Time has been good to Ari Hest. Seven years ago, he was constantly being compared to John Mayer and Jason Mraz and busting his hump on the college town/small venue circuit. But four years ago, he severed his relationship with Columbia Records and struck out on his own. He started his own online subscription service and used it to release a new song every Monday for a year. Listeners voted for the top 12 tracks, which were re-released in digital format in early 2009. From the material that was left, Hest culled his latest album, Sunset Over Hope Street.

In order to separate himself from his adult-contemporary peers, Hest has honed his voice to a higher level of smoothness and maturity (check out the Springsteen vibe on “One Track Mind”) and branched out on the instrumentation front. A strong drummer-boy beat drives the minor-keyed “A Way Back Home” from start to finish. From the organ on “One Track Mind,” to the Latin-inspired strings on “Swan Song,” Hest doesn’t rely much on an acoustic guitar and love-song clichés.

Lyrically, Hest puts a fresh coat of paint on some old sentiments. Instead of calling himself tongue-tied on “Until Next Time,” he talks about how there are “so many words / tugging at the back of my tongue.” And in an ironic juxtaposition of meaning and musical style, he uses folk-song beats to condemn selfish consumerism in “Business of America.” “Gather up the goods / like a good robot / it isn’t what you are, it’s what you’ve got,” he chides.

The album loses a bit of momentum in the middle. The title track comes off as a bit sing-songy, while “Down the Mountain” gets a little close for comfort to the John Mayer formula, but Hest finds his rhythm again and ends strong.

Conclusion: Easy listening with some hidden gems you won’t find elsewhere in this genre.