Martin honors him with songs that are brimming with the joie de vivre of youth and shadowed by the reality of mortality that comes with age. Like his other solo work, “October” is a delight, but it and the rest of The World at Night are a little darker and deeper than his earlier releases, and understandably so: The album is dedicated to Stewart Lupton, his close friend and Jonathan Fire*Eater bandmate who died in 2018. Over elegant strings, woodwinds, and brass that call to mind mid-20th century vocal pop (and a twinkling piano that harks back to the Walkmen), Martin delivers offhandedly brilliant lyrics like “The trees have gone bald/Guess the world is getting older” that uphold his reputation as a master of whimsy. “October” draws back the curtain on The World at Night by tapping into the eternal thrill of the spooky season. In Martin’s world, clever wordplay and irrepressible melodies shouldn’t be relegated to children’s music or the pop of the past, although the striking opening track of his fifth solo album borrows from both. Just as he did on Reminisce Bar & Grill, on The World at Night Walter Martin blurs the borders between his “juvenile” albums and the ones aimed at adults in winning ways.
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December 2022
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