'2' is the second chapter from Joseph Williams’s Vertigo, and once again the Toto vocalist has put together one hell of a melodic rock album with songs penned once more by Joey Carbone.

With the likes of Fabizio Grossi on bass, Virgil Donati on drums, and Alex Masi on guitars, the album has everything going for it from the start and with Chicago’s Jason Scheff lending his talents on 'Hold Me', the album can't fail to impress.

As the opener ‘In The Blink Of An Eye’ is unleashed you're immediately impressed by the quality of the musicianship on the album, with the vocals of Williams being as pure as ever.

The quality song writing of Carbone that made the first Vertigo album so impressive, are once again highlighted on this album, and with tracks like ‘All For You’ remaining in your head long after you’ve listened to album, all of which are a credit to him.

The album continues with the fantastic ‘Hold Me’, with Jason Scheff lending his considerable to talent to the backing vocals on the track, quickly followed by the majestic ‘Part of Me’ and ‘Holy’, which finds Alex Masi giving it his all.

The only track on the album that was actually penned by Williams is the up-tempo ‘I Wanna Live Forever’.  A song that is pure AOR heaven and one that will have fans of Toto fall in love with this particular one. The pace is taken down a peg or two with the ballad ‘Save It All For Me’, a track that features David Harris on piano, and this combined with Williams’s gentle vocals really make this track something rather special. 

The gentle piece of the last track is broken by the up lifting ‘Picking Up The Pieces’, which is the shortest track on the album, but a track that certainly won't be easily forgotten.  The vocals of Williams are driven and this mixed with the guitars of Masi make for pure listening pleasure.

The quality continues with ‘Together’, a song straight out of the top draw of Carbone, as is the final track ‘There’s A Reason’, with it's rich guitar sound and although it has a very religious feel to the song, it is still a fantastic melodic song that rounds off a truly great album.  I am confident this release will appeal not only to fans of Toto, but also to fans of pure melodic rock.