Partner - "Ambassador To Ecstasy" (You've Changed Records): This young rock duo is shaping up to be one of this year's real success stories. Partner's debut album In Search Of Lost Time came out on Friday, and critics are tripping over themselves lunging for superlatives. Deservedly so, for you can believe the hype this time.

Best friends Josée Caron and Lucy Niles met up at university in Sackville, NB, relocating to Windsor last year. They describe their sound as "post-classic-rock," while a label press release states "Partner is genre-defying and terrifying: part musical act, part teenage diary, and 100% queer."

"Ambassador To Ecstasy" is their brand new single, and it captures their go-for-the-throat approach quite perfectly. It is loud and brash, sporting both great hooks and a searing guitar solo. Sloan's Jay Ferguson loves it, as he recently posted this on FB about the track: "Single of the year? One of them anyhow. A masterclass in writing a hit rock song. The "oohs" and the drum fills in the pre-chorus are diamonds. If Rivers Cuomo isn't jealous, he should be. A #1 rocker." Well said.

Other musical reference points could include Veruca Salt and Hole, but the Partner sound comes across as fresh, not derivative.

Partner played a CD release party at Toronto's Horseshoe Tavern on Friday night, and have upcoming shows in Windsor, Hamilton and at Oktober Fest in Vankleek Hil, ON, After opening some US dates for Pup in October, they play gigs in Quebec and the East Coast.

Mar Sellars at Mar On Music is handling media.