The second Spirit album, like the first, is a wide-ranging exploration of the rock universe. Jazz, classical, country, blues and plain old rock all contribute to Spirit's sound. The group has matured since their first album. They now play with a lot more confidence, and are a lot less inclined to be cerebral. With less notes, they say more. And a good year on the road has turned Jay Ferguson, the boyish voice on the first album, into a first-class lead singer.

Ferguson also continues to impress as a songwriter. Three superb examples of his work are grouped together on Side 1, beginning with "Poor Richard." Here a clever bit of social commentary is humorously cloaked in Dylanesque metaphors, to the accompaniment of a murderous bass riff. "Silky Sam" is even better. Ferguson's portrait of a card sharp is full of surprises yet highly memorable. The writing and arrangement come about as close as one can to the Beatles' idiom without copying their style, and this time calls out the group's finest playing as well.

Guitarist Randy California makes a substantially greater contribution to this album than to the first one. He wrote or co-wrote five of the songs, and sings four (including the single, "I Got a Line on You"). His writing tends to be very simple, rooted in folk music; his lyrics especially have a unique innocence that makes a neat foil for Ferguson's clever creations. The most unpretentious of all is quite likely the best: "Darlin' If." California wrote this in 1965 for an electric group, the Red Roosters, which was really the first incarnation of Spirit, containing four of its present five members. The combination of country simplicity and modern sock-rock rhythm represents an evolution remarkably like what happened with the band from Big Pink 3,000 miles away. Randy doesn't quite have full control of his big voice yet, but his guitar break on this track is the best example of understatement I've heard yet.

California has some other epochal guitar breaks on this album as well. The one on "Poor Richard" is the most spectacular demonstration yet of his unique feedback technique. "It Shall Be," a jazz samba, has a very smooth chorus of Wes Montgomery-type octaves. "All The Same," and "Aren't You Glad" show his blues-rock chops to great advantage.

Since improvisation is so much a part of Spirit's sound, it's a bit of a jolt not to have much soloing from the other instruments on this album. But John Locke has a beautiful bit of impressionistic piano on "Drunkard," and Mark Andes' bass is splendidly wicked on "Silky Sam." Ed Cassidy does have one As on the first album, producer Lou Adler has brought in the veteran arranger-conductor Marty Paich to add strings and brass. The strings on "Darlin' If" and the brass on "Aren't You Glad" underscore the group's playing quite pleasantly without getting in the way.

"It Shall Be" doesn't fare as well; the group's sound, including the vocal and the guitar solo, gets swallowed up in Paich's attempt to create a super-lush texture that's hardly needed. And on both this and "Drunkard" we have to bear with flute solos, a la "California Dreamin'," which are very nice but ain't Spirit. Other than that, Adler's production is admirable. A couple of songs Spirit has a unique combination of imagination and taste—the ability to create fresh sounds, plus a keen feeling for proportion. They always manage to be beautiful without being plastic, and to be strong without being ugly. To my ears this album consistently satisfies without satiating, and serves as a great antidote to many of today's excesses. It should go a ways toward re-establishing L.A.'s (Lou Adler's? Los Angeles's?) relevance on the rock scene. (RS 29)

BARRET HANSEN