After two albums of sweet simplicity, it's all change for amiable LA songwriter Joshua Radin. Or so it will seem to those who've heard his songs on Grey's Anatomy and American Idol and have taken to heart his small, intimate ruminations about the girl who got away and the ones who didn't. On The Rock and the Tide, he's plugged in and put some pep into his step, so that the comparison that comes to mind is no longer a tidied-up Elliott Smith but the kings of blue-sky pop, Jack Johnson and Jason Mraz. He joins their breezy ranks with songs such as Road to Ride On, which mixes big-screen strings with South African isicathamiya-style backing vocals, and the toasty-warm-but-lyrically-bleak Wanted. Congenial as they are, though, they leave little aftertaste – the most characterful track is the careworn acoustica of Think I'll Go Inside, which hints that he should consider reverting to his original sound.