Naomi Cooke

As Martin Johnson (aka The Night Game) prepares to release a new album this spring, he has shared a new single to preview.

His dazzling, nostalgic new track "Beautiful Stranger" arrived Friday, as the latest glimpse of the full record Dog Years, which is out next month. Over the past year, he has been sharing the album in installments, with the full release coming on March 5.

“I struggle telling stories that aren’t my own,” says Johnson. “I hadn’t successfully finished a love song since the emo ship sunk, and was slowly sinking in the L.A. dating quicksand...emotionless, clinging to songs about nostalgia and regret, never about love...most certainly not promising someone they would never be alone. That person just didn’t exist for me. So I let the song sit on a hard drive half-finished for years."

Fast forward to the "11th hour" as the album was nearing completion. "At that time, I had caught a glimmer of hope in my personal life and had met a girl in Nashville who inspired me to pack my bags and put the house on the market. The almost 10-year streak of inability to write a love song had been broken, and Dog Years was finally complete.”

Hear "Beautiful Stranger" below.