Herald rating: ****
(EMI)
Review: Russell Baillie
Five albums down, you almost know what to expect from Greg Johnson: a few songs about the weather (track one, Beautiful Storm, check), a tune or two with a woman's name in the title (Lazy Susan, check), some down-tempo and doleful but pretty piano-led ballads (closing number Love is the Underdog among others, check) and an uncontrollable urge to break out the mandolin in waltz time (Ballgowns and Smalltowns, check).
So far, so good, and yes predictable.
But once you've figured the layout, Sea Breeze Motel still feels like a change of scenery for the Auckland singer-songwriter. A man whose melodic sophistication and considered lyrics on past albums have marked him out as a fully formed, if less than edgy, local musical talent.
Initially, it comes on as loose and a little ungainly, as if Johnson has relaxed his singing to the point of sloppiness.
But soon it gels nicely as an album of stories to tell, tunes to whistle and quite some range. It's not sloppy, as it turns out, it's expressive.
That's whether Johnson is letting his inner guitar pop-rocker come out on Storm, the atmospheric Matinee or The Meter Running (which sounds like one of the best songs Dave Dobbyn never wrote).
There are echoes of Dobbyn, too, on Girl I Knew (with lots of girls Johnson knows singing on the call'n'response outro with echoes of Walk on the Wild Side) while No Angel Her (with its appealingly pokey dusty attic setting, care of producer Ian Morris) and 21st Century Friend (which almost recalls a Costello-Bacharach collaboration in its lilt and orchestration) show there's been no musical dumbing-down despite the urge towards pop toe-tappers elsewhere.
This Sea Breeze Motel offers quite a variety show and the proprietor is in fine voice. Could prove a personal best.
Greg Johnson - <i>Sea Breeze Hotel</i>
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