On track: Judging contents by the chic cover

The renaissance of the English artsong continues and New Zealand baritone Teddy Tahu Rhodes is playing his part with a new ABC album of Ireland, Quilter, Finzi, Britten and Vaughan Williams.

Vagabond is a brave, if foolhardy, title for the disc when Bryn Terfel's 1995 collection of the same repertoire was similarly named. But 10 years have passed and, where the Welsh singer was all stocky defiance on his cover, arms folded, clad in greatcoat, Rhodes' image has been fashioned for more knowing times.

Distinguished Australian photographer Peter Brew-Bevan has caught one of our most photogenic singers in what looks like a prison cell, barefooted despite his Armani casual gear, with shirt open to reveal a peek of Robby Ingham jewellery.

Relax, it's not all Paddington chic. There is some attractive singing here, with intelligent phrasing and suppleness of line. The lighter songs tend to come off best, as when he tackles both Gerald Finzi's and Roger Quilter's settings of O Mistress Mine with just the right lilt and charm.

Pianist Sharolyn Kimmorley, one of Australia's best, is unstintingly sensitive to the singer. How strange, though, that such a noted accompanist and coach should have allowed the baritone to snuff out the rhyme from Quilter's Blow, Blow Thou Winter Wind by mispronouncing the last word of its first line.

Even more irritating is Ireland's The Vagabond in which poet Masefield's "colloquialisms" are infuriatingly inconsistent - "dunno" and "knowed" are honoured, but the singer can't resist gentrifying "jest" to "just".

Vaughan Williams' Songs of Travel is the most substantial offering and those who don't warm to Terfel's sometimes blustering rendition may prefer Rhodes' more pensive portrait of The Vagabond.

However, easy lyricism is not enough when Vaughan Williams introduces a more rapturous tone into proceedings. Let Beauty Awake seems stilted and those uncountable angel stars in The Infinite Shining Heavens could have shimmered with more intensity.

Six songs in, with a surge of energy, Whither Must I Wander? is suddenly compulsive listening, the forthright Bright is the Ring of Words reminds me of one of the baritone's stirring oratorio performances and rapture is finally attained for the closing I have Trod the Upward and the Downward Slope.

* Teddy Tahu Rhodes, Vagabond (ABC 476 7175)