The Next Best Thing is Ray Wilson's second studio album. Ray Wilson is known to everybody on account of his participation in famous groups like Genesis and Stiltskin. You'll be wrong if you expect to hear progressive rock from this album!!!
The Next Best Thing is a wonderful album, where only good songs can be found. Twelve new songs ready to touch you! Beautiful ballads, songs with explosive refrains like 'Inside' and 'Pumpkinhead',  but the only thing for sure is that you can hear brilliant tunes and full of emotion songs, like 'Magic Train', 'Sometimes', 'The Actor' (which  actually is an autobiographical song!). This album contains the song Inside which was Ray Wilson's first top hit from the times when he fronted, the above mentioned Scottish group, Stiltskin.
The production is very good, with a small emphasis on the guitars and vocals, without cloaking the rest of the musical instruments. This album's also been produced by himself. Some different instruments like a harmonica and a trumpet make the whole album even more attractive. In my opinion, the reason which makes the songs so different is his gifted voice.
 I feel that if The Next Best Thing is the album that each Metal fan will find it to be great, the fans of Pop/Rock, will find this album brilliant!!