When the Night, Batts

Believe it or not, this might be my first time reviewing music "for fun," let alone a full album. This is also my first time writing down my thoughts on an artist's music—knowing that at least one other person will read this—in over a decade. My thing is film and television; that's my craft, my field. And as someone who is a Creative themselves, it can actually be quite difficult to write and publish criticism, since you also know how much time and energy and soul goes into making art and entertainment. Unless you're in it for the money, every artist out there is exposing a vulnerability by releasing a piece of work (not product) to the public.

So what does this have to do with St. Lucia and their debut album?

Not a lot, to be honest, but the loose connection to that introductory thought is my little confession: I was already a fan of St. Lucia before listening to this album. Via Spotify and their Algorithm, I stumbled upon this duo—Wikipedia says that St. Lucia is only one man, but they're really a husband-and-wife team with a touring band these days—and added close to a dozen songs from across their then-four albums to a couple playlists of mine. Of the songs on When the Night, I was already extremely familiar with "Closer Than This" and "September" before listening to this full album. I love those songs!

But this is an album review, not any individual song review. If I were reviewing a film or series, I can point out the scenes that I love, but I have to judge the story as a whole too. 

When the Night starts out rather predictably. The songs on the first half of the album all sound like they could be easy-listening radio singles, for better or worse. The songs sound similar enough that I didn't initially realize that I had heard "Elevate" before. I thought it was a different song from a different album!

While I wonder if an exec or agent influenced the song order on this album, I was surprised when I gave this full record a second listen a week later to realize that there is actually a theme (and possibly even a narrative??) woven into When the Night. This album seems to be telling the story of a quick, passionate summer love, which would mean the song order actually has an artistic reason, not just someone saying:

"Hey, let's front load this record with easy and accessible singles."

I noticed this potential intentionality when hearing "All Eyes on You" lead into "Closer Than This." Maybe I'm giving St. Lucia too much credit, but this was the turning point of the album for me. You can track similar shifts from "Call Me Up" into "We Got It Wrong," and the more ambient-sounding "Too Close" that leads into the title track. Even the song titles and lyrics for "Closer Than This" and "Too Close" with the changes in their sounds make me think that there is artistic intent hidden in this otherwise breezy record.

To be clear, I don't dislike any of the songs on this album. All of the songs are accessible and it has a sound that I can vibe with. However, it's the back half of When the Night that I actively enjoy. The album as whole actually makes me think "summertime," but the later songs have more energy and liveliness to them that I can't help but move to.

Or more simply: the beginning is pleasant, the closers are fun.

Maybe I'm being too generous with my below rating, but I think this album mostly accomplishes what it sets out to do. And you should know by the time the title track arrives if you want more from St. Lucia.

STAND OUT TRACKS: "All Eyes on You," "Closer Than This," "We Got It Wrong," "September"

RATING: 4 out of 5