From the sleeve photo shoot, showing sundry So Solid Crew members in a 'graduation' scene taken at Dulwich College, to a final triumvirate of songs that call for an end to gang violence, 'Second Verse' is calculated to put across a single coherent message. So Solid, it screams, have grown up.
Gone is the clattering, high-speed soundtrack over which a succession of emcees and singers spun their braggadocious word web on 2001's debut album, 'They Don't Know'. Replacing it is music rooted firmly in hip hop but unafraid to take the occasional digression into different sonic territory. 'How It Is' is a riveting, entertaining affair, the beats and samples clashing, dissonant, ungainly. 'First Verse' has a chiming synth stab that could be sampled from New Order's 'World In Motion', and the double-speed programmed bass line recalls Big Audio Dynamite's 'Rewind'.
Gone, too, are most of the Crew members who have become stars since the first LP. Lisa Maffia, her Turnmills travails behind her, and most recently spotted helping police with enquiries of a very different kind, represents the sort of transitional tale the record seems to be emblematic of, yet she appears here only once. Romeo crops up twice, as does Asher D, while Harvey, whose misfiring solo career has been all but abandoned as he repositions himself as a TV star, isn't here at all.
So the stage has been cleared for a new raft of vocal personalities to emerge - something that was always part of the grand So Solid plan. The problem, if there is one, is that few of these voices are as distinctive as they perhaps need to be if they are instantly to connect with the listener, and there is no '21 Seconds' providing a key to unlock the LP. The only dominant vocal force is Crew leader Megaman, whose astonishing performance on 'First Verse' is a show-stopper.
As they're getting older, So Solid are becoming less concerned about being unique, and more adept at making better, if less confrontational, records. Part of you misses the clatter of ideas piling up, the voyeuristic thrill of hearing something you couldn't understand. But it was only ever going to work once. 'Second Verse' perhaps represents a step back from musical revolution, but it may also be a decisive move out of a sonic cul-de-sac.
