I have listened to the music of Ronnie Martin for nearly 30 years now. And if there’s anything he enjoys more than making brilliant, ’80s-influenced electro-pop on analog synthesizers, it’s making joyous Christmas music inspired by 80s-influenced electro-pop on analog synthesizers. I wrote about his excellent 2023 album, Holiday Fable, for this very website, declaring, “[It] exudes pure holiday joy without relying upon the classics.” The man loves Christmas with true delight.
Evergreen Melodie might be his best Christmas album yet.
Released on Velvet Blue Music, these 8 tracks overflow with twinkling holiday neon. In fact, this record feels like the purest callback to Martin’s Joy Electric moniker than anything he’s created in years. As opposed to the bassier and moodier tunes on his full-lengths, this collection delivers sparkling production with a bouncy aesthetic. Drawing in equal measure from Human League, Gary Numan, Pet Shop Boys, and Wham!, the songs provide major-key cheer perfect for driving around town doing holiday errands.
As opposed to the sparse edge of The White Songbook or Hello Mannequin, Martin conjures up memories of Melody, CHRISTIANsongs, and Dwarf Mountain Alphabet. His clear voice flows between tenor and baritone with ease. It encourages listeners to cast off their understandable gloom and bask in the holiday magic instead. He then develops layers upon layers of synths into a magnificent symphony of electronic glee. Delectable melodies dance with counterpoint phrases while oodles of flickering sonic clouds are crafted from shimmering pads. Underneath it all, peppy drum patterns inspire dancing as steady root note bass lines tootle along merrily.
The album conjures up all the hallmarks of a classic Christmas.
Martin has a pronounced flair for celebrating the iconography and moods of the season. “Merry Merry Christmastime (For My Baby)” opens the record with tender yet upbeat togetherness. “Christmas Nostalgia” and “On Christmas Morning” anchor the middle with the sort of appropriate downtempo melancholy that has you thinking about friends, family, and memories. The title track closes things out by hearkening back to youthful feelings of enjoying crisp winter weather with your friends.
The ultimate success of Evergreen Melodie rests in how Ronnie Martin inculcates feelings of holiday nostalgia without feeling too schmaltzy. His lyrics burst with comfortable ideas, symbols, and imagery of Christmas while avoiding cliches and cloying sentimentality. Then again, when you choose to release a holiday album devoid of any well-known carols, hymns, or modern bops, you risk people ignoring your music because they want the familiar. However, for people prepared to embrace original songs that reframe old concepts for a new generation, they should soon find themselves singing Martin’s music throughout the Christmas season.