After taking some thirty-eight or so weeks to hit the top of the charts, Pete Murray’s debut Feeler hovered around the top 10, with sell out concerts accompanied by tentative forays overseas to test the waters. The pressure on follow-up See the Sun to scale – and better – the heights of its predecessor must be enormous.

So far, so good – after three weeks of being released, See the Sun sits atop the ARIA charts for the third straight week. So he must be doing something right, with his warm tones given a harder edge on tunes like “Class A” and “Trust”, but still at that classic everyman croon on “Fly With You” and “Security”. See the Sun manages to both expand on his sonic palette and keep things sounding radio-ready.

This is none more obvious than on the excellent “George’s Helper”, which is clearly the best song on See the Sun. Sandwiched between the cello-infused first single “Better Days” (which itself has a truly great and catchy chorus) and the acoustic simplicity of “Lost Soul”, “George’s Helper” features a big beast of a bass line, and some spankin’ horns to boot, and stands out.

See the Sun is most certainly a Pete Murray product, but it has far broader brushstrokes than the relatively simplistic Feeler. The warmth of the recording is well handled by American producer Eric Sarafin, who opens up Murray to really present his songs – the voice is up front, but the musicianship of his group the Stonemasons is also vital to See the Sun.