Album Review: Ball Park Music – Ball Park Music

Picking your favourite Ball Park Music album is like picking your favourite child (if you had seven of them), but their 2020 self-titled is a damn good contender. The first half is angsty, despairing and carries a cynical world view, a surprising departure for the pop rockers who delivered sunny hits like It's Nice to Be Alive and Trippin' the Light Fantastic. But with lyrics written during the onset of covid, this is a fitting tone ("Here I am in this god forsaken piece of shit of a situation").

This album's second half—separated by lo-fi interlude Katkit—is refreshing, glimmering and a light at the end of the tunnel. Cherub is arguably the best BPM song and Bad Taste Blues Pt. III isn't far behind—these tracks are stunning and introspective ("Happiness weighs a tonne / It's all speckled in luck and heavy as fuck, I never could pick it up"). An incredibly strong record that rivals the lyrical maturity of Every Night the Same Dream (2016) and outdoes the sonics of Good Mood (2018), absolutely earning self-titled status.

Favourites: I Feel Nothing, Cherub, Bad Taste Blues Pt. III, Day & Age