I Predict a Graceful Expulsion, the debut album by Cold Specks, was a spectral affair, more mood piece than record. For her second effort, Al Spx has upped the ante into a more florid, yet still sepulchral, goth-soul sound, one that borrows playfully from disparate sources such as Nick Cave and New Orleans jazz (the horns are particularly welcome on album closer A Season of Doubt). Despite a greater focus on musicality, tunes remain hard to come by and Neuroplasticity (named for the brain's ability to form new pathways) remains a victory of mood over songcraft, which is to say, not all that much of a triumph.