A second record can be quite a test. A band must please fans, target new listeners and write music that shows maturity and experimentation. Gene's second studio album, the flawlessly produced Drawn To The Deep End, passes these tests with ease. Drawn offers a Gene more confident, more elegant and even more joyful than on its debut LP Olympian.

The signs are everywhere: singer Martin Rossiter has honed his smooth voice into a heart-melting croon and guitarist Steve Mason has evolved into a veritable treasure chest of gorgeous hooks, crafty transitions and blues-influenced riffs. Bassist Kevin Miles and drummer Matt James play their instruments like we didn't know they could.

Even though Gene's aura continues to hover into near-Smiths-ness, listeners should be able to detect a plethora of alternate influences - including Tears For Fears, the Rolling Stones and even Elvis Presley - pervading the tunes on Drawn.

From the first downbeat, slow-building strums of opener "New Amusements," Gene flaunts the kind of real emotion so appealing in the work of fellow countrymen the Smiths and Morrissey. The seven-minute epic, instantly as creative as any song the band has previously written, moves through four distinct melodies.

Rossiter first lofts breathy commands at his subject, then when his bandmates roar into a peppy whirl, switches to vintage, Bona Drag-era Morrissey to plead he's trying to feel things that no one has ever felt. Next, we're treated to Mason's spacy guitar warblings before the song stomps off into a Zeppelin-like outtro.

Savvy frontman Rossiter sings almost exclusively about love, whether it be his lack of it, his surplus of it or of the raw cries that can only be emitted from a broken heart. His polished delivery affords his lyrics the extra boost the band needed to penetrate our memories. Thus, the sincerity of the slower, ballad-like songs, such as the beautiful "Why I Was Born" and the impassioned "Speak To Me Someone," is the real treat of the album. In the latter, we're back at the prom, with our sweetheart's head resting gently on our shoulder.

But for all its gentle balladeering, Gene isn't afraid to rock. "Voice Of Your Father," another multilayered offering, takes no prisoners with rough-house riffing and venomously delivered lyrics. First single "Fighting Fit" shows off a macho chord progression that follows a pretty piano melody carried throughout the song. At once urgent and playful, Rossiter reminds he will "give as good as I get."

Of the songs that fall in between quiet and raucous extremes, "We Could Be Kings" stands out as the best. Previewed extensively during Gene's 1995 U.S. tour, the song has benefited greatly from Rossiter's backup vocal harmonies and a beefier, throbbing finish. Here, we find the singer at his most vulnerable, asking, "will you hold me like a child / will you catch me when I fall / can you hear me when I call / can you love me?"

Sound-alikes from Olympian aren't too frequent here, although Mason's guitar part on the mellow "Save Me, I'm Yours" sounds a little too much like Olympian's "For The Dead." Despite writing most of Gene's songs in the same general key, Mason has, to his credit, found a way to make each one distinct. On this jazzy number, he borrows a bit from Paul Weller here and from Keith Richards there, fashioning a smooth trail for Rossiter to navigate.

While Gene's style might seem derivative, the strength of Drawn is undeniable, as is the band's vastly improved song writing. And if nothing else, Gene fills a void in current music, speaking to those of us who still believe in the mystery and intrigue of love and rock and roll. While we follow our hearts, sometimes blindly and painfully, it's nice to know Gene will catch us if we fall.