Weirder & Weirder

The seventh full-length from Brisbane, Australia, indie-pop quintet Ball Park Music is aptly titled. Not only was it created in and around one of the most bewildering periods in recent history—the COVID lockdowns—but at times its production borders on the abrasive (witness the drone bass and pitch-shifted drums of opener “Manny”). There is a distinct sense of experimentation throughout the album, even if some of the ideas stretch back years—an early version of “Pleb Rock” was written in 2012 (the song addresses frontman Sam Cromack’s disillusionment with success, just as his band were starting to experience it); “A Field to Break Your Back In” was originally recorded for an unreleased 2009 album by Cromack’s side project, My Own Pet Radio. The rest are very much songs of the here and now, whether hatched in the surf on New Year’s Day (“Right Now”) or while ruminating on the lessons Cromack has learned with age (“Three Little Words”). The band’s grasp of skewed but earworm-worthy pop melodies is on full display, even if the package they’re delivered in is getting a little, well, weirder.