ACT II: THE MEANING OF, & ALL THINGS REGARDING MS. LEADING

The continuation of the promised 6-CD concept series from Casey Crescenzo. This time he shares some more of the instrumental duties but it's still mainly his own work. As with Act I, The Dear Hunter have delivered a CD with an array of styles from Alice Cooper through New Orleans jazz to Mars Volta-style rock. This is a full length CD and, whilst perhaps not having quite as many stand out moments as Act I, is still a fine follow up. Crescenzo again shows what a great singer he is with his range and emotive ability. Sadly, the lyrics are printed even smaller than on the first CD so I'm none the wiser as to the full story of the concept, however this doesn't detract from the listening pleasure that this album affords. "Red Hands" is perhaps the best track here, Crescenzo delivers it with a lot of emotion, culminating in the "Oh my God what have I done?" chorus. People will probably notice similarities with Coheed and Cambria in the multi-part concept series but the music is only similar in places and has a lot more variety.

I see no reason why this wouldn't appeal to fans of the afore mentioned Coheed and Cambria and also anyone who likes powerful, emotional progressive music. This will probably get my vote as the best CD of 2007.