Band:	Devin Townsend
Album:	Guitar Improvisation #2
Style:	Progressive metal
Release date:	July 2020

01. Guitar Improvisation #2

After completing my review of Guitar Improvisation #1, I checked out installment #2 and thought, "Well, these are functionally the same. I probably don't have to review both of them." But then the first three comments on that review were, "Yes, and the second one???", so here I am.

Guitar Improvisation #2 deviates from Guitar Improvisation #1 conceptually as much as it does nominally: almost imperceptibly. Like the first volume of Devin's soundtrack to lounging at home, this album features a single, unbroken, 60-something-minute song generated by (one presumes) a lone guitar filtered into a refreshing puddle of ambient coolant. Even the cover art is the exact same design, recast in a leafy green with red undertones to contrast the previous album's rusty pink-orange.

The one real difference between these two albums is in tone. Guitar Improvisation #2 opens with the same gentle hum of edulcorative light and continues for several minutes as a simple extension of its predecessor's musical theme, but soon a sense of discord infiltrates the calm. The mood turns darker and delves deeper into active emotional language, entering lulls that are menacing rather than relaxing and engaging in a more dynamic crescendo/decrescendo over the course of its hour. I wondered about the previous album, and accepted the premise as far as my second paragraph here, but now I'm convinced that some synthesizer presence must be admitted, because the keys come into slightly sharper focus, a little colder and more direct than the purely atmospheric sounds of #1.

Devin still handles his instrument with a very light touch; #2 is never outright sinister, merely a complication of the light, sweet, ephemeral soundscape of #1. Even as it fades out, notes of tension still linger unresolved in the mist. If the first album was whale song - well, we're not up to shark song yet, but maybe this is undersea ruins or something.

Given how similar the two albums are, I couldn't exactly say that one is worse than the other - it all comes down to what kind of mood you want to envelop you for an hour. Personally, I prefer the first, since I don't need any more anxiety in my life, but maybe that's just my current mood; even though I prefer the first, I would also feel stupid giving this one a different rating, so I've just done the cool thing and omitted it altogether. I doubt this will be the last we hear from Devin before the pandemic blows over (implying that it ever will) or, indeed, before the month is through; he has been quite busy, and not just recording music. As much as new tunes, sometimes you just need to see something nice happen to get through times like these. We're lucky to have Devin.