World Party's music is hard to categorise, being a tuneful but sophisticated pop and rock combination, with elements of folk, funk, R n B and soul thrown in. Wallinger sings and plays most of the instruments himself, using multitracking to create a polished studio sound. Lyrically, many of the songs feature thoughtful and occasionally political sentiments. The first album was Private Revolution, released in 1987, which yielded a moderate hit, Ship of Fools, but it wasn't until the follow up, Goodbye Jumbo (1990) that World Party came to more widespread notice. This album yielded two significant hits - Message in the Box and Way Down Now. Goodbye Jumbo was voted album of the year by Q Magazine. The third album, Bang! (1993) was an even bigger success, reaching number 2 in the UK album chart, with the track Is It Like Today? also being a successful single. Egyptology (1996) was a fourth album, but did not do so well commercially. The album Dumbing Up was released in 2000. World Party occasionally tours, with Wallinger and a band formed using session musicians.
Wallinger's musical career began in the 1970s with a couple of unsuccessful bands, after which he became musical director of The Rocky Horror Show. He joined The Waterboys from 1983-86. While working on his World Party material, he also worked on Sinéad O'Connor's 1987 debut album The Lion and the Cobra - Sinéad also sings some backing vocals on the World Party track Sweet Soul Dream. Wallinger was also musical director for the 1994 film Reality Bites, and also contributed to the soundtrack of Clueless, 1996. Most recently, Wallinger has written hit songs for others, most notably Angel for Robbie Williams.