Christian yacht rock? Seems like an unlikely sub-subgenre of popular music, even in today’s balkanized music industry. However, this is the real deal—and Paul, who’s actually Australian Paul Sammarco operating his own Christian label out of Houma—is more than up to both sides of the deal. A little jazzy, a little folky, very poppy and terribly, terribly smooth, Paul’s second album is his most accomplished ode to late-’70s light rock, but with old-school religious themes. You know, all that passé stuff like love, peace of mind, and brotherhood.

And why not? if Seals and Crofts can do it for Bahá’i and Cat Stevens can do it for Islam, there’s no reason Paul can’t turn up with something that sounds a little like both, with a bit of America, Christopher Cross, Firefall, late-period CSNY and Todd Rundgren thrown in for good measure. Replacing the warm glow of consumer hedonism with the peaceful easy feeling of The Word, however—although the more oblique cuts like “Call Her Mellow” and “Find Your Paradise” could have easily become lite-FM faves in 1979. And as if to prove everyone’s welcome to his mellow, there’s a medley of the 23rd Psalm and “Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep,” replete with faux children’s choir, that is by turns elegiac and worthy of a Billy Joel deep cut, and a note-perfect recreation of Neil Sedaka’s hit “Laughter in the Rain,” which in this context feels like it’s leaving only one set of footsteps.