Wayne Mason also has a mainline to the heart and heartland, whether it be in days long ago with 60's band The Fourmyula, in the Warratahs or on his last solo album Between Frames. His new album Same Boy (Jayrem) finds him again on typically excellent form. Mason explores local, yet universal images and symbols of land, sea and sky. Titles alone tell part of the story: Cold Wind Bay, his of Turn Your Back on the Wind delivered now as lightly realised psychedelic-pop, and Nature, his Fourmyula hit previously resuscitated by the Muttonbirds which Mason her serves up as a back-porch ballad.

There is dark stuff also(the stories of desperate oppresive love on Louise and First in Line) but it is balanced by generous sentiments (This Fire), deeply felt meditations (the emotional emptiness surrounded by natural beauty in Mercy of the Moon) and shimmery Byrds-cum-Petty pop framed narratives (All She Ever Wanted). A lovely album best considered late in the evening, or a warm afternoon, or when the highway unfurls beyond the windshield. Same Boy, but a national treasure.