Sealed 1972 2LP Gatefold Original With "Don't Let It Get You Down" Hype Sticker On The Shrink Wrap. “Given The Critical And Commercial Success Of 1 And Their Rebirth As The "Crusaders," The Band Decided To Follow Up The Previous LP's Double Length With Another One! There Are 13 Tunes Here, All Extrapolating The Band's Previously Held Notions Of Soul-Jazz And Hard Bop As They Emerged Into The New Funky '70s. Textures Were A Little Different This Time Out As Keyboardist Joe Sample Expanded His Palette To Include Not Only The Fender Rhodes But Also His First (Subtle) Forays Into Synthesizer, While Wayne Henderson And Wilton Felder Keep The Crisp Horn Charts Popping Throughout. Stix Hooper Was, At The Time, The Best Soul-Jazz Drummer In The Business With The Possible Exception Of Idris Muhammad. The Newly Acquired, Three-Piece Guitar Choir Led By Larry Carlton Is Everywhere In Evidence Here, But The Real Change Is In The Place Of The Bass In This Mix. Chuck Rainey, Who Lent His Fat Warm Electric Bass Tone To The Previous Outing, Has Been Replaced By Felder's Crisper, More Rhythmic Approach To The Instrument………..The Two Longest Cuts On The Set Are By Sample And Serve As The Hinges Of The Album Coming As They Do In The Middle. "A Message From The Inner City" And "A Search For Soul" Are Both Searching Tunes That Rely On Lean, Mean Backbeats And Breaks And Both Mess About With Dynamic Tension In Unique Ways. While The Former Tune Is Nearly Pastoral In Its Tentative Creation Of The Groove, The Latter Stutters And Stars And Moves Off-Kilter Into A Fluid Whole. And While It's True That No Single Track Stands Out As Much As The Band's Read Of Carole King's "So Far Away" On 1, 2nd Crusade Is Just As Consistent And Enduring As Its Predecessor And May Be More Suited To The Dancefloor. But Make No Mistake: This Is A Jazz Record With Greasy Funk At Its Core, Not A Jazzy Funk Record.” Thom Jurek, AMG.