Lewis II
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  and 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 albumHere, 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 favor 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 knockout future classics. From the sweet rare groove of the  opener "Party" to the elegiac epic "Blue Eyes,"Lewis IIresonates with  thoughtful melodies and dreamy determination. Like D'Angelo, another  multi-instrumentalist with one foot in the past, Taylor is  unrepentantly retro: his "Never Be My Woman" will appeal to fans ofVoodoo. But 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 IIis diverse,  melodic, and inspired. Let's hope others will follow Taylor's  example.--Na'solo So Fahed