She Only Loves Me When I'm There - Ball Park Music - Single Review
- genevavalek
- Feb 14, 2014
- 2 min read
Valentine’s Day brought the world something a tad more exciting than chocolates, roses and 12 year olds publicly announcing their unrequited love for their girlfriends/boyfriends of just one week. It brought us Ball Park Music’s latest, self-produced single. And, to quote what I assume any and all fairly drunk Irishmen would say upon hearing it; it’s pretty feckin’ good.
I know I say this about a lot of bands, but Ball Park really are one of the best Australian bands around at the moment. The amount of control and maturity present in their song writing is second to none, with lavish riffs and solos, thought invoking lyrics and catchy upbeat chorus’ present in nearly every song. ‘She Only Loves Me When I’m There’, taken from their upcoming album ‘Puddinghead’ is no exception: It’s certainly different, but in essence it still possesses the same general mechanics as every other Ball Park tune. The song begins slowly; with lead singer Sam Cromack utilising his incredibly broad range, for an ambient, falsetto driven start, accompanied by a simple synth backing. Although wonderful, this is a noticeable change in direction from Ball Park’s first singles on their debut and sophomore records, (see iFLY and Fence Sitter). Then Cromack begins to sing; lyrics, that is, and with it a rush of welcome familiarity. There is a certain air Cromack’s lyricism that leaves you speechless, regardless of your understanding of the subject matter. (Seriously, what the hell is a Harbour of Lame Ducks? Why are they lame? Maybe the band should get to know the ducks before they pass judgement?) But really, his control of the English language to craft lyrics that would take any other mere mortal years to come up with is immense. And so the song continues, softly with light backing and Cromack singing something about architraves (which according to my mum is the outline of a door) and everything is blissful and lovely. And then the overdriven guitars, bass and synths kick in and it’s pretty much party central.
Once again Ball Park dive back into familiar territory, producing one of the greatest pop riffs/chorus’/melodies of any song I have heard in a very long time. It’s catchy, it’s loud, and by God does it make you want to dance. (Sidenote: I literally dare anyone to not sing when Cromack inevitably belts out the line ‘SHE ONLY LOVES ME WHEN I’M THERE’. It’s impossible. Seriously. Impossible.) ‘She Only Loves Me When I’m There’ is everything I could have wanted from a new Ball Park Music single. It’s a definite departure from much of their earlier discography, yet maintains a lot of the core mechanics that allowed their fans to fall in love with them in the first place. It just works, and if it’s any representation of what the rest of their 3rd record will sound like, we’re in for a treat.
Puddinghead is released on the 4th of April. Be sure to check it out. They're also touring! Check out their AA Sydney show in our guide here
Review by Jacob Sgouros
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