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Lewis Taylor's second album, Lewis II finds the complex R&B maverick in exceptional form. Although often compared to Marvin Gaye--it's the swoops and honeyed falsetto--Taylor's music gently slips/slides between classic soul, symphonic pop, funk and psychedelic rock. That said, the subject matter of this album has much in common with Gaye's controversial album Here My Dear: not only is every song an impassioned lament to an estranged lover, but Taylor has that uncanny knack of making self-pity sound utterly gorgeous. Taylor has shelved the widescreen soul of his eponymous 1996 debut in favour of a quirky London-centric brand of wah-wah guitars, brass and achingly beautiful funk. Surprisingly for an album that reputedly took three years to make, there are no fillers, just 11 tracks of knock-out future classics. From the sweet rare groove of the opener "Party" to the elegiac epic "Blue Eyes", Lewis II resonates with thoughtful melodies and dreamy determination. Unrepentantly retro, Taylor's "Never Be My Woman" will appeal to fans of D'Angelo's Voodoo, another multi-instrumentalist with one foot in the past; elsewhere, his cover of indie poster boy Jeff Buckley's "Everybody Here Wants You" is a heroic effort to convert the original's understated feel into something grandiose. Lewis II is diverse, melodic and inspired. Let's hope others will follow in his example. --Na'solo So Fahed