Colin Hay w/ Chris Trapper (Nashville Scene)

Although they weren’t exactly The Easybeats or The Go-Betweens, the Australian New Wave band Men at Work sounds good today — they were a sort of populist alternative to The Police, complete with lyrics that questioned geopolitical realities in the Age of Reagan. Several convolutions of taste later, Men at Work lead singer Colin Hay continues to make what you could call acoustic pop, although Hay’s music seems indebted to such plugged-in bands as The Byrds and The Beatles. Hay recorded last year’s charming full-length release Gathering Mercury at his California home studio, and his quizzical tenor voice floats above beautifully textured guitar parts on such tracks as “Where the Sky Is Blue” and the title song. There’s nothing particularly ambitious about Hay’s current music, but it’s accomplished stuff — he sounds like an average guy who just happened to hit it big, and that’s always an interesting combination.