POP MUSIC REVIEW : Bonney’s New ‘Everyman’ Haunts LunaPark Show

On his new album, “Everyman,” Australian singer-songwriter Simon Bonney plugs into a classic tradition, framing an internal quest as a geographical journey. Bonney crisscrosses the American heartland, detouring around cliches in a song cycle whose country-folkish cabaret style generates a haunting atmosphere and spiritual resonance.

Atmosphere and resonance were sorely missing in Bonney’s show at LunaPark on Tuesday. The singer, remembered in esoteric underground circles from his days in the edgy rock band Crime and the City Solution, structured his show ambitiously, interspersing other songs with the “Everyman” material and bringing it full circle with an opening and closing invocation to the “precious rain.”

But the performance itself lacked force and presence. Bonney played acoustic guitar and brought along a second guitarist, a steel guitarist and a bassist, but they played too softly and timidly to capture the sense of movement and transformation at the soul of the journey.

It was like listening to a songwriter’s demo instead of the completed album, and Bonney himself seemed slightly weary. His singing style relies on a subtle sense of detachment, but at LunaPark he seemed merely uninvolved.

Still, his most beautiful songs--especially “Don’t Walk Away From Love” and “Where Trouble Is Easier to Find”--proved indestructibly beautiful.