In and out of the Light

Album review

His 1992 chamber pop masterpiece Drift, re-released in 2010, soon earned Peter Milton Walsh a place in the songwriters’ hall of fame. In 2015, the Australian resurrected his cult band in an attempt to move forward after the death of his young son in 1999, from which he never recovered. The result of this unexpected comeback was No Song, No Spell, No Madrigal, a sleek album which is as dark as it is beautiful. Five years down the line, the brain behind The Apartments is still working in monochrome. With In and out of the Light, the sophistication and the detail of his compositions have produced a kind of compelling blues pop that sounds like its descended from the Walker Brothers. The recording of this seventh studio album began in Sydney in 2019, where both Walsh and bassist Eliot Fish live, and ended in early 2020 before the coronavirus lockdown hit Australia. Meanwhile, in France (Natasha Penot and Antoine Chaperon) and London (Nick Allum), various instrumental pieces were recorded ready to incorporate into the compositions. The final product is flawless. Walsh is the king of melancholy, but his music is never dull or lifeless. The Brisbane-born artist and his musicians always add a touch of class, be it with a ghostly trumpet on Butterfly Kiss, or a lone piano on We Talked Through Till Dawn. © Marc Zisman/Qobuz