Christopher CrossBord Gáis Energy Theatre, Dublin★★★★☆Christopher Cross had been sailing into obscurity when, in 2005, a comedian on the internet came up with the concept of “yacht rock”. It was meant as a jokey, dismissive way of describing the sophisticated Los Angeles pop made by Cross and peers such as Michael McDonald and Kenny Loggins in the early 1980s – music redolent of sunsets and freshly pressed linen suits. But as the term went viral, so the headwinds of popular culture switched direction. People decided that yacht rock had been great all along and that the irony could be chucked overboard.All the yacht-rock essentials are present and correct as Cross walks on to the stage of the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre, in Dublin, bang on 8pm on Sunday for a slick, brisk concert that is done and dusted in 90 minutes. He wears a fedora-style hat that makes him look like a private eye who solves crimes through the medium of soft pop. But, at 75, his falsetto, which conjures images of long, open-top drives along the Pacific coastline, remains evocative.His guitar playing similarly retains its lush, cinematic quality. It sweeps you away to a 1980s Neverland as richly retro as an episode of Stranger Things or the opening credits of Miami Vice. To one side a musician parps an electronic wind instrument – yacht rock in physical form – for all it’s worth.Cross tells the audience that he will play more than 100 concerts this year. He is making the most of a second opportunity after a severe case of Covid during the pandemic left him temporarily paralysed. He came out of that experience shaken but with a renewed appreciation for how lucky he is to be still touring the world – a perspective that informs the optimistic soft-rock onslaught that is All Right, his opening song.Things move up a notch with Sailing, his great anthem about heading into the unknown. It is a song that suggests the freedom of the open ocean and waves whipping towards the horizon, though Cross swears it actually isn’t about messing around on boats. Either way, it is received like stardust by a keen Dublin audience. Conspicuous among the punters are many gentlemen of a certain age who have come dressed for the occasion (and for the early-summer heatwave) in Hawaiian shirts and shorts.If the music is as gleaming as a sports car on a Malibu highway, Cross’s banter is notably spikier. Insisting there are still some good Americans out there, the Texan says he hopes that Donald Trump “will choke on his McDonald’s”. Responding to a request from the crowd, he then plays a deep cut, Deputy Dan. The tune is a bittersweet meditation on his adventures in the music industry, where early success was followed by a plunge into anonymity as the yacht rockers were eclipsed by the brash young pop stars of the 1980s.[ Christopher Cross: ‘I certainly didn’t have the money for a yacht. Never had one’Opens in new window ]A topsy-turvy career has given Cross a lasting appreciation for his biggest hits. He expresses amazement at artists who refuse to play the crowd-pleasers. No such fear here as he delivers a gorgeous version of Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do), the Oscar-winning smash from the 1981 blockbuster about a charming dipso played by Dudley Moore.How do you top one of the greatest power ballads of all time? Cross has the answer with Ride Like the Wind, his soft-top opus, which hits like a VHS road movie shrunk down to three and a half barnstorming minutes. Yacht rock may be a term for the internet age, but the lesson of this thrilling night is that great pop music is eternal.