PART THE SECOND

A good dose of hype surrounded PART THE SECOND when it first came out, most of it justified. It essentially silenced a nine year dormancy period for maudlin of the Well (maestro Toby Driver focusing on Kayo Dot in the interim), and the first album the group put out in a long time happened to be available as a free download. I was initially skeptical of this as the idea of ''Free Download'' might overshadow the actual music as Torman Maxt's 2007 album did. To my delight, PART THE SECOND at least met expectations.

Sadly, the excessive amount of praise for PART THE SECOND is something that I cannot join. I admit the first two tracks a excellent and joys to listen to all the way through, particularly ''Keep a Light Near You, Even When Dying''. That track starts out soft, but gradually builds into a pumping pseudo-metal, bass-led jam. Unfortunately, the album sputters out along the way with track 4 not being too interesting.

A variety of styles get melded here in this album, but the output is one unique, indescribable sound. The musicianship is impeccable and the transitions aren't the smoothest, but aren't the worst. With the album being free, there's not much risk involved, but I downrate this purely because of hype; while PART THE SECOND is great in its own right, don't be too disappointed if this doesn't turn out a masterpiece.