Jeremy Davenport has lived much of his career in quotation marks, a living homage to another day and style. Onstage, he’s a throwback to the heyday of the great lounge vocalists—sharp-dressed, quick-witted and smooth. His patter is often self-deprecating or off the wall, as if he knows a joke that only the cool cats get, and the songs are a vehicle for his persona. He sings a little, plays a little, and treats everything like it’s no big deal, just something to do until the all-night card game starts at midnight. The fact that the Rat Pack trademarked that persona 45 years ago and everybody knows it makes Davenport seem almost post-modern as he emulates it.

We’ll Dance ‘til Dawn isn’t postmodern, though. He’s not riffing on the past; he’s sharing values with them, and he does so effectively. He surrounds himself with a killer band—David Torkanowsky, Roland Guerin and Troy Davis—and though they get their moments with Torkanowsky brilliant throughout, their role is to swing and frame Davenport. On the surface, he’s not quite up to his support. His voice is not particularly emotional, nor is it distinctive. But he wisely works to his own strengths, sticking to songs that play to his sense of swing. His taste in songs leans toward ones with the sort of clever, intricate lines and rhymes that simulate a dance in their light, rhythmic movement. And to his immense credit, he writes songs that stand comfortably next to one by Rodgers and Hart and Arlen and Mercer. The lead track, “Almost Never,” is a swift, smart, bouncy number that inventively tags the title phrase to the end of lines and verses, providing a simultaneous lyrical and musical hook as it reverses the thought. He follows the song with “When I Take My Sugar to Tea,” taking obvious pleasure in singing lines such as “I’m a rowdy dowdy, that’s me” and “I never take her where the gang goes,” stepping firmly but elegantly on the “G”s in the final phrase.

Davenport’s attention to the musical aspects of his performance evokes that golden era of the lounge singer, and it’s the reason that We’ll Dance ‘til Dawn stays with you. He may be a living reference to another time, but by embracing their musicality as much as their style, his album stands comfortably in their company.