On Sept. 7, former Boys Like Girls frontman Martin Johnson released his latest musical endeavor.  Johnson’s solo project, The Night Game, boasts a proud “Boston, MA” Twitter location and special thanks to the great Tom Brady in the debut self-titled album-liner notes.
Since the late 2000s, Johnson has taken time to write and produce for various big-name artists (Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, Avril Lavigne, Hunter Hayes, and others), but is now making his voice heard in the most nostalgic way possible: by revisiting his Massachusetts-raised young-adulthood.
Johnson’s early 2000s pop-rock outfit, Boys Like Girls, has a discography spouting youthful recklessness, teen angst, and a devout hope to make a “Great Escape” from the gritty now to a guaranteed idyllic future.  Executed with a bravado and confidence only found in artists young enough to feel self-assured, the album was a success.
Johnson leaves much of this behind in The Night Game’s debut album.  The 11 tracks hold a newfound appreciation and longing for the years that Boys Like Girls had wished away.  33-year-old Johnson seems to have come to a musical conclusion that there was plenty more to romanticize about his time at 18 years old than he may have realized when he last released his own music.
With introspective lyrics lamenting lost first loves, old photographs capturing moments that didn’t seem precious while happening, and memories of summer nights spent on the beach with people who used to mean everything, The Night Game finds the glory, glitz, and glamor of suburban high-school nights.  Paired with polished and atmospheric production, staying true to obvious 1980s influences, the album does more than create a feeling—it sounds like one.
Lead single and album standout, “The Outfield,” has a slow-burn build with a dreamy keyboard reverb until the first chorus soars.  With lyrics ranging from witty (“I know you try so hard to be so hard to get”) to heart-wrenching (“Sometimes I feel like walking up to your front door / Hey, but I’m so far away”), the unrequited lover feels like he’s been left to be forgotten in the outfield.  There’s something keeping the couple in question apart—whether it be conflict or time that has passed—and Johnson sings with a sad urgency hoping to fix previous mistakes.
The most radio-friendly tracks come in the forms of “Bad Girls Don’t Cry” and “Do You Think About Us? (feat. Caroline Polachek).”  The former track is as dance-y as The Night Game gets. There’s a drunk and sexy funk to “Bad Girls Don’t Cry” coupled with the carefree swagger needed to “[find] God in a dive with the lights down” on “blood-red summer neon nights.”  This supercharged and fun beat-heavy track gives The Night Game a lighter side that the still very catchy “Do You Think About Us?” may not have.  This sweeping duet has a nearly breathless Johnson singing of the torment of loving someone who seems to have moved on.  When Polachek steps in to sing just as breathlessly with sounds of sincere heartbreak, listeners realize that both star-crossed lovers still “think of eighteen” and the time they had together.  With layered synths and subtle drum beats that sound more like rhythmic heartbeats than instruments, this track is just as singable as it is enchantingly wistful.
When The Night Game turns darker, Johnson is still sure to keep sight of the light.  “Once In a Lifetime” isn’t the gloom-and-doom angst that can be found on some Boys Like Girls tracks, even if Johnson croons depressing lines like “It’s been weeks since I got up out of bed,” “Help me / I need a voice, I need a reason,” and “The bathroom floor is temple for some.”  This contemplative sadness is hard-hitting, but Johnson gives the desolate scene a shining beacon of hope with equally powerful lines such as, “Got your eyes wide open the moment that you could be saved.” This track is more simply done—it relies on Johnson’s vocal performance and simple drum rudiments and spiritually subtle piano sounds.  It isn’t overtly joyous. Listeners must power through the dismal to find the astoundingly hopeful meaning. It is some of Johnson’s best work.
The Night Game’s album artwork is almost entirely black except for shining overhead lights, reminiscent of flood lights found above high school baseball diamonds and football fields.  It is dark and yet there is a means to shine light on times and activities that are now things of the past. Johnson is a man who has grown nostalgic for a previous time that may not have seemed as golden as it seems now.  Listeners won’t be able to avoid missing things that once were.
The high quality of both the songwriting and sentiment prove that The Night Game will surely be sticking around.