Sean Trane Armed with a rather cute variant artwork of his previous solo album on its cover, Two is a fairly different animal, and it features the music genre BJ will become famous for: smooth jazz. Although it also contains elements of rock, soul, funk, the music is generally not very energetic, preferring to concentrate on finesse at the expense of excitement; and sometimes we’re not far away from muzak (also called fuzak) or elevator music. Ok, I’m overdoing it a tad, but it’s to make a point. Among BJ’s collabs on the present album are Gale, Gadd, Laws, Brecker, and a few more usual CTI label suspects, but an extended (almost 20) string section. In many ways, this is a typical mid-70’s Creed Taylor productions.

Opening on his famous Mardi Gras cover (Paul Simon, I believe), it sets the mood of the album, but it’s not one to excite a demanding music fan and the over-sweetish string arrangements makes it like a candy, mushy and sickeningly slick. Following up is the excellent I Feel A Song, an unstoppable soft funk piece with a superb catchy War-like chorus and Patti Austin’s superb vocals on the verses. You may actually know another version of this track, but probably not as good as this one. The Golden Apple is probably the album’s highlight, and maybe the only place really reminiscent of the previous One album, and Resnicoff’s excellent guitar solo brings even more substance, but the string section interventions overwhelm (and therefore under-whelms) the debates.

Another blatant shot at commercialism, the flipside opener Farandole gives a mildly exciting middle section with James’ excellent Rhodes solo (reminiscent of Brian Auger’s style), but the whole thing is a bit kitsch, especially the theme reprise with different instruments in the closing minutes, during which Farandole overstays its welcome. The whole thing is flawlessly played, but it lacks a dose of energy. Ditto for the following mid-tempo Right As Rain, but both tracks are still enjoyable and not quite as kitsch as the closing Dream Journey, which starts catastrophically bad, but again the middle section saves the day, before the strings ruin it again.

Although this album probably sold a lot more than its predecessor (and his Mardi Gras will be one of the most sampled tracks two decades later), it holds IMHO much less merits, partly because the commercial aspects are taking precedence over pure excitement and energy dispelled. It’s kind of album that your wife or girlfriend could appreciate to get comfy and snug, so you might want to consider the album, as it is cheaper than most aphrodisiacs, if you are able to forget on not be too hard-on its kitschness.