Ball Park Music, one of Australia’s most cherished indie bands, continues to evolve with their eighth album, LIKE LOVE. With five ARIA top-five albums and multiple Hottest 100 hits, they’ve long cemented their place in the scene. This time, they embrace a more reflective folk-rock sound, inspired by artists like Bob Dylan and Big Thief. Led by frontman Sam Cromack, the album was crafted with longtime producer Matt Redlich, focusing on raw emotion, love, and change. Tracks like Please Don’t Move to Melbourne and Pain & Love capture the beauty and fragility of relationships, while the stripped-back title track showcases Cromack’s intimate songwriting. With LIKE LOVE, Ball Park Music proves they’re still pushing boundaries, delivering heartfelt songs that hit deeper than ever.
Long read…
Over 15 years into their career, everythingBall Park Musicdoes these days feels like a victory lap. TheBrisbane indie darlings have long established their status as one of Australia’s most revered andendearing bands–with five oftheir seven albums having debuted in the ARIA top five, four of their songshaving gone platinum and no less than a dozen Hottest 100 placements to their name. Most bands in thatposition would be happy to coast out their days on heyday nostalgia alone, but if it wasn’t already clear:Ball Park Music are not most bands.
On their eighth studio album, LIKE LOVE, Ball Park have delivered a series of bright, endearing andcomforting songs–entirely on their own terms, and in a manner quite unlike any of their albums before it. Eschewing the frenetic energy of their faster numbers entirely, album number eight sees the bandorienting their focus towards reflective, thoughtful and refined folk-rock. So, how did we get here? Howelse–through a journey of self-discovery. “We needed to get out of our comfort zone,” saysSamCromack–the band’s lead singer and chief songwriter.
“We’ve been trying to make the quote-unquote ‘perfect’ indie album for a while. I’m proud of all of ouralbums, but they were all essentially trying to achieve the same goal. The songs on LIKE LOVE have beenslowly accumulating over the years, but I never really knew where any of them belonged. All I really knewis that they were all precious to me. After we got off tour for the last album [2022’sWeirder and Weirder], Ifound myself at home listening to a lot of Bob Dylan, Big Thief and Julia Jacklin. Sometimes, the pressureof working on a follow-up album can really get to you, but listening to these artists who had clearlyexperienced this kind of artistic liberation meant that there was never any tension or stress in making thisalbum.”
Fans have already been eased into the sound of LIKE LOVE through the release ofits title track, whichmarks a first in Ball Park’s storied history: A song released under their name that features only Cromackon his lonesome. Cromack had demoed the tender acoustic ballad all by himself in the studio, and hewould have gotten away with it, too–if it weren’t for those meddling kids, ie. his bandmates. “Dean[Hanson, rhythm guitar] was snooping around on the computer,” Cromack recalls. “He found the demo,and immediately texted me: ‘This is one of the best fucking songs you’ve ever written’. The rest of the bandthrew their support behind it, and eventually I started playing it live.”
The adoring reception the song received eventually coaxed Cromack into properly recording it–which, asit turned out, was not all that different from the demo. “We’ve been together long enough to know what asong does and doesn’t need,” he explains. “None of us could really picture it any different from the way it was. It makes me think of songs like ‘Yesterday’ by The Beatles, or ‘I Will Follow You Into the Dark’ byDeath Cab for Cutie–they’re credited to the band, even though it’s just one member by themselves, andthey’re considered token songs by both. This is a Ball Park Music song. It belongs to all of us.”
Reuniting with producerMatt Redlich–who worked on the band’s 2011 debutHappiness andSurrounding Suburbs, its 2012 follow-upMuseumand their 2016 effortEvery Night the Same Dream–Cromack and co. headed south of the Sunshine State to Sydney, where they hunkered down inMarrickville’s Golden Retriever Studios under cover of darkness. There, LIKE LOVE was forged in a fittingly-delicate manner, across two weeks of sessions that Cromack describes as “a full Beatles daydream”.
“We really wanted to tap into that golden era of folk,” the band’s singer adds. “There were beautiful pianosand acoustic guitars at the studio that we used, plus we did a lot of singing together as a group. Daniel[Hanson, drums] was amusing himself by trying to do less and less every day–cutting things left, rightand centre until he had distilled to just the essentials. The whole studio experience just ended up beingthis great exploration of our musicianship, which is exactly what we wanted. The plan was to get asuncomfortable as possible in order to see what happens to us as a band when that happens.”
Across its ten tracks, LIKE LOVE stays true to its title and sees the band exploring what it means to trulyput your heart on your sleeve. ‘Please Don’t Move to Melbourne’, sure to become an instant hit with non-Victorians, pines for an interstate distance to be filled between dear friends. ‘Pain & Love’, meanwhile,comments on the fragile nature of familial bonds–something the band members know all too well, withthe majority of them now being parents themselves. “Moving into your 30s, you kind of expect life to settledown or plateau,” Cromack observes. “You’d be surprised how tumultuous life can still be. There’s stilllots of things that fall apart, and struggles to overcome. Love is what perseveres through all of that, andthat came to be the defining theme of the album as we looked at it from all angles.”
LIKE LOVE is, ultimately, an album quite unlike anything Ball Park Music have ever done. It’s been handledwith the utmost care, with a clear vision, and Cromack can only hope you can find a piece of yourself within it. “I gave everything I could to these songs,” he says. “I hope it punches you in the gut. I hope itshares a bottle of wine with you while you’re crying at night. I hope this hits the heart harder than everbefore.”Written by David James Young
