New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Renowned songwriter and
Walkmen co-founder Walter
Martin will release his new album The World At Night on January 31st via Ile Flottante Music. Produced by multi-instrumentalist Josh Kaufman (The National, Hiss Golden Messenger, The War On Drugs), the album is Martin's most richly orchestrated and grandly cinematic collection to date, as well as his most poignant. Today he shared his new song "First Thing I Remember" which features Jonathan Fire*Eater/Walkmen drummer Matt Barrick.
"'First Thing I Remember' is designed to be listened to really loud in a car," Walter told Brooklyn Vegan who featured the track. "It's not a story song like most of my songs - it's more about the rhythm and the feel and the sonics. Produced by mastermind Josh Kaufman, it was mostly recorded by my old friend, Jonathan Fire*Eater/Walkmen drummer, Matt Barrick at his killer new studio in Philadelphia. I like to think of the song as a drum duel between two of my favorite drummers: Matt Barrick on drum kit vs. Ray Rizzo on congas. Not sure who wins."
With sweeping strings and lavish horns fleshing out his spare, understated vocal delivery, The World At Night calls to mind everything from
Leonard Cohen and
Tom Waits to
Randy Newman and Harry Nilsson. Dedicated to his dear friend and late Jonathan Fire*Eater bandmate Stewart Lupton, it balances soul-baring intimacy with sophisticated arrangements as they walk a delicate tightrope between despair and hope, faith and doubt, security and uncertainty. In addition to Kaufman, the album features an all-star cast of musicians including Sam Kassirer and Zach Hickman (Josh Ritter),
Stuart Bogie (Arcade Fire, The Hold Steady), Rob Moose (Bon Iver, The National), and pianist
Thomas Bartlett (Glen Hansard, Norah Jones). Vogue Magazine raved "The World at Night might just be his masterpiece."
Lupton's memory looms large on this record and his spirit informs the music in ways both explicit and implicit. Album opener "October" sets the tone from the outset, pairing exuberant music and ominous lyrics about fate and mortality. It's followed by the title track "The World At Night (For Stew)" which grapples with the confusion of loss and draws much of its imagery from a collage that Stewart made that now hangs above Walter's writing desk. In a recent interview with Billboard, he stated, "I'm not really a religious person, but I do believe in ghosts and in magic and in plenty of beautiful stuff that I can't see. Writing this album - and especially this song - was an effort to get closer to that stuff. And to Stew."
The World At Night is Walter's fifth solo effort and follows the release of 2018's Reminisce Bar & Grill which he first unveiled during a performance at NPR Music's Tiny Desk. Since then, he has remained busy as an award-winning songwriter and composer. Last month, he co-wrote the song "Walking on a String" with The National's Matt Berninger for Zach Galifianakis' Netflix film Between Two Ferns.
Martin also has a cameo in the film alongside Berninger and Phoebe Bridgers. He wrote the main theme song for the recent children's favorite movie Missing Link as well, and landed both a Clio Award and a Bronze Award at Cannes for his role scoring a series of four music videos for Cheerios designed to help foster conversations with kids about inclusion, diversity, and kindness.
Track List:
01) October
02) The World at Night (for Stew)
03)
Little Summer Fly
04) To The Moon
05) Hey Joe
06) That's All I Need
07) First Thing I Remember
08) Insomnie
09) The Soldier
10) Goodbye Banana Boat
