Much has been said about Wayne Mason returning to his pop roots after years on the Warratahs highway. Sure it seems logical, this is the man who wrote ‘Nature’ after all. But the great songwriter has the ability to cross genre boundaries, and if it needs to proven again, Mason is a great songwriter.

The first track, (and the single), ‘Walking that View Around’, with its driving acoustic intro gives a good first impression. But one should not read too much into this sword accessibility. There are greater depths to this album.

In ‘Window Calling Day’ Mason is in a Dylanesque mood, but the folk-pop base of the song is lifted with the lilting, angelic backing vocals from Liz Fa’alogo, Gina Mills, Jackie Clarke and Annie Crummer.

Mason could have filled all the songs with the same backing treatment, but instead uses different techniques sparingly, as in the slightly reggae feel in the chorus of ‘Inside of Pain’ or the Celtic hum that rides through ‘Roll My Penny’. Techniques that could have been heavy handed and only hinted at, giving the listener a sense of discovery with each new twist a song might take.

Lyrically Mason manages to create simple songs from complex ideas. Introverted and cryptic perhaps (as in the case of ‘No Questions Asked’) but there is a feeling a sense, rather than a forthright message. Mason works with different narratives and ideas, ‘Third Time This Year’ is Mason blues, and ‘Senorita is Gone’, takes a Warratahs tradition of the great Kiwi road song.

It now may be decades since the fine old days of the Fourmyula and Rockinghorse, but far from being a mere rediscovery of forms, Between Frames is an album that stands alone. Judge it not on history but on content.