As Jay-Z annouced his retirement a year and a half ago, Roc-a-Fella was desperately searching for an act to replace him as the marquee talent on the label.  Even with all of their efforts though, they had no one in place or prepared to take the burden upon their shoulders.  So the Young Gunz suprised the hip-hop world last year when their debut Tough Luv was both a critical and commerical success, creating a good amount of anticipation for a follow-up and, along with new superstar Kanye West, created a young nucleus of artists for Roc-a-Fella to build around.  Of course, since the Gunnerz last album dropped, Roc-a-Fella has been through as many changes as possible.  Thankfully, the Young Gunz have the full support of their label behind them this time around with their sophmore effort, Brother From Another.  After they jumped over the rookie wall, however, they were not quite prepared for the sophmore slump.

This album sounds more like a mixtape, a concoction of numerous sounds and songs that is as hit or miss as anything that's been released thus far in 2005.  Sadly, the album starts out on a string of misses.  Swizz Beatz continues to shame Roc-a-Fella artists with bad singles, which he more than provides in the beat for "Set It Off".  Kanye West deposits a few throwaways to the Gunnerz, including the heinously over-produced "Grown Man Pt. 2 ", which sounds like every sound Kanye has put on record in one song.  Even the opener, "The Knock is There", sounds like the Young Gunz reaching for their next "Can't Stop, Won't Stop".  Thankfully, when the boys get melodramatic and super-serious, it becomes fairly evident that melodramtic, super-seriosu hip-hop is their forte.  "Beef" and "It's the Life" allow Young Chris to show off his chops, but it's Neef whose rhymes hold the most emotional weight.  Even the average soul-loops suit the Gunz well when they stop trying to live up to the former part of their name, which is proven on the heartfelt "What We Gotta Do".  And just to prove they're not all somber and soft, Brother... ends on the energetic "We Still Here", where Chris & Neef sound like they've spent the night drinking Red Bulls, impatiently waiting to show everyone how crazy they can really be.

The Young Gunz are more anxious than untalented, more nervous than nobodies.  Every song where they fail miserably could have went right somwhere (unless Swizz Beatz was involved), but they just haven't perfected their rhythm in the studio.  It's okay for Chris & Neef though; their boss is pretty understanding himself.

iPod Worthy: "Beef", "We Still Here", "What We Gotta Do", "It's the Life"

Skip 'Em:  "Set It Off", "Grown Man Pt. 2", "Tonight", "Same Shit, Different Day"

Overall:  2.5 out of Six Shots