Secondsmile, the rock quintet from Bridport, Dorset, recently parted company with their original vocalist and with this, their sophomore full-length, are now attempting to reproduce the immense promise that their debut album, Walk Into The Light And Reach For The Sky, showed. Recorded in New York City with producer Andrew Schneider (Cave In, Daughters, Pelican) at the helm they certainly seem to have picked the right man to work with. With overdubs added in a studio in London they have produced something that shimmers from start to finish.The opening notes of 'Smokestacks' is full of Russian Circles' post-rock menace but brightens into the punchier, staggered rhythms produced by bands like Rival Schools or Cave In as lapping guitars and bristling drums kick in. Ross Smithwick's vocal is part-Robert Smith, part-Walter Schreifels with a pained, climactic vocal that complements the epic, steadily shifting music. 'Long Road Home' is all hammering guitars and rattling hi-hat before the bass grabs the whole thing and catapults it onto another plain. Smithwick finds room in all that lot to grip the groove with his searing high range and shake it until all the notes fall out in our laps.'Good Night Sleep Tight' and 'Halfman' inject an extra layer of emotion into the mix as slower, more melodic offerings that end up as the weaker tracks, bringing to mind Athlete of all bands, by filtering out the guts of what has gone before and replacing it with a dull, repeating simplicity. It proves that Secondsmile are not yet the finished article, showing glimpses of brilliance before flattering to deceive.Yet with ripostes of such soaring class as the intricately structured 'Aspen Fears' or the fuzz and fury of 'Soundtrack To Your Life' they will not be ignored. The band have managed to move forward from their debut, with a vocalist capable of easily switching from subtlety to aggression, and with guitar parts now more integral to the music rather than standing out from it. A second album that definitely deserves a second smile. 86%Links Secondsmile [myspace] [label]