Jeremiah Fraites had just wrapped up a whirlwind decade with The Lumineers when he released his solo debut, Piano Piano, in 2021. His band had absolutely dominated the 2010s and beyond, earning GRAMMY Award nominations and chart-topping hits with the songs Fraites helped create. Piano Piano was something different. Largely written, performed, and recorded by Fraites during the Covid-19 pandemic, the album traded The Lumineers' anthemic sweep for a critically-acclaimed mix of piano-heavy instrumentals, showcasing just how wide the songwriter's reach could be. It expanded his hit streak, too, debuting at Number 1 on Billboard's Classical Crossover Albums Chart.

Fraites explores new territory with Piano Piano 2. The solo album arrives one year after his collaboration with ambient musician Taylor Deupree, Northern (Redux), which featured hypnotic soundscapes and other reimagined performances of Deupree’s beloved record from 2006. Even so, Piano Piano 2 isn’t a companion piece to Fraites’ previous work as much as an outright evolution. If Piano Piano was sparse and minimalist, then Piano Piano 2 is expansive and adventurous, pairing his piano with layers of percussion, acoustic guitar, strings, spoken-word snippets, and bubbling synths. The album also makes room for a symphonic cover of Radiohead's "No Surprises," featuring strings from the Macedonian FAME’S Studio Orchestra and vocals from Gregory Alan Isakov. The result is a cinematic record stacked high with mood and melody, unfolding like the soundtrack to a film that doesn't actually exist.

"I felt like I was making a movie in my head," explains Fraites, a multi-instrumentalist and longtime songwriter who fell in love with Beethoven's piano sonatas as a four year-old and co-founded The Lumineers in 2005. Years later, he began capturing Piano Piano 2's mix of ambiance and atmosphere at various studios across the world, while The Lumineers toured the globe. String arrangements were tracked in Macedonia. Other instruments were recorded in Rio de Janeiro, Boston, Denver, and the Catskill Mountains. Seven different upright pianos were used on the album, with each one lending its own tone and timbre.

"I just wanted to make music that I love," he says. "I would need 10 people to reproduce a song like 'Spirals' in a live setting, and I'm OK with that idea. With Piano Piano, I wanted to make a record that was intimate, where you felt like you were sitting on the piano bench alongside me. It was an exercise in keeping things simple. With Piano Piano 2, I threw all of that out the window. At its core, the album still revolves around the piano…but I wanted to go big."

Big, indeed. Piano Piano 2 opens with "Ghosts," whose minor-key chord progression gives way to layers of bowed cello, swooning violin, a groove that wouldn't be out of place on a hip-hop record, and multiple tempo changes. The rest of Piano Piano 2 follows suit, matching Fraites' compositions with elegant and eclectic arrangements. There's a lovely give-and-take to the rhythm of "Rio," as well as a chorus that's every bit as immediate as Fraites' work with The Lumineers. "Snow Falling" evokes the warmth of a wintry day spent indoors, while "Pluck" blends pizzicato strings with electronic pulses and gorgeous swells of noise. On "No Surprises," Radiohead's immortal ballad is laced with symphonic touches and Isakov's sublime vocals, with the song itself moving between intimate moments and grandly orchestral peaks.

Piano Piano 2 is ambient music for the foreground. It's an album that demands to be heard, felt, and actively experienced, with songs that soothe one moment and stun the next. Listen closely and you won't just hear Fraites' twinkling ivories — you'll also hear footage of his children at play, audio from a phone call with his wife, and even dialogue lifted from a late-1980s home movie. Those clips are tucked into the far corners of Piano Piano 2 like mementos of the man who made the album, and they add a human touch to a record that's often otherworldly. For an artist who's never been afraid to scale new peaks, Piano Piano 2 finds Jeremiah Fraites climbing skyward.