Haired Girl to Bearded Boy seems destined to become a lost classic. It's a superb shoegazer revelation for the new millennium. Imagine One Dove with a harder, more emotional edge as a starting point. There are a lot of sweet, gentle female vocals, so be prepared to get teary-eyed at times. You needn't worry that things will get too syrupy, as "Love Expression" is probably the band's most lovey-dovey moment. Though it's perhaps the most obvious song on the CD, it is still a subtle statement, ending with repeated refrains of "love is special." The band never tries to be overly catchy, a la Beth Orton, who mines similar themes with less success (chill-out music is best left in the hands of visionaries). Instead of fumbling with catch-phrases and ethereal emptiness, It's Jo and Danny utilize jangly guitars and warm, fuzzy electronics, peaking their heads from many an angle, as the band achieves an eclectic synthesis of rock and dance styles.

This musical synthesis has an "everything and the kitchen sink" feel. Whether it's wind chimes or mariachi trumpets -- or even cheese graters, for that matter -- the band wields its instruments in some unusual ways as they build their wall-of-sound opus. Some harsh samples and My Bloody Valentine-style feedback are included, so feedback fans should have their appetites satisfied. Some songs, such as "Hippy Thinking," sound like caustic, electro-folk mood pieces, while others, such as opener "Solar Plexus", create an English-band-influenced-by-American-Deep-South vibe. Slowdive was going a similar, though certainly more somnambulistic, route on Pygmalion, but where Pygmalion gave a glimpse of a band imploding in the process of creating perfect end-of-the-world ballads, It's Jo and Danny inject rays of warmth and fun into their music while still maintaining the cool, precious air of lost-love and salvation. "Repentant Song" is a sad, beautiful and transfixing ballad that brings a sort of "'til death do us part" feeling with each listen. You're ultimately left thinking that some relationships have gone awry for the vocalist, but that the world is still a good place to live. It's an infectious sort of happy-depression -- a mood you'll find in many of the best songs throughout the history of pop music.

With Lank Haired Girl to Bearded Boy, It's Jo and Danny are providing wake-up calls to past and future shoegazers, telling everyone that the genre isn't dead. But there's no need to set back your clock and worry about zeitgeist awkwardness, as the CD has a timeless charm that is anything but dated. Though it's generally a cop-out to say "mix band A with band B, and you get band C," It's Jo and Danny undeniably sound like a mix of late-era Slowdive in collaboration with One Dove. It's not like they're copying those bands, though; they have the bold melodies and forethought to forge new paths in their fusion of styles. Lank Haired Girl to Bearded Boy, through nine cool, breezy tracks, makes a good case for a return to the ethic of the artsy shoegazer band. If other bands don't follow suit, at least this brittle sort of music still has a powerful practitioner in It's Jo and Danny. Shoegazers of the world unite!