Nobody who writes as many topdrawer songs as Paul Kelly does should be as unknown as he is. Kelly's last album, Gossip, was chock-full of tough, tuneful standouts; there were fifteen songs on the album, seventeen on the CD and twenty-four on the double-disc set that was released in his home country, Australia. Under the Sun isn't as expansive, but it may be even more consistently appealing. This...

Paul Kelly is one of those rare tunesmiths who understand the difference between writing a song and merely grafting words to music. There are, for example, only half a dozen lines laid over the mournful harmonica and funereal reggae beat of "Last Train to Heaven," the leadoff number on Gossip, the Australian singer's U.S. debut. Yet the stark, simple force of Kelly's fatalistic hymn ("This is the...

Paul Kelly is an Australian who makes very American-style folk rock, mixing in bits of country and rockabilly for good measure. The results are unfailingly brisk and catchy, with lyrics that offer both detail and pathos.

On Kelly's third American album (following last year's excellent Under the Sun), there's barely a melody that doesn't sink in its hooks. Acoustic-based songs like "You Can't Take...