The members of the "Liquid Tension Experiment" apparently had so much fun doing their first album, they got back in the studio a year later to create a sequel. The first time around, long-time "Dream Theater" members John Petrucci and Mike Portnoy, and that band's newest member, Jordan Rudess, along with bassist Tony Levin wrote and recorded the self-titled album within the amazing span of one short week.

The album that resulted was full of the instrumental pyrotechnics that may be expected from some of the best instrumentalists in progressive rock today. Unfortunately, once I got over the "wow" factor, there wasn't much there to keep me listening to the album. The songs sounded too unstructured, somehow unfinished. This time around, the guys took an entire two and a half weeks to complete their craft, further interrupted by the arrival of Petrucci's baby daughter, Kiara. The result is a disc which still retains the instrumental flash, but has a more "thought out" feel to it, with more lasting potential. Once again, the liner notes are filled with a blow-by-blow description of how each song came into being. The most interesting information came in regards to the birth event described above -- while Petrucci was off on paternity leave, the three remaining members came up with a number of the songs as a trio. Three of these actually made the final disc. "914," a funky, groove-oriented number driven by Levin's distorted Chapman stick, was left in its original trio form.

Another such track is "Chewbacca" (trying to cash in on the Star Wars hype?). For the final version, Petrucci learned all of Rudess' keyboard lines and doubled them. On "Liquid Dreams," Petrucci took the concept one step further, actually improvising his guitar parts over the already recorded trio parts. The best of these "trio" tracks is Chewbacca. It begins with a slow, effects-laden build-up, under which you can hear a few drums fills trying to break out. After Portnoy "escapes", he establishes a short-lived groove over which Rudess begins a very "classic rock" sounding pattern. That doesn't last long, either, as the track wanders chameleon-like through the rest of its 13 and a half minutes, featuring guitar/keyboard duels, quiet atmospheric sections more often heard on New Age relaxation tapes (or horror movies), mini-drum solos, and a whole host of other eerie sections. Despite this inherent weirdness, it manages to keep up an intriguing groove throughout, and it might well emerge as my favorite song on the disc. It's main competition comes from the longest song on LTE2, the 17 minute "When the Water Breaks," (referring, of course, to Petrucci's renewed parenthood). Opening with a baby's cry, this track ends up as, essentially, a Jordan Rudess showcase. Even though Petrucci and Levin get their time in the spotlight, this is one show stolen by Rudess' fiery keyboard lines.

Other contenders span the range from the heavy "Another Dimension" to the beautiful closing track, "Hourglass." The latter is a duet featuring Rudess and Petrucci on an acoustic guitar. The former is anything but soft, borrowing its chugging bass lines from the "Dream Theater" song, "Burning My Soul." The track is augmented by a totally unexpected Spanish-dance section. At first, it seemed ridiculously out of place; now, I can't imagine the piece without that section in it. The band brings the song to a close with a sinister, extremely heavy ending, the kind of thing I wish they'd indulged in more often on this disc. If you liked the first Liquid Tension Experiment disc, you're going to like the second one as well. Even if the first one fell well below your expectations (as it did mine), this one has a chance of getting your approval, because it's a far more consistent, structured disc than its predecessor. Whether it stands the test of time (the middle-of the-road rating reflects the first LTE discs's utter failure to do so) remains to be seen, but if this is a preview of what the next "Dream Theater" album will be like, fans of that band might be in for a treat.