If you heard Retribution Gospel Choir’s first album, the cover art and the title of their follow up, will clue you in on what to expect. The title makes sense since the music is basically a sequel with no radical changes in style or tone. There is a natural and expected progression from the first album. And then there’s the cover. Like the title, it also reinforces the feeling that this is largely a similar album. Both albums feature a photograph of a desolate landscape. However, the changes in the artwork also signal how this album will be different. While Retribution Gospel Choir, featured a grainy black and white photograph of a herd of sheep, 2 features sky-blue slabs of ice stretching off toward a cloudy horizon. Despite being filled with living creatures, the first photograph evokes a greater sense of desolation. Similarly, the first album was more effective in using guitar, bass, and drums to maximum effect. By contrast, the second album is more polished but less effective. Although this album is full of tight and soaring songs, it rarely has the visceral impact of the first album.

Retribution Gospel Choir is the side project of Alan Sparhawk from Low. In fact, Retribution Gospel Choir is basically Low with a different drummer and backup singer. Musically, that description holds up to a point. On the first album, three of the strongest songs, “Breaker,” Destroyer,” and “Take Your Time,” had all made appearances at Low concerts. This opens them to the criticism (from me at least) of being little more than a louder version of Low. But Retribution Gospel Choir is more than that, even if there is no radical difference from Sparhawk’s.first side project, the blues rock ensemble The Black Eyed Snakes. Retribution Gospel Choir allows Sparhawk to perform songs that need more than the quiet nuanced treatment of Low. Where The Black Eyed Snakes was a totally new and distinct musical endeavor, Retribution Gospel Choir is just the further realization of Sparhawk’s songwriting potential. Unfortunately, as a result, it ends up being the least interesting of his three musical projects. Retribution Gospel Choir may be an awesomely loud rock band, but that’s it.

Speaking of loud, 2 opens with a bang, leading off with single “Hide It Away,” which already proves them capable of besting the first album’s two minute masterpiece, “Breaker.” Both songs are perfect as far as melody is concerned. This is something Sparhawk learned to do with Low. Only now, he’s able to push the melody for maximum effect. While “Breaker” is plaintive, “Hide It Away” is almost triumphant. It’s followed by another tight song, “Your Bird,” that nevertheless fails to live up to the preceding song.

Then things start to get weird. “68 Comeback” is a pointless thirty-second song fragment consisting of fast playing and a vaguely bluesy riff. There’s another similarly short instrumental, “Last of the Blue Dream,” that is equally useless. These tracks provide no transition to the other songs and appear to be unfinished musical ideas that were just thrown in there to…I have no fucking clue why they’re on here. “Something’s Going to Break” is a case of too much or too little experimentation. Or maybe both. Except for the last fifteen seconds, the song has essentially no rhythm. Well, that’s not exactly true, but the drums are unrestrained by meter. Think of The Walkmen’s “No Christmas While I’m Talking,” but louder, angrier and with drums. Live, the song is loud and intense. Unfortunately, that visceral quality doesn't carry over to the album version, because, until the final part of the song, the volume is turned down, destroying the assaultive power the song has in their live set. I don’t get it. You might as well include three minutes of silence if you’re going to turn the volume down like that.

The album’s production also detracts from what might otherwise be strong rock songs. “Working Hard” already made an appearance on the last Retribution Gospel Choir tour and can be heard in concert recordings. It is a straightforward two-and-a-half-minute rock song. It hasn’t lost any of its appeal on the album, but the addition of acoustic guitar does little to enhance the track. The same thing happens to “White Wolf,” only this time it’s banjo instead of acoustic guitar. Both are strong, foot-stomping rock songs that could benefit from something more than a three-piece band. Instead, they risk distracting from what are two otherwise high quality songs in order to tack on some unnecessary instrumentation.

Two of the album’s tracks, “Poor Man’s Daughter” and “Electric Guitar,” both receive lengthy workouts in Retribution Gospel Choir’s live sets. They are also predictably the longest tracks on the album. “Poor Man’s Daughter” is given an abbreviated and more direct approach, coming in under six minutes on the album as opposed to the nine minutes it usually occupies in the live set. Here, with the ability to more quickly add guitars, Sparhawk builds up his guitar crescendo faster and more effectively. “Electric Guitars” is longer and more problematic. Despite taking up more time, it never makes it anywhere the way that Sparhawk’s solo in the middle of “Poor Man’s Daughter” does. Instead of a noisy, invigorating solo, the song primarily relies on a repeated guitar riff and echoing line of, “What are you going to do?” Closing out the album, “Bless Us All” ends a promising album on a disappointing note. Still, even when he disappoints, Alan Sparhawk makes a better rock star than most.

Track List:
1. Hide It Away
2. Your Bird
3. '68 Comeback
4. Working Hard
5. Poor Man's Daughter
6. White Wolf
7. The Last of the Blue Dream
8. Something's Gonna Break
9. Electric Guitar
10. Bless Us All