Just when you thought it was no longer safe to go down to the beach, Owen Brady re-invents Chill Out. Just when you thought you couldn\'t bear to be serenaded by yet another Birkenstock balladeer knocking off Jack Johnson or James Blunt, along comes a young singer-songwriter with a genuinely modern slant on a classic genre. Owen Brady evokes the spirit of such sweet Seventies soundmakers as Hall&Oates, the Steve Miller Group, 10cc and Boz Scaggs, writing unashamedly commercial pop songs with great holiday hooks. Brady makes blue-eyed soul for the Noughties.This 26-year-old, Dublin-based former soprano has the brooding good looks of a long-haired Colin Farrell -- which, irritatingly, will probably make him extremely popular with girls - although his music displays an unusual and appealing vulnerability. His lyrics are smart, memorable, and never feelforced. And you can\'t get his songs out of your head. Brady occupies an open-topped world where late-Seventies Isley Brothers meets Sade meets Alessi. With knobs on. Brady sounds like the High Llamas -- if they wanted to be successful, that is. He also sounds like Jack Johnson, but in a much lesscloying way. He also sounds rather like a European Michael Franks, with Franks\' telltale laconic vocal delivery, lyrical landscapes and subtle beats. And for those who remember them, there are even echoes of Eg&Alice, the early Nineties duo who made the sort of music you want to listen to as the sun goes down (or, if you\'re that way inclined, as the sun goes up). 2008, Be, Brady, Dublin, Happy, Irish, Owen, Prepare, Singer, Songwriter, Summer, To