D'VIRGILIO, MORSE & JENNINGS: SOPHOMORE

If you liked their first album, Troika, you will like this too.

The acoustic feel is still there, as are the wonderful vocal harmonies.

The album consists of four songs by Neal and three each from Nick and Ross. There are also two bonus tracks which are stripped-down versions of two of the Neal Morse songs. If I have one minor criticism it would be that some of the songs written by Neal would have fitted easily on one of his singer-songwriter albums, Songs From November and Life and Times. I would really want this collaboration to take on a different style.

But having said that, this is a great album. The one real rocker, Mama, is in a different league to the two heavier tracks on the previous album. So much more accessible, and it has a brilliant talk box guitar solo in in middle. There is an unusual use of xylophone on Tiny Little Fires too.

I hope this trio go on to make more albums as good as the first two.