Artist: Ball Park Music
Album: Puddinghead
Hometown: Brisbane, QLD
Genre: Indie Rock

Brisbane five-piece Ball Park Music released their new album Puddinghead last Friday, exhibiting a renewed indie-rock style and healthy amount of angst in their catchy tunes.

The first half of the album is particularly strong. Just check out their opening track “She Only Loves Me When I’m There” for one, a great introduction to a fantastic record. With a powerful hymn-like style vocal line and eerie keys, it feels like Sam Cromack forms a full choir. Then it’s back into a more rock-y feel, some catchy lyrics and it’s here that we get an idea for what the rest of the record is going to be like.

We are lead swiftly onto a standout track of the album with “Next Life Already“, where we can experience a high-school-teenager level of indie rock angst. With lyrics like “I just wanna float downstream, I just wanna forget everything” to a great rocky beat, this track makes for some very good headbanging to get it all out of your system.

By track three, “A Good Life Is The Best Revenge”, we’re really starting to see some recurring themes here. It’s almost as if we’ve had a bad break to a friendship or relationship and it’s time to start expressing some of these emotions through motivation! Then “Teenage Pie” leaves us back wallowing again. But hey, those back up vocals from Jennifer Boyce are really something.

After these, it’s time to “get your mojo back” and “feel 100%” with “Trippin’ The Light Fantastic”. Another highlight of the album for sure, and a solid singable tune.

The second half of the album hosts some gems too. I haven’t figured out what a “Cocaine Lion” is, but the song itself has some beautiful moments, particularly the build towards the end of the song and magical rock harmonies. “Everything Is Shit Except My Friendship With You” is also either really depressing or really sweet, I still haven’t decided which. Nevertheless, it’s a very fun listen.

Eventually we are led out of the album by “Girls From High School”,  with a ‘wub-y’ bass line and a folky-indie feel vaguely reminiscent of the hopeful tunes of The Format, and told aptly “I never got to say goodbye, bye bye“.

This is a lyrically strong piece of work by Ball Park Music and an album absolutely worth listening to in full. Sing, hum and dance highly embarrassingly along (in the comfort and privacy of your room of course).

Puddinghead is out now. Grab a copy in store or hit up Spotify to experience Ball Park Music’s latest masterpiece.

By Erin Rooney