Ball Park Music

I do this thing from time to time where I become completely obsessed with an artist, or an album. Sometimes it's a single song. When it happens I listen on repeat exclusively again and again and again. At the moment I'm doing this with Brisbane's Ball Park Music.

I saw Ball Park Music last year. They played Transit as part of a tour of Triple J Unearthed acts. Eagle and The Worm were on the same tour, but they didn't play the Canberra show. No disrespect to the other artists on the bill, but Ball Park Music are all I remember of the night. They played well, but failed to blow me away. I wasn't really paying attention though. I was wedged down the bar end of the club having a conversation with my gig buddy.

As the year progressed upbeat hit after upbeat hit graced the airwaves of the nation's youth broadcaster. Still I was resistant to their undeniable charms. It wasn't until the Hottest 100 that I finally relented and picked up their excellent debut 'Happiness and Surrounding Suburbs'. I've been listening to it almost constantly since. I've even bought both of their previous EPs to get myself as close to the full catalogue as possible (I draw the line at the remix of 'ifly').

Now despite my unashamed love of pop, I normally go in for more of the bittersweet/melancholy end of the spectrum. Which means I'm a little bit blindsided by how much I love Ball Park Music. It's an album of such irrepressible joy, that I defy you not to love it too.