Somewhere in AOR-land, CHAMPLIN WILLIAMS FRIESTEDT had to seem like an incredible idea. You take former replacement singers/musicians from Pop giants CHICAGO and TOTO (Bill Champlin and Joseph Williams, respectively), add in Swedish guitarist and producer Peter Friestedt, throw a few well-placed guest appearances their way, and you should have instant AOR magic. On "CWF 2," we unfortunately find that is not always necessarily the case.

This is the second release from this trio of exceptional musicians, and the follow up to their 2016 debut. The record does contain an absolute earful of varying stylistic changes, several cool guest spots, and some solid songwriting and musicianship, particularly from Friestedt, who is an incredible guitarist. It should have been a very good effort, considering all these elements, but falls short. The record just left a very vanilla taste in my mouth.

Opening with the rocker "Runaway Dancer," which features a guest vocal from WORK OF ART's Lars Safsund, we start off promisingly enough. There are some great guitar licks throughout this song, and a driving rhythm. The vocal work on this track is superb as well, as is the case with the following cut "10 Miles." This is a well-written ballad featuring a Champlin vocal and some really great piano/keyboard work.

"Love In The World," the album's third song, has every chance in the world to be a monster hit. The song opens with some guitar work somewhat reminiscent of seventies era Eric Clapton; and features a multi-layered vocal complete with a guest appearance from the legendary Michael McDonald. It never adds up to enough to truly save the track, as the musical backdrop we are left with is as bland as white bread.

There are also a couple of ill-advised cover songs here. The Dianne Warren-penned "Look Away" was probably the biggest hit that CHICAGO had with Champlin on vocals (I'm not sure you can classify this as a true cover, but for argument's sake...). It loses something in this setting, however, and comes off sounding like a rather cheesy country artist trying to cover the song. It's a shame, because the original was fantastic. BATON ROUGE and their staple hit "Price Of Love" also takes a nosedive here. The song features Tamara Champlin (who, interestingly enough, has a writing credit on the song) on lead vocals, but it feels lifeless from the opening notes forward.

It just doesn't feel right, regardless of pedigree.