Colin Hay is best known to U.S. listeners as the frontman of Men at Work, the band who racked up worldwide album sales of well over 10 million during their early-'80s heyday. Bred in Australia, the band scored a No. 1 album in the States with Business as Usual, which spawned top 40 radio evergreens "Who Can It Be Now" and "Down Under. " The follow-up sets, 1983's Cargo and 1985's Two Hearts, enjoyed similar success. Before disbanding several years ago, Men at Work earned a Grammy, a Juno and several Aria Awards. They were inducted into the Australian Music Hall of Fame in 1993.

Hay spent the ‘90s toying with an acting career and issuing several solo efforts. His April 2001 album, Going Somewhere, is his MUSICBLITZ debut; the intimate and acoustic album is a brilliant showcase of Hay’s finesse as a skilled tunesmith. The artist’s latest output moves with dynamic and well-paced energy, and several songs confront the listener with the universal dichotomy of unbridled optimism and insidious self-doubt. For instance, “I’m no ordinary man,” the artist tries to convince the listener – and himself -- on the deceptively cheerful title track. “I’m going somewhere.”

Hay admits he can finally embrace his rockstar past, but he’s firmly rooted in his troubadour present; the track “Beautiful World” celebrates the everyday pleasures of his current existence, while acknowledging a certain emptiness that can’t ever be filled. He likes “swimming in the sea,” “drinking Irish tea,” and “sleeping with Marie,” but he also wonders if “perhaps this is as good as it gets.”

“1982 was a very important year for me, but you have to move on and keep writing new songs just to preserve your own sanity,” the artist notes of his quest to move forward and bring Men At Work fans with him. “So often, people want you to stay the same; if you’ve had a hit song they just want you to play that song and fit you into their life, but it doesn’t work like that. It’s valuable to reclaim your past, but it’s dangerous to do that without the context of the present -- and the present has to be really present. That’s the most important thing. Everything else has to fall in line with that.” Spoken like a man who is definitely Going Somewhere .

-- Larry Flick

Larry Flick is the talent editor at Billboard magazine. He's also a frequent contributor to Vibe, Request and Genre. Currently, he’s writing a book on the daytime television industry for Berkley Books.